Canadian man in ICE custody says he thought agents were only focusing on ‘criminals and murderers’

A Canadian man who has been detained for months in ICE custody is speaking out over what he alleges are atrocious conditions. Andrew Johnson with the details.

A Canadian man being held inside a U.S. immigration detention facility is speaking out over what he alleges are abysmal conditions amid a prolonged separation from his family, as his loved ones launch a legal fight for his release.

Curtis Wright, 39, is currently detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center, about an hour southwest of San Antonio, where he has been in custody for nearly four months.

“None of it has been enjoyable. The separation from my family has been miserable,” Curtis told CTV News in an interview from the facility.

Flagged at airport after Mexico trip

Curtis, a U.S. permanent resident born in Edmonton, holds a business degree and works in the oil and gas sector. He was taken into custody in early November after being flagged at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston while returning from a business trip to Mexico.

According to his parents, who also call Texas home but spend their summers in British Columbia, the issue stems from a minor drug possession conviction dating back more than two decades to when Curtis Wright was in high school.

“They went on the computer and found a misdemeanor that he had been charged with 22 years ago when he was 17 years old,” Curtis’ father Jim Wright said, adding his son was told by officials that “we can withhold you and incarcerate you until you’re able to appear before an immigration judge.”

Jim says the drug conviction involved a Xanax tablet being found in the backseat of his son’s truck. He says Curtis’ criminal history also includes a misdemeanor charge that stemmed from police discovering a handgun in the glove compartment of the car Curtis was driving, which was only registered to his wife, and an impaired driving arrest eight years ago, noting he has since cut alcohol out of his life.

Wright’s family says in the years following his legal issues, Curtis has renewed his permanent residency multiple times without issue. He has also travelled freely, including a trip last summer to spend time with his parents at their Kelowna, B.C. home.

CTV News has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment.

‘Whole world has been flipped upside down’

Kayla Thomsen, Curtis’ fiancé with whom he shares an 18-month-old daughter, says his detention has been devastating.

“Our whole world has been flipped upside down. I had this perfect life with this amazing man, and then all of a sudden, he’s just gone,” she said.

Thomsen says the most difficult part is how much their daughter misses her dad.

“She wakes up and she says ‘dada,’ and she carries around pictures of him that she’ll cuddle in the morning,” Thomsen said.

She says Curtis also fought to secure 50-50 custody of his two sons from a previous marriage.

“Missing him so much has been hard,” Thomsen said, becoming emotional. “He’s the provider for this family.”

The surprise imprisonment has also taken a toll on Curtis’ parents.

“I really do have a hard time sleeping,” said Curtis’ mother Bonnie Wright. “It just keeps going over in my mind, over and over again.”

Allegations of abysmal conditions

Curtis alleges conditions inside the ICE detention facility are terrible.

“The general hygiene conditions of the facility are pretty awful,” he said. “It’s run down, there’s mold, dirt, grime everywhere.”

The family says when he was first detained, Curtis was only given a single bottle of water and a frozen waffle over a 48-hour period.

“The food is horrendous. It’s something I don’t think my dog would take a second sniff at,” Curtis said. “I don’t drink water here without boiling it first. It’s finding ways to not stay sick.”

Jim wonders whether someone would be better off in prison.

“If you were in jail for life, for murder, you’d be treated better,” Jim said. “You get three good meals a day and you have a yard to go out, and they have a library and a gym there.”

The family believes the state of the facilities are designed to wear detainees down, into leaving the United States voluntarily.

“The worse they make it, the more likely they’re going to say, ‘well, if I have to stay in here and fight this for 90 more days, or I can self-deport and get out of here, I’m going to self-deport and get out of here,’” Jim told CTV News.

He believes prison inmates receive better treatment and have access to more amenities than his son does.

ICE detainees trying to ‘provide a life’ for families: family

Curtis says his experience has changed his perception of immigration enforcement.

“Before I came in here, I was of the mind that they were doing what they said they were doing, where they were focusing on the worst of the worst, criminals and murderers,” he said. “What I’ve come to understand since I’ve been in here is that’s the exact opposite of the people that I’ve met and seen.”

Curtis says of the hundreds of people he’s met inside three different facilities he’s been transferred between, most are “like him.”

“Just people working to provide a life for their family. Trying to be part of society in a productive manner,” he added.

In the hope of finding something positive in his experience, Curtis says he has begun teaching English to some of his fellow detainees, and his family says he has also been helping others with few resources to pay for basic items from the facility’s commissary.

U.S. federal court challenge filed

The family has now filed a U.S. federal court challenge known as a habeas corpus, alleging unlawful detention that violates Curtis’ U.S. constitutional rights. They hope he may soon be released and will then be able to fight to stay in the country from his home in the Houston area.

They have also launched a GoFundMe to help Curtis and some of the other detainees he is passing his days with in U.S. federal custody.

“Humans are not supposed to behave like this,” said Thomsen, questioning the detention tactics of ICE. “It’s baffling to me and it’s affecting not only Curtis, but so many others around him. He’s a scholar of a man. He really is.”

With files from CTV’s Kristen Yu