Canadian American Pie Actress Pens Emotional Essay About ‘Sick’ 12-Day ICE Detention: ‘Compared with Others, I Was Lucky’

Jasmine Mooney — the Canadian entrepreneur and actress who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this month — is sharing all the details of her harrowing 12 days in custody, writing, “compared with others, I was lucky.”

In a personal essay published byThe Guardian on March 19, the American Pie actress — who now works for a wellness company that sells health tonics — peels back the curtain on how she and others were treated by ICE while trapped in a “freezing cell.”

“There was no explanation, no warning,” Mooney begins the essay, detailing how in an instant, she went from discussing her pre-approved work visa with an immigration officer to being patted down “like a criminal” and whisked off to a holding cell before she could speak with a lawyer.

Mooney, whose work required her to relocate to California, writes that she had traveled between the U.S. and Canada many times before without complication, but recently she faced visa hiccups upon returning from Canada and had to try two separate times to reenter the States.

Mooney clarifies in the essay that she has no criminal record, loves the United States, and considers herself a “kind, hard-working person,” suggesting that her denial was unexpected.

On her second attempt to enter from the San Diego-area border on March 3, she was told after hours of discussions that they had to send her back to Canada. “That didn’t concern me; I assumed I would simply book a flight home,” she writes. “But as I sat searching for flights, a man approached me. ‘Come with me,’ he said.”

Mooney says she was told to put her hands against the wall, patted down and told she was going to be detained. When she asked follow-up questions about why and for how long, she claimed, they always had the same response: “I don’t know.”

After being given a mat and a “folded-up sheet of aluminum foil” as a blanket, “I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet,” she writes. “There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”

She remained in that holding cell for two days, with the lights constantly on, before being transferred to “real jail” at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Questioning when she would be released and whether she could purchase a flight back home herself, an officer allegedly said, “I don’t know your case. Could be days. Could be weeks. But I’m telling you right now — you need to mentally prepare yourself for months.”

One day, Mooney and several others were awoken at 3 a.m. and told they were being transferred to San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona, which would take a “grueling” 24 hours and leave them with no sleep. She claims their hands, waists and feet were shackled during the transfer.

Explaining that everything at San Luis “felt like it was meant to break you,” she detailed the conditions there, which involved 30 people sharing a bright room. She said that she got sick after being told to reuse one Styrofoam cup and plastic spoon for water and meals, and was put in an ill-fitting uniform without extra blankets.

During her time in the facilities, Mooney says she got to know several others who had been detained, realizing that many stories were more difficult than her own.

She heard about two pastors on 10-year work visas who mistakenly drove into Mexico without their passports and were arrested when they turned the car around; a family of three, who were about to earn their green cards after living in the U.S. for 11 years, detained during a routine background check; an Indian student finishing her master’s degree who was handed over to ICE for overstaying a previous visa by three days.

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At the San Luis Detention Center, Mooney says other immigrants taught her “the harsh reality of seeking asylum” to try to build better lives for their families, which included paying exorbitant prices to be smuggled to the U.S. border and collecting literal scars in the process.

One woman Mooney met said she had been offered asylum in Mexico but was encouraged to continue on to the U.S. border. She grew emotional telling Mooney she has felt “like the worst mother in the world” after her young children were separated from her upon reaching the States.

“It felt like we had all been kidnapped, thrown into some sort of sick psychological experiment meant to strip us of every ounce of strength and dignity,” she writes.

Mooney says that at San Luis, she eventually received a message from her friend who alerted her that the media had picked up her story. Very shortly after, she was released.

Reflecting on her experience, Mooney says that she looked into the private companies that own ICE detention centers and lobby for stricter immigration laws.

“The more detainees, the more money they make,” she writes. “It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.”

Mooney says she wrote the essay to share the story of “thousands of people” who are still stuck in the for-profit system, expressing that she hopes someone with power will take action in response.

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 — previously detailed how she was visiting home in Vancouver in November when she discovered 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 employment paperwork to get it renewed so that she could continue to live and work in the States.

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.

Mooney’s immigration attorney, Len Saunders, previously told CityNews Vancouver that entering the U.S. through San Ysidro had been “simple” in the past. However, 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.’ ”

Upon her release on Saturday, March 15, Mooney spoke with CTV News and other outlets at the Vancouver International Airport and said she was still trying to process the experience.

“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,” she admitted at the time.