Latest news with #Cliona
Sunday World
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
Cliona Ward thanks family following her release from custody in US
She was detained by Immigration and Customs officers in April after returning from Ireland Cliona Ward has thanked her family following her release from custody in the United States earlier this month. The 54-year-old who is originally from Dublin, lives in Santa Cruz, California. She was arrested after she returned from visiting her dying father in Ireland in April. Ward was being detained by ICE over minor convictions from almost 20 years ago, which were supposed to have been expunged from her record. Cliona Ward News in 90 Seconds - May 27th She was released and told to report to San Francisco with proof of her expungement; however, when she got there, she was reapprehended, charged with moral turpitude and shipped to Washington. The mother remained behind bars in a detention facility until she was released earlier this month. Taking to a GoFundMe page, set up by her sister Orla Holladay, Cliona thanked her family for support and talked about her ordeal for the first time. "My warrior sister, defender of justice!!!! Could this be a calling for you? You dive in deep and figure out what to do next...I cannot thank you enough for what you did for me, and now continue to fight for justice served,' she wrote. "You know how to weave the strings together to provide due process for the people in ICE detention centres. "That is all they need.... They are not informed on how to get out and they are so afraid to speak up for the basic human how to find council or interpreter services... They give them detention handbooks in English and Spanish only,' she continued. "All done on purpose to keep them detained and deportable. I cannot thank you enough for what you did. "Everyone should have the opportunity to prove their innocence. If proven guilty, at least they had the opportunity to be heard. I must secure my status before diving deep, so thank you for being my voice for them. I love you so much, my Warrior, my defender, my sister, my anam cara,' she continued. "There is truly no one in the world like you, and I am truly blessed!" Orla previously told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that she is terrified Cliona was going to get lost in the system. 'She's afraid that she's going to get lost in the system. That was the one thing she said to me: 'Please don't let me get lost.' Orla explained that Cliona has been sober for almost 20 years, and currently works at a nonprofit Christian organisation teaching children. 'This has to do with a painful addiction, and she did everything she could do to change that,' said Holladay. 'She's a viable, valuable part of this community,' she said, describing her as a gentle, loving and private person.
Sunday World
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
Family of Irish woman released by US immigration worried about ‘lasting traumatic effects'
'Each of you have literally helped to save Cliona's life' The family of Irish woman Cliona Ward, who had been detained by US immigration, have said they do to know what 'lasting traumatic effects' there will be following her release. Her sister, Orla Holladay, said Ms Ward is at home, and for now, 'is in this place of absolute grace'. 'She keeps saying, 'I'm like a new baby in this world', everything just feels so surreal,' Orla wrote in an update to a GoFundMe page that had been set up after Ms Ward was detained on April 21. While the family was 'completely humbled and grateful for your support and donations' , Ms Holladay said, 'it's hard to know right now what the lasting traumatic effects this will have'. 'Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection,' she said in an earlier update. 'I will leave the GoFundMe open because Cliona wants to be able to say something to you all on an update. Cliona Ward News in 90 Seconds - May 9th 'But at this point you can consider it an absolute and beautiful success - each of you have literally helped to save Cliona's life as she knows it and we love you for your humanity and kindness.' Ms Ward, an Irish-born green card holder and long-time resident of California, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at San Francisco Airport after returning from Ireland to see her father. She was detained in relation to decades old convictions that she understood had been expunged, despite travelling abroad many times over the years without issue. Her lawyer confirmed that these convictions, which it was revealed had been expunged on a state level and not a federal level, have now been vacated as Ms Ward had not been made aware of their impact on her immigration status. California Congressman Jimmy Panetta said the case was an example of the Trump administration's 'overreaching deportation policies that can sweep up people like Cliona'. Ms Ward, who was detained for more than two weeks days in a US immigration detention centre in Seattle, is 'thrilled to be released and she is mortified that she had been detained over decades-old, expunged convictions,' said her immigration lawyer, Michael Mehr. Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Mehr said deportation proceedings had been initiated against Ms Ward upon her return to the US from Ireland, despite her providing documentation that showed her convictions has been expunged. He said these convictions have now been vacated in the state of California as Ms Ward had not been aware that their expungement had not been recognised at a federal level and she had not been advised of the consequences to her immigration status. Mr Mehr said she was given 'no idea that after an expungement and dismissal that they would still be recognised for immigration purposes'. He added that the case is 'unusual' as prior to US President Donald Trump's inauguration such an issue 'might have led to removal proceedings but definitely, it would not have led to her detention'. He said the current administration has taken a 'zero tolerance policy, that people should be detained and not released even if they are not a security risk'.
