Canadian mom and daughter back home after ICE detention, family says

Canadian Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter Ayla Lucas are shown in this undated handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Edward Warner)

Weeks after being sent to a U.S. immigration detention facility, a Canadian mom and her seven-year-old daughter are back home, according to the family.

Tania Warner and daughter Ayla Lucas were apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 14 in Texas, where they’ve been living for the last five years after moving from B.C.’s Okanagan.

The family said they were heading home from a baby shower when officers stopped them at a border patrol checkpoint and took them into custody.

Earlier this week, a judge granted the pair bond at US$9,500, and Warner’s husband confirmed Thursday that they have since been released.

On social media, B.C. MLA Amelia Boultbee, who represents Warner’s old riding of Penticton-Summerland, thanked everyone who spoke out in support of the family.

“Her bond hearing took place significantly faster as a result of the public pressure and diplomatic efforts that took place,” Boultbee wrote.

While the family is celebrating their release, Warner has been placed in an ankle monitor and will have to attend at least three “expensive court hearings” to have it removed, according to the MLA.

Warner previously told CTV News her daughter is on the autism spectrum, and that their weeks-long detention had left both of them the “most stressed” they’d ever been in their lives.

“Being incarcerated with a child is the most surreal experience I’ve ever had,” she said. “I had no idea that this was a possibility for us.”

The mother is in the process of obtaining a green card, but the family has maintained her paperwork is up-to-date—and that they don’t understand why they were apprehended in the first place.

Asked about their case, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told CTV News that visitors who “overstay (their) visa and are in the country illegally” will be arrested, and that parents detained by ICE are “asked if they want to be removed with their children” or have them placed with a designated safe person.

Warner has said she was never given such a choice.

A document provided by the family, related to Warner’s social security card, shows her citizenship status listed as “Lawful Alien Allowed to Work.”

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• ICE detention: Canadian woman, daughter held in Texas, husband claims
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• Canadian mother detained in Texas with daughter gets bond

With files from CTV National News correspondent Abigail Bimman and The Canadian Press