During the three weeks Sarah Shaw was held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, sleep came rarely.
She and her 6-year-old son found themselves at a Texas facility thousands of miles from their Everett home, sleeping on a bunk bed surrounded by strangers — all because of a paperwork issue.
“There wasn’t really privacy — no space or time to decompress from the situation,” Shaw said, recalling that harrowing period.
A Washington state employee and a resident of the state since 2021, Shaw is from New Zealand and holds valid work authorization in the U.S.
Released from detention late last week, she spoke Tuesday with The Seattle Times about her time in custody. From spending a night on the floor of a Border Patrol facility in Washington to flying to a detention center in Texas, to spending three weeks in incarceration with her youngest child, the mother of three is dealing with the fallout of being picked up by ICE.
“It was a pretty humiliating experience,” Shaw said.
“I just started crying”
Shaw, who works at the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families, was detained last month after dropping her elder two children off at Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia. They were flying to New Zealand to visit their grandparents.
On her way back to the U.S., the trouble started. Officials at the U.S.-Canada border told Shaw there was a problem with her paperwork.
Shaw holds a “combo card,” a temporary immigration document that allows her to work in the U.S., according to her lawyer, Minda Thorward. The combo card can also function as a travel document, but Shaw didn’t realize that part of the card was no longer valid, Thorward said. Only the work authorization part had been recently renewed.
After waiting for hours in a Border Patrol facility that night, officials told Shaw she would be taken to Texas.
“I just started crying,” Shaw said.
Her son, whose travel documents were in order, would have to go with her. Shaw said she asked if a friend could come pick the boy up, but officials denied her request.
Shaw and her son slept on a mattress on the floor of a “family cell” in the facility, she said. A bright light was kept on all night.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not respond to specific questions, but emailed a statement Tuesday about Shaw’s case.
“When someone with an expired parole leaves the country and tries to reenter the U.S., they will be stopped in compliance with our laws and regulations,” the spokesperson wrote. “If they are accompanied by a minor, CBP will follow all protocols to keep families together or arrange care with a legal guardian.”
After morning broke, Shaw and the boy were taken to the airport for a flight to Texas.
“I was just tired”
Cruising out of Washington and toward the Southern border, Shaw, sitting with her son on the airplane, was filled with anxiety.
“The previous day-and-a-half was super traumatic, and I was just tired,” Shaw said.
She couldn’t know for sure what was going through her son’s head, but guessed he felt distressed at seeing his mom visibly upset.
After landing in Texas, a white van picked them up and they arrived at the detention facility, she said. Shaw couldn’t tell from the signs where exactly she was.
Shaw’s close friend Victoria Besancon and Thorward, her lawyer, reached out to officials in Washington state to help find her, Besancon said. Shaw was not entered into ICE’s locator system, Besancon added.
It was later confirmed Shaw was at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, Thorward previously told the Times.
Unlike at the U.S.-Canada border, people at the Texas facility were nice, and more friendly, Shaw said.
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She and her son were in a room with seven other people. There were six bunk beds — and the group shared a TV and two tables.
“I wouldn’t say it was comfortable, but more comfortable than sleeping on the floor,” Shaw said.
Shaw and her son could go on the computer one hour a day, and there was a library — where, she estimated, 90% of the books were in Spanish. There was also a playground and gym.
ICE did not respond to specific questions but a spokesperson sent a statement Tuesday via email.
“ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously,” the spokesperson wrote.
Though surrounded by families, Shaw said the experience was “very isolating” because she didn’t know of anyone else who spoke English.
“I spent a lot of time on the [facility’s] phone,” she said.
For folks at home, it was challenging trying to get in touch with her, Besancon said. Thorward last week recounted similar difficulties communicating with her client while she was in custody.
“She can only call me,” Thorward said.
“They didn’t give me any details”
After three weeks of detention, Shaw was released Friday. ICE dropped Shaw and her son off in Laredo, Texas. From there, it was a 2 ½-hour Uber ride to San Antonio to catch their flight home.
Shaw said she was paroled out, something she had asked for when initially detained at the U.S.-Canada border, but that officials had denied. She pointed out that by waiting three weeks to release her, immigration officials had spent thousands in flights, accommodation and food.
“That’s thousands and thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money that could have been avoided,” she said.
Throughout the ordeal, Shaw said, she believed she wouldn’t be deported because she had the right to see an immigration judge due to her pending paperwork.
Now, she’s focused on getting to her next court date and resolving her immigration issues. ICE still has her driver’s license, Washington state ID and passport, Shaw said, leaving her unable to get to work.
An ankle monitor placed on her speaks in Spanish, even though Shaw does not understand the language.
“I don’t have anyone to contact about the ankle monitor, because they didn’t give me any details for anything,” she said.
Her two eldest children are still in New Zealand and will return in September, Shaw said. Looking back, the biggest thing she said she would want people to know about her experience is the “lack of communication” she got from ICE – whether about having to wear an ankle monitor or not being able to keep her driver’s license and ID.
“Just having a little bit of kindness, compassion and empathy goes really far when you’re dealing with a difficult situation,” Shaw said.
Sujena Soumyanath: [email protected].