Irish Examiner
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Cliona Ward: How a Midleton family outshone America's dark immigration system
For weeks we had known it was coming. The Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on alleged illegal immigration had given rise to so many horror stories, it was surely only a matter of time before an Irish citizen was affected, not least given the sheer amount of undocumented Irish living in the US. The surprise, really, was that the case, when it inevitably happened, was taken against a person who had been quietly, legally, living in America for more than 40 years. The Ward family is a plainly ordinary one which became caught up in the most horrible, extraordinary circumstances. Cliona Ward, the 54-year-old Dublin-born woman who found herself at the centre of a nightmare, had been living in the US, along with her younger sister Orla, for more than 40 years, 30 of them in Santa Cruz, California. Her green card is valid and not due to expire until 2033. She had travelled to and from Ireland without notice for years. The warning signs were there, however, when Cliona returned from a trip to Cork in late March, having chaperoned her 86-year-old stepmother to see her father — who is living with dementia in a nursing home in Youghal. She was detained at Seattle Airport upon arrival into the US, and held for three days. The reasons for this were technical, but similar situations have seen multiple travellers detained since Donald Trump took office last January and began delivering on his campaign promise to deliver the greatest mass deportation in history. Immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) officials are reportedly under orders to deliver a minimum 75 arrests per day for each of its offices, 1,800 in total. When under that kind of pressure, numbers become more important than accuracy. Cliona had fallen foul of the law a number of times close to 20 years ago. For several years, she struggled with addiction. She picked up a couple of felony convictions, one for possession of crystal methamphetamine. It is also true to say she turned her life around, earned a qualification, cared for her son, and lived a fruitful life. Displaying not a little foresight, she moved to have her convictions expunged from her record in tandem with the upturn in her fortunes. While this was achieved at a state level in California, it seems the expungement was not replicated at a federal government level. In a country the size of the US, with 50 competing autonomous state administrations, red tape fails of that sort are two a penny. To an adrenalised Ice at present, however, any bureaucratic question represents an immediate opportunity. To make matters worse, while the agency has always had enormous powers in terms of deportation, under Trump it has been let off the leash completely. Cliona was released from Seattle on March 22 and ordered to present evidence of her expunged convictions at San Francisco Airport a month later, which she duly did, only to be arrested and transported to Ice's detention facility in Tacoma, Washington — 900 miles from her home. What ensued was a living nightmare for her and her family. Conditions in Ice's for-profit prisons are notoriously inhospitable. Unlike many detained by US immigration officials, Cliona Ward had a formidable support network. They are designed to be that way, all the better to discourage people from entering the country illegally. But in her own way, Cliona was fortunate. She and her family are educated and fluent in English, and she had a formidable support network to fall back on. From day one, her sole concern was that she would become "lost" in the system. Cliona met so many other women during her time in Tacoma — without English, without loved ones they could contact — who had vanished without trace in the system, bussed from state to state, detention centre to detention centre. Cliona's family was not about to let that happen. 'We have a lot of eyes on her, and we're being very vocal about this,' Cliona's sister Tracey, who still lives in Midleton, said a week after her sister's arrest. The family set up a GoFundMe to help with Cliona's inevitable legal bills, stemming from having to retain legal counsel in two states. They provided constant updates for the media, for family, and friends. The Wards are a spiritual family, with no interest in the limelight. But they did what they had to do. They befriended a champion in local Democratic congressman Jimmy Panetta. A former prosecutor, Panetta has made clear he is no fan of criminals. But he also made clear that, in light of Cliona's redemption arc, deporting her for a decades-old conviction 'does nothing for our nation'. Panetta was instrumental in securing post-conviction relief for Cliona, effectively overturning her previous convictions. And when she finally appeared in front of a judge in Seattle on May 7, she was informed the case against her was to be dropped immediately. She was free. What happens next? The Wards will return to their normal lives. They hope the trauma Cliona experienced is something she can overcome. A quiet, empathetic soul with a strong will, the odds are in her favour. But this particular mosquito bite on the rear end of Trump's grotesque deportation policy may prove to be an influential one. Cracks are starting to show in terms of how this most inept and boorish of Governments functions. They have moved to suppress academic freedom with the threat of lost funding for America's most revered universities, only to meet pushback when they went too far in targeting Harvard. They tried to deny federal funding for school lunches in Maine when its governor declined to implement the administration's hopelessly cruel anti-trans policy ahead of the state's own laws. They lost in court. And they tried to deport an Irish woman who had lived peacefully there for 40 years for the most spurious of reasons. But this time, right-thinking people stood up to be counted and common sense prevailed. With luck, Cliona Ward's success this week will shine as a beacon of light for others similarly plunged into a nightmare not of their own making.
