this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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An Irish woman who has lived legally in the US for four decades has been detained by immigration officials for the last week because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years.

Cliona Ward, 54, was detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April after returning from Ireland to visit her sick father and is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Tacoma, Washington.

Ward holds a green card but has convictions for drug possession from 2007 and 2008, which she believed had been expunged, her family said.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (27 children)

She has two prior felony drug convictions. She thought those were expunged but they weren't. So when she indicated otherwise on her paperwork, that triggered an arrest. This probably would have happened under the Biden administration too, but it wouldn't have made the news.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (21 children)

I find it funny that you're being downvoted when both upvoted responses to you contradict each other.

She posed no flight risk

You believe this was the first time she traveled to and from Ireland in he past 40 years?

After getting off a plane... Not a flight risk! Literally history of leaving the country regularly.

Regardless, 40 years here and hasn't naturalized yet? Odd... But yes if she was to have filled out a form incorrectly or differently than she had before she would be detained until it's cleared up... and immigration judges aren't really well know for having oodles of free time at the moment. So I'm not sure that length of time in detention is valid to discuss here without also talking about how we don't have enough judges for how many cases are currently open.

But the article itself says something pretty incorrect.

“Where people have green cards and citizenship rights there shouldn’t be an issue so we will be pursuing this on a bilateral basis to make sure that those who are legitimately entitled to be in the US are free from any challenges or difficulties of this kind,”

That's wrong. You can lose green card status under a myriad of cases. One of them is simply by leaving the country for an extended period of time. Which the article also fails to outline how long she was in Ireland for.

I don't see any statement from any immigration body or other officials and I don't see any evidence that this is related to her previous convictions in the article... They just bring it up out of nowhere for no apparent rhyme or reason. And since they brought it up... they couldn't confirm? What kind of reporting is this?

the Guardian could not verify this was the case

Why not? Seems like it would be easy to pull up a simple conviction history and see if it's there.

But yes, your assertion that this sort of stuff happened under Biden is correct. My naturalized grandfather (Who's lived in the US for ~40 years and has been naturalized for ~30 years) flew a few times under the Biden administration and was held up by immigration at least once that I recall. Mostly because he still retains his original accent and can be hard to understand (Subject-verb-object structure is kind of optional in his native tongue and he still speaks like that's the case at times. It can be hard to follow).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Regardless, 40 years here and hasn't naturalized yet? Odd.

Nothing odd about it. An Irish passport is measurably better than an American one.

Edit: You can live in a different country for the vast majority of your life and still feel like it's not your home country. My sister has lived in the UK for over forty years and is very much Irish.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nothing odd about it. An Irish passport is measurably better than an American one.

You don't give up an Irish one to get an American one.

Source: Am dual citizen with 2 passports.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You don't have to but I wouldn't naturalise in her situation either. Under no circumstances would I pledge allegiance to a country that I felt wasn't mine and if I had a green card I wouldn't bother.

That's not to say I might not feel that way about another country in the future but as I said my sister has been living in the UK for over two thirds of her life and would never consider getting a British passport. Even her adult daughter chooses an Irish one.

If you don't mind me asking why bother with the dual citizenship? And did you feel any weirdness pledging yourself to the second country?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No pledging required. I hold 2 citizenships by birth.

Edit: Weird to live somewhere for nearly half a century and not "feel" that it's yours... Why not just go back "home"?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

She married an Englishman and raised her kids there because Ireland in 1980 was not exactly thriving. She was around 20 when she left so definitely old enough to feel thoroughly Irish for a lifetime. She still has her accent and all.

She does talk about moving back here occasionally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I dunno. I'm strongly a "home is where you make it" sort of thing. I couldn't care less where I was specifically born. But to each their own I suppose.

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