Summary

“American Pie” actress Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian citizen, was detained by ICE while attempting to renew her work visa at the U.S.-Mexico border on March 3.

She described the experience as a “deeply disturbing psychological experiment,” including sleeping on a mat with “aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body,” being transported in chains, and receiving inedible food.

Officials allegedly told her she was “unprofessional because I didn’t have a proper letterhead” on her paperwork.

After her release, Mooney credited media attention and her support network for securing her freedom.

  • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 minute ago

    Oh, i’m pretty sure she has already seen inhumane treatment like this, just not up close.

    That happens when your country goes cray cray, suddenly you are not watching the news, but are in it.

    (not to belittle her experience, no doubt it was terrible, but I DO take offence at the “never seen anything so inhumane” though.

  • Hellsfire29@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    17
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Inhumane treatment to someone like her is probably how a blue collar worker is treated in everyday life in the states. Must suck to be a millionaire actress with connections. To be treated like a pawn like the rest of us.

    • despicable@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      30 minutes ago

      Yeah this fucking country needs to finally be where it deserves to be on a geopolitical stage. Thankfully Russia’s best puppet who got elected by that idiocracy is doing his best to make sure other nations manage to get themselves less addicted to America’s bullshit.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    28
    ·
    6 hours ago

    That’s terrible, but let’s be real. The only reason why this is news is because she’s a white woman.

    • thepresentpast@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 hours ago

      You’re getting downvoted but it’s important that we remember this. She’s hot, she’s white, she’s an actress. She said herself she thinks it’s thanks to her friends and family working with the media that she got released at all. I bet she’d agree with you that being white played into her favor here.

      Think about all the people who don’t have those types of resources or public empathy points. We have no idea who is actually locked up right now or what will happen to them.

    • papertowels@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      44 minutes ago

      I found it very uplifting that in her own written piece, she spent much of it highlighting and telling the stories of others. Sure, it’s unfortunate that this has made the headlines due to her being a white woman, but what she does with the spotlight is admirable.

      The part that I learned the most from. I had no idea the detention centers were for profit:

      The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

      Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

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

      • despicable@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        37 minutes ago

        Wait, what? How in the fuck is there no outrage about this? Do Americans really do give this little of a fuck?

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          14 minutes ago

          Corpo media barely talks about it unfortunately. I’m enraged but most of the population has no idea

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      9 hours ago

      When it comes to the people that still don’t care, I figure they won’t care until it happens to them directly.

      • lori@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 hours ago

        To some degree though that’s exactly why this should be more alarming: the current administration ISN’T just doing this to easy targets they know the population will ignore. If they’re doing this to a nice white Canadian woman instead of brown people they can easily disappear without being noticed, that means they’re getting a lot braver.

    • Event_Horizon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      20 hours ago

      I don’t know if I’d call her a ‘celebrity’

      She was in “American Pie, the book of love.” The 9th movie in the Pie series and direct to dvd.

      Though she’s getting a lot of attention now, and if hawk tuah girl can become a millionaire off a sloppy bj, good luck to Jasmine!

    • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      1 day ago

      People should be disturbed that this is happening to ANY human being. Not just celebrities.

  • Colloidal@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    138
    ·
    1 day ago

    She spent 11 days detained.

    “I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days,” […] “I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane.” She went on to describe one incident when she and 30 other women were moved in the middle of the night to a facility in Arizona. During the ordeal, she was forced to be “up for 24 hours wrapped in chains.”

    From CBC.CA (Eagles is her mother’s surname):

    Eagles said the detainees at the San Luis facility have no sleeping mats or blankets or windows, and the lights are on all day and night.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      102
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      Jesus Christ, they already tried that shit with the lights in Trump I and the 9th circuit told them to fucking stop it. I distinctly remember because one of the judges was in a Japanese internment camp as a kid, and he ate that dipshit Trump attorney alive.

      And yet, here we are again.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          34
          ·
          1 day ago

          I hate the fucking title of this video so fucking much it pains me to share it, but this is really the best cut, IMO. There’s also the full hour version on YouTube if you search “9th circuit Sarah Fabian”.

          https://youtu.be/0QGLh7JOQHc

          Enjoy!

          • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            18
            ·
            21 hours ago

            I have been literally dragged away and locked in a cage overnight for being a miniscule fraction as evasive dishonest and disrespectful as this piece of shit nazi scum was to a judge. these people are at fault for not just locking this bitch up-and for bonus karma, doing it in conditions it defines are okay.

            treating nazis with kid gloves is how we got here.

            • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              10 hours ago

              Yeah. Imo, extra painful because you can tell that she knows what she’s arguing for is wrong. Not only does she know she should be ashamed, on some level, deep down in there, she is ashamed, and she’s there arguing for it anyway.

              • AizawaC47@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                6 hours ago

                @faithrada • 5y ago (edited)

                The name SARAH FABIAN is now tarnished FOREVER. Just doing your job hu? Well… karma will surely do its job. You can NOT defend that which is undefendable and expect to get away with it. I’ve met DOGS with a MUCH HIGHER Moral Standard than you. What an embarrassment to humanity. Sickening.

                One of the comments on that YouTube video link. Her name will forever go down as filth and disgust. To argue over toothbrush, toothpaste and a warm blanket is wild!

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      21 hours ago

      if you work in a restaurant law enforcement eat at, I think it’s safe to completely forget about food safety. food safety regulations have never been as big a deal as anti torture laws. really just have fun with it, you know?

