CanadianAmerican PieActress Detained by ICE and Allegedly 'Wrapped in Chains' After Applying for Visa at U.S. Border

Mar. 15, 2025

Jasmine Mooney/Instagram

Jasmine Mooney, 35, appeared in 2009’sAmerican Pie Presents: The Book of Love, but these days, the Vancouver native works in Los Angeles as the co-founder of the Holy! Water wellness brand.

“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she told the outlet about being transferred.

PEOPLE has reached out to ICE for further comment.

According to Mooney, she was visiting home in Vancouver in November when she learned that her three-year work visa had been revoked. She planned to travel back to San Ysidro, Calif. – where she had first received the visa – with new job paperwork to get it renewed and reenter the United States.

Mooney’s immigration lawyer, Len Saunders, explained toCityNews Vancouverthat, in the past, entering the U.S. through San Ysidro had been “simple” — especially for Canadian citizens. However, a shifting political climate following PresidentDonald Trump’s reelection in November left him wary of Mooney’s plan.

“Jasmine mentioned she was going to San Ysidro. I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea with this new administration and the political climate,’ ” Saunders recalled. “I said, ‘Look, if you are my client, I would probably advise you to do this on the northern border. I just have a bad feeling from when the new administration took over.' "

The San Ysidro Port of Entry crossing is in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, on February 6, 2025.Carlos Moreno/NurPhoto via Getty

Carlos Moreno/NurPhoto via Getty

Upon arriving in San Ysidro and attempting to enter the U.S. on March 3, Mooney was once again turned away.

Traditionally, Saunders said, “If you get denied a visa, they just deny you entry, and you’re on your way, and you come back with whatever’s missing.”

After that ordeal, Mooney was transferred to other facilities in the southwestern U.S. over the next few days.

“On Sunday, March 9, the online tracking system indicated that she had been released. We assumed this meant she was being deported and escorted to an airport,” Mooney’s mother, Alexis Eagles,wrote in a Facebook post.

“However, 24 hours later, there was no sign of her, no communication, and we were extremely worried,” she continued. “We eventually learned that about 30 people, including Jasmine, were forcibly removed from their cells at 3:00 am and transferred to the San Luis Detention Center in Arizona.”

Amid the chaos of the past 11 days, Mooney’s family and friends have stayed vigilant and sought updates on her condition as frequently as possible.

Her business partner, BJ McCaslin, told CityNews that she sent him a message last week, relaying that her detainment feels “like a bad dream.”

“It’s a nightmare,” he agreed. “She has no idea how this happened.”

“No one knows what’s going on, and that’s our biggest concern here, right? If she’s charged with a crime, then we’d like for her to have an opportunity to have counsel and go through due process,” McCaslin explained. “But from what we’re understanding, it’s just a detainment, and so we’d love to have transparency in the situation and expedite a finality to it.”

As for her own government,Global Affairs Canada— the division of the Canadian government that manages diplomatic affairs — has said that they are aware that a Canadian is being detained in Arizona.

However, spokeswoman Brittany Fletcher said, “Every country or territory decides who can enter or exit through its borders. The Government of Canada cannot intervene on behalf of Canadian citizens with regard to the entry and exit requirements of another country.”

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“What about our relatives who are working in the States? What about when we cross the border? What kind of an experience are we going to have?” he said to reporters, viaCityNews. “The harm that this does to the U.S. economy through impacted tourism, impacted business relationships, impacted people who are seeking visas to work in the United States who have special skills that they can’t get anywhere else: It is reckless, the approach of the president. And this woman should be brought back to Canada as quickly as possible.”

Without a resolution in sight, Mooney and her loved ones are doing their best to stay positive.

“Jasmine is an adventurous and hard-working young woman, and we desperately want her home,” Eagles pleaded in her Facebook post.

source: people.com