Jasmine Mooney said she still doesn’t know “anything” about why she was detained, though an ICE spokesperson tells us they were acting in accordance with an executive order from President Trump
Jasmine Mooney, the Canadian entrepreneur and actress who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this month, told reporters that she’s “still really processing everything” after making her way back to Canada.
Mooney, who appeared in 2009’s American Pie Presents: The Book of Love and now serves as co-founder of the Holy! Water wellness brand in Los Angeles, caught up with CTV News and other outlets at the Vancouver International Airport on Saturday, March 15.
“I haven’t slept in a while and haven’t eaten proper food in a while, so I’m just really going through the motions,” Mooney said.
The former actress previously detailed how she was visiting home in Vancouver in November before discovering that her three-year work visa had been revoked. She planned to travel back to San Ysidro, Calif. — where she obtained a visa in the past — with new job paperwork to get it renewed so that she could remain in the States.
When she arrived and attempted to enter the U.S. from the Mexico border on March 3, she was rejected — but rather than being turned away, she said she was apprehended by ICE and detained for multiple nights at different facilities in the southwestern U.S., describing conditions as “inhumane” and feeling like a “deeply disturbing psychological experiment.”
Carlos Moreno/NurPhoto via Getty
Now, Mooney is back home after being transported to San Diego from Arizona, and then back to Vancouver, as she told reporters that she hadn’t talked to “anyone” in 12 days.
“No one told me anything. Not once,” Mooney said. “I still don’t even know how I’m home.”
“My friends and my family and the media are the reason, I think, that I’m home,” she added.
According to the Vancouver Sun, Mooney’s mother confirmed she was “home safe and sound” in Abbotsford after arriving to the airport around midnight Saturday.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday, March 17, that Mooney was detained on March 3 “for not having legal documentation” to be in the U.S. and that she was “processed in accordance” with President Donald Trump’s “Securing Our Borders” executive order.
“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S., regardless of nationality,” the spokesperson continued.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders during his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Mooney revealed this weekend that she was “given no heads up of anything that was about to transpire,” sharing that the guards who brought her back to San Diego were also “very confused” about her reason for detainment.
When asked if she regretted trying to apply for a visa, she said “of course.”
“If I knew that that was even a possibility, like even a possibility that that could happen, I would have never, in a million years gone there,” Mooney said. “I’m telling you, from the second I got there to now, I can’t even process what just happened.”
As previously reported, Mooney told San Diego ABC News affiliate KGTV that she and other detainees were shackled and imprisoned, having spent “up for 24 hours wrapped in chains.”
Len Saunders, her immigration attorney, previously told CityNews Vancouver that entering the U.S. through San Ysidro had been “simple” in the past, although a shifting political climate following Trump’s reelection left him wary of her application 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 previously said. “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 actress was initially held for three nights at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, where she said she was “put in a cell,” made to sleep on a mat with no blankets and had an “aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days.”
She then spent the following days being transported to other facilities in the southwestern U.S. — with her allegedly being “up for 24 hours wrapped in chains” during an eventual transfer to the San Luis Detention Center in Arizona.
Mooney announced her arrival back in Canada with a message on Instagram this past week, according to the Daily Mail, as she thanked fans and friends for their support.
“I’m sorry if I haven’t been able to respond to everyone — just got home after what felt like escaping a deeply disturbing psychological experiment,” she reportedly wrote, per screenshots shared by the outlet. “I am beyond grateful for my friends, family, and the media who worked tirelessly to get me out-without them, I’d still be there. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.”
“While I was in prison, I began writing an essay about my experience, which I will be sharing soon. I refuse to let what happened break me; instead, I’m choosing to use my voice in the hope that it can help others.”
Speaking with CTV News, Mooney also opened up about the women she met while detained. “When I got to know everyone else in there, and heard all of their stories and how long they were in there, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not allowed to feel sorry for myself at all, because every single person in here is in a way worse situation than me,’ ” she said.
