Canadian mother and daughter ‘traumatized’ by ICE detainment, husband says | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

A Canadian woman and her seven-year-old autistic daughter who had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly a week were transferred to a notorious detention center and asked to be “deported,” according to her husband, who said the couple was “traumatized” by the experience.

Originally from British Columbia, Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Luca moved to the United States five years ago when Warner married US citizen Edward Warner.

The family lives in Kingsville, Texas, and on March 14, they were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint in Sarita on their way home from a baby shower in Raymondville.

Since then, Warner said he has only been able to receive short phone calls to his wife, lasting no more than a few minutes.

“She says she’s traumatized … They’re not good,” he said, adding that his wife was forced to whisper during the calls so that officials could not overhear the conversation.

“He said the border patrol agents were total assholes,” Warner said, adding that Ayla developed a rash during her time in custody.

Warner said Tania was told she could be released if she agreed to “deport herself” to Canada. “We definitely don’t want this,” he said. “They are my family.”

Warner said Tania’s family was unlawfully detained because all of her paperwork to live and work in the United States was valid until 2030.

Tania’s cousin Amber Sinclair said: “She’s got a social security card. She’s got a functional visa. That’s valid until 2030, so I don’t understand why they stopped her and detained her.”

He said the family was struggling to raise enough money for legal aid.

Vicente Gonzalez, Democratic congressman of Texas’ 34th congressional district, said in a speech: expression He said his office was working to secure the family’s release.

“Tania has a work permit and is part of our Kingsville community; neither she nor her 7-year-old daughter, Ayla, who has autism, should be detained,” he says.

“We must bring them home and reunite yet another family torn apart by this Administration’s rogue immigration enforcement operations,” he said.

Warner and Ayla were initially held at the Rio Grande Valley Center processing center in McAllen, Texas, but were moved to the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas early Friday.

Dilley originally opened under Barack Obama but was closed while Joe Biden was president. It reopened in early 2025 to keep detained families together. It has been heavily criticized by lawyers, human rights advocates and detainees for its inhumane conditions, which include disease outbreaks, lack of clean drinking water and inadequate medical care, the Guardian reported.

But Edward Warner said that after moving to Dilley, Warner and Ayla now at least had mattresses to sleep on, whereas in Rio Grande they slept on the floor.

Global Affairs Canada, the federal ministry responsible for consular services and diplomatic relations, said in a statement Thursday that it was “aware of numerous cases of Canadians currently or previously held in immigration-related detention in the United States.”

“Consular officials advocate for Canadian citizens abroad and raise concerns about justified and serious complaints of mistreatment or discrimination to local authorities, but cannot exempt Canadians from local legal processes,” a spokesperson said. “For confidentiality reasons, no further information can be released.”

When asked why Warner and Ayla were detained, an ICE spokesperson requested more information about the duo “to accurately locate them.” The Guardian reported this information, but ICE had not responded at the time of publication.

Heather Neufeld, an Ottawa-based immigration lawyer who has worked on many cases involving ICE detainees, says Canada should do everything possible to release them from custody, but that would likely include agreeing to take them back to Canada.

Neufeld also says ICE is detaining people for long periods of time rather than deporting them.

“There are people who are held in ICE custody for a year, two years instead of deporting them quickly,” Neufeld said, adding that people are sometimes moved dozens of times between detention centers.

“It’s incredibly difficult to get people out right now… in many cases, the only way to potentially get someone out is through the federal courts, so it’s not a quick thing,” he said.