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        On the other hand, if you have undocumented people working at that restaurant, best not to draw any unneeded attention to the staff by law enforcement.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          9 hours ago

          I think it’s always better if you don’t get caught.

          the politics get complicated, of course, but managing risk and the micropolitics of balancing compliance/resistance are too situational to make blanket statements about online.

          but there might be a value to giving them food poisoning so they don’t eat there anymore. there might be value in keeping them there. I dunno. I’d err on the side of offense; they don’t have loyalty, and their proximity means you might just be the one they lash out at if they have a bad day, but I can see the argument the other way.

    • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      WTF

      Edit: Americans need to be on the street for this shit and everything else that’s happening

      I don’t care how, just get that dictator out of there

      • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        22 hours ago

        I mean, no. this is several steps past when americans needed to be on the streets. this is the point where we should be getting off the streets, because there’s not enough cover there.

  • StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    129
    ·
    1 day ago

    The family’s using her traumatic experience to publicize the inhumane conditions at those 3 detention centres, and raise awareness for her cellmates. They talk about constant lighting (torture), being moved at 3am to a different state (fucking with your lawyer), being chained and overcrowded.

    “There’s 30 other people in her cell that have not even been spoken to by a detention caseworker. So there are people in there whose families don’t know where their kids are.” - Jasmine’s father, Stephen Mooney, speaking on March 13th.

    These conditions should be common knowledge, and this traumatized family is doing what they can on that front.

    You and I are not more safe than she is. Our neighbours are not more safe than she is. Her escape does not make her the enemy of her cellmates. We’re all Venezuelan gang members (or whoever it’s ok to fuck with) if they take our papers and deem us so.

    Non-entertainment news source here.

    • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      1 day ago

      and if people don’t think political dissidents are on the list, they’re delusional. we may not be the priority yet, but they’re checking off demographics at an alarming rate.

      • thepresentpast@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Saw an article today about a French scientist who was denied entry to the US after their phone was searched and texts critical of Trump were found.

      • kava@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        15 hours ago

        but they’re checking off demographics at an alarming rate.

        yeah those two arab protestor students that are getting deported- they’re essentially getting detained and eventually removed because they spoke out against Israel. it’s an attempt to put a damper on speech for the whole country. sort of sending a message to immigrants- you better watch what you’re saying or we will get you

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    Are these the privately owned detention centers? All I can say the USA has several Dachau’s and it could become worse.

    • kava@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Vast majority of immigration detention centers are privately owned

      It’s a sharp contrast to private prisons where it’s less than 10%.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      13 hours ago

      The idiots here are the ICE agents.

      10-to-1 they had no idea what to do when a Canadian citizen showed up at the Mexican borderder.

      The real scary shit is in the last line:

      After her release, Mooney credited media attention and her support network for securing her freedom.

      How many people don’t have that luxury?

      Like, not every lawful immigrant is a C-list actress best known for an American Pie spinoff that didn’t even have Stiffler. Surely several are falling through the cracks.

      This has got me concerned that a statistically significant number of people who don’t have that kind of reach are just…disappearing…

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    85
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    When this is happening to even the beautiful white women, you know shit’s a thousand times worse for BIPOC… I know that we had issues with immigration during previous administrations, but they were nothing compared to this vile treatment.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Those people have been storing up their hatred for 150 years, passing to each new generation. Only way to combat it is to eradicate it at the source

  • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    222
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    I’m confused, did she even try to cross the border or was she just there to renew her visa? Why not just send her back for fuck’s sake?

    Edit:
    Okay, if I understood it correctly, she was already in the US and had a valid visa, which was about to expire. Her lawyer told her to go to the border to renew it, and as she was working in LA, that was the nearest border crossing. This makes it even more insane.

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        That’s a good way for cruelty to come back around. Abuse a hundred thousand people and see if a few don’t snap and take it out on those responsible. Seems like domestic terrorism may not be just a right wing hobby for too much longer. Bet authorities suddenly take it more seriously if that does happen.

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 day ago

          They’re banking on that happening so they can cry terrorism and swing emergency powers into full effect in response. Then they won’t even have to detain you they can just shoot you on the spot. They’re soft rolling the ethnic cleansing right now but if people start fighting back against it they’ll probably stomp the accelerator on it.

    • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      It tracks. They captured a German tourist with a valid passport and held her for over a month instead of sending her back. The cruelty is the point.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 day ago

      Seriously , that’s what happened? I was going to say, the article wasn’t clear on whether there was actually a problem but it sounds like not

  • ms.lane@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    257
    ·
    2 days ago

    Officials allegedly told her she was “unprofessional because I didn’t have a proper letterhead” on her paperwork.

    How dare her paperwork not wear a suit!

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 day ago

      They’re ignoring the courts. What will suing do when there’s nobody enforcing the ruling when you “win”?

      • SolidShake@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        24 hours ago

        You can sue for false imprisonment and other stuff I’m sure. Shouldn’t be too hard to win in California, especially if her green card was valid when she was taken.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          19 hours ago

          If the executiv branch doesn’t cooperate, that’s the end of it.

          The Courts power ultimately means nothing is the executive branch doesn’t execute.

      • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 day ago

        this. the system is broken. the DOJ is owned. trump et al are above the law. they knew going in that the entire charade only operates under the threat of violence and they currently have a monopoly on that. if you don’t have stock in violence, you don’t have a place at the table. we all need to buy some stock.