Irish Examiner
08-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
Cliona Ward 'in her own bed' as family thanks 'humanity' from supporters
The Ward family has thanked supporters for their 'humanity and kindness' after their sister Cliona was released from a US immigration detention, where she had spent more than two weeks imprisoned. Cliona's sister, Orla Holladay, said that her sibling was 'finally in her own bed' after an experience which had left her 'in shock' and 'traumatised'. Ms Holladay said Cliona's release represents 'an absolute and beautiful success'. In an update to the GoFundMe campaign set up to help with Cliona's legal bills, her sister said that all contributors 'have literally helped to save Cliona's life as she knows it and we love you for your humanity and kindness'. The GoFundMe campaign had raised $47,755 at the time of writing, though Ms Holladay noted that the full cost of Cliona's legal representation — which amounted to separate legal counsel in both Seattle and her hometown of Santa Cruz — had yet to be determined. She said that the GoFundMe campaign would remain open to allow Cliona to deliver a message of her own to her supporters before being shut down. Post-conviction relief Dublin-born Cliona, 54, a resident of the US for more than four decades, was taken into detention by American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officials on April 21 on foot of a number of decades-old criminal convictions which she believed had been expunged from her record. Earlier this week, she was granted post-conviction relief within Santa Cruz. This cleared the way for those convictions to finally be overturned. When Cliona appeared before a judge in Seattle on Wednesday morning, she was informed that the case against her had been dropped and that she would be released that afternoon. Ms Holladay said that her sister had been 'very hungry' when she finally emerged from the Tacoma detention centre. 'It's an absolutely surreal experience,' she said of what her sister had been through. 'She is in shock, filled with emotions, traumatised, full of gratitude.'
The Irish Sun
08-05-2025
- The Irish Sun
Latest update as ‘traumatised' Irish mum based in US detained under new rules ‘in shock' at immigration facility release
THE Irish mum who was detained in a US immigration facility after coming back from Ireland has been released. Cliona Ward was released from the facility in Advertisement 2 Cliona has been officially released Credit: Supplied 2 She was first detained on April 21 Credit: GoFundMe The decision was made only a few hours after a judge accepted an application to terminate the Cliona's attorney Erin Hall confirmed the news to Sharing an update on the "We walked into the room and the first thing she did was jump on the bed and hug the pillows. Advertisement READ MORE IN NEWS "She is in shock; filled with emotions, traumatised, full of gratitude, fear for the women she left behind." The 54-year-old, a green card holder and a long-time resident of Santa Cruz, Cliona, who is originally from At the time, her green card was up to date, and not expiring until 2033. Advertisement Most read in Irish News She was held over a small number of 20-year-old Cliona's other sister, Tracey, who lives in Advertisement She said: "I was trying to maintain hope but I know how the system works over there so I was very fearful for her. I'm just completely relieved. "The outpouring of love worldwide that we've received has been absolutely unbelievable." Following the bombshell Washington State, Erin Hall, told how an application had been made in California for the original convictions to be formally vacated in a manner which would be recognised at a federal level. A California judge agreed to the application which allowed Ms Hall to subsequently file