Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is to review the case of Irish citizen Donna Hughes-Brown detained by US immigration officials.
The Irish grandmother (58), who has lived in the US since the 1970s, has been held in a prison run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) since July and is facing deportation for writing bad cheques for small sums a decade ago.
In response to questions about Trump’s hardline immigration policy from US politicians on the House Committee on Homeland Security at a hearing on Capitol Hill, Ms Noem committed to carry out a review of Ms Hughes-Brown’s case.
Rhode Island Democratic congressman Seth Magaziner pressed Ms Noem about the justification of the arrest of Ms Hughes-Brown, who faces deportation for her record of writing the two bad cheques, which totalled less than $80.
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During the hearing, Mr Magaziner asked Ms Hughes-Brown’s husband Jim Brown, in attendance at the hearing, to stand up as he told Noem: “He is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the Gulf War. He is married to a woman named Donna who came to our country legally when she was 11 years old.”
[ A man’s battle in Washington to free his Irish wife from Ice detentionOpens in new window ]
Asked by the Democrat whether Ms Noem “commit again to reviewing this case in reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife who also loves this country”, the Trump cabinet secretary said: “I will review the case.”
Jim Brown has campaigned for the release of his wife since her arrest, at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in July, as the couple returned from a trip to Ireland.
Donna Hughes-Brown’s was one of several illustrated by the Democratic members of the House committee as typical of the random and often cruel circumstances of the Ice arrests throughout the United States.
Several Democrat members of the House of Representatives challenged Ms Noem about why Ms Hughes-Brown was arrested.
California Democrat Lou Correa described Ms Hughes-Brown as an “Irish citizen” and a “green card holder” who has been in the US for 48 years.
“She also happens to be the mother of a US marine, sister to a retired army colonel,” he said.
“She has been in Ice detention since July. She tried to come back from Ireland. Arrested. Her crime? She wrote two bad cheques for less than $80 a decade ago.
“Her husband Jim Brown came to us and told us her story. Jim told us: I voted for president Trump because he promised to go after criminals in our community and not people like my wife.”
Correa played the committee a video of Mr Brown telling a Democratic hearing earlier this month why he had voted for President Trump.
“Because I was an idiot,” Mr Brown said in the video.
He claimed in the video that “80 per cent of the Christian Evangelical people were lied to” about Mr Trump’s intentions that his aggressive immigration policies were intended to target criminals.
“I believe criminals need to be off the street. My wife and I - when we don’t work, we are ministers; we help the needy - that’s what we do,” said Mr Brown.
The room also heard the story of a landscaper living in the US for 30 years who is the father of three US marines.
They were also told about a combat veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who was deported to his native country after three decades of living within the US.
Noem told the committee that the hearing was “an opportunity to remind everyone here illegally that they have an opportunity to go home and come back the right way”.
Mr Brown told The Irish Times after the hearing that the public exposure from his wife’s case being raised at a high-profile Capitol Hill hearing was “awesome”.
He said he believed Ms Noem “may” look at Donna’s case.
“She has all power and authority. She said she would review the case but my distrust of the system is based on the fact that Donna has been imprisoned for the past six months,” he said.
The US federal case against Ms Hughes-Brown has been twice postponed, with the next scheduled date set for December 18th.
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