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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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An Irish citizen and United States green card holder will spend Thanksgiving in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, four months after she was detained in Chicago over misdemeanors from over a decade ago.
Donna Hughes-Brown’s husband, James Brown, is still fighting for her release after agents at O’Hare International Airport arrested her on her return from Ireland in July, despite having held her green card for over 30 years.
“Please show me in the Bible where this is what you are supposed to do. It’s wrong. Period,” Brown told First Alert 4 News in Missouri. “Because she’s 100 percent innocent. Including being legal in this country.”
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A senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Newsweek on Friday that “a green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused."
They added: "Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with certain criminal convictions may be found inadmissible, placed in removal proceedings, and subject to mandatory detention.”
Newsweek reached out to Brown via Facebook for comment.
Why It Matters
Brown previously told Newsweek that he had voted for President Donald Trump, but regretted his vote following his wife’s detention earlier this year. Trump promised he would carry out mass deportations, targeting the “worst of the worst” known illegal immigrant criminals, but DHS has also arrested legal immigrants with prior convictions or charges as well.
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What To Know
Hughes-Brown came to the U.S. at age 11. An Irish citizen, she has held a green card for around 37 years, living in Troy, Missouri, with her husband. She has four children and five grandchildren.
On July 29, she was detained by federal agents at O’Hare after coming back from a vacation in Ireland. After five days in a Chicago facility, ICE moved her to Kentucky, where she remains to this day.
Agents arrested Hughes-Brown over past bad check charges, from 2015, which were dealt with at the time, her husband previously told Newsweek. Under the Trump administration, this past record was enough for ICE to take her into custody, seeing prior convictions as a reason to prevent entry to the U.S.
Brown told First Alert 4 that his wife was trying to provide for her family when the incidents in question happened.
“She was trying to feed her family. So, we’re arresting people that’s trying to feed their family is what they’re doing,” he told the outlet, disputing DHS’s view that his wife poses a threat to national security. He has continued to share his wife's story on Facebook, while also raising funds to cover legal costs.
Under the Trump administration, it has become policy for ICE to hold immigrants with known charges or convictions, regardless of severity. Recent figures show over 66,000 people are being held at the agency’s facilities across the country, with some dispute over how many of those are convicted criminals.
What Happens Next?
Hughes-Brown’s next hearing date is set for December 18.
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