A Snohomish County mother from New Zealand and her six-year-old son are being held in a federal immigration detention facility in Texas after U.S. border agents said her travel permit had expired.
Sarah Shaw, an Everett resident and state employee, was arrested on July 24 when she attempted to return to the United States from Vancouver, British Columbia, with her youngest child after dropping her two older children off with their grandparents in New Zealand.
Shaw’s attorney stated that she had a green card application pending, which would allow her to live, work, and travel in the United States. Her permission was renewed for work, but not for travel.
Snohomish County mother detained by ICE
Her lawyer said it was an administrative blunder and that border agents had the authority to let her back in the country. Instead, Shaw and her son were transferred to the Dilley Detention Center, which is roughly 70 miles southwest of San Antonio and is one of the largest immigration detention centers in the United States, housing mostly women and children.
Shaw has been with the Washington State Department of Children, Adolescents, and Families for three years, counseling adolescents in a secure juvenile detention facility.
“She is a civil servant. She served some of the most at-risk youth in our community, counseling them in a maximum-medium-security juvenile detention facility. She’s supposed to start graduate school,” Sarah’s friend Victoria Besancon said. “However, this experience has been the first time I’ve actually heard my friend cry. The first time I’ve heard her be almost hopeless in some situations. She feels like a criminal. She said it’s the it’s exactly what she would imagine prison to be like.”
According to attorney Minda Thorward, Shaw has no criminal background and believed she had the proper travel documents. She described the imprisonment as “unnecessary and cruel,” particularly for Shaw’s son, whose paperwork was in order.
“She made basically what amounts to an administrative error,” Thorward said.
Shaw thought her employment and travel authorization had been extended based on the receipt notices she received after renewing her work visa. However, Orward clarified that the error was in presuming the extension pertained to both work and travel, while in fact it only covered her work authorization.
What they’re saying: “Sarah is a survivor. She’s a fighter. She’s really strong. But she’s also very stressed out about all of this,” Thorward said. “She’s repeatedly requested that her son be released, even at the border DHS refused to permit that. So his detention is unlawful. He should not be there. He should not be in removal proceedings. None of that should be happening.”
According to Thorward, Shaw requested to be readmitted under humanitarian parole but was denied.
While Shaw’s imprisonment is technically legal, Orward argued that it was inappropriate.
“Just because something is legal and permissible under a law doesn’t make it just or appropriate or right,” Thorward said. “There’s no reason to detain her. She has no criminal history. She simply made a paperwork mistake.”
What’s next: The prospect of deportation remains, but Orward is hopeful that it will not occur in this case due to public attention and backing from the New Zealand consulate.
The attorney advises those going through the legal permanent residency process to avoid traveling unless absolutely required.
The Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents over 55,000 public employees, has called for Shaw’s release. President Mike Yestramski stated that incidents like hers could have catastrophic implications.
“One example, one of the employers that we represent is Harborview Medical Center, and a large amount of their employees are folks who immigrated to the United States from other countries,” Yestramski said. “If you were to remove all of those people from Harborview hospital, our level one trauma center that literally saves lives, would not be able to run, that would have ripple effects across the entire Pacific Northwest.”
The court will hear Shaw’s case at the end of the month. Her attorney is fighting to have her released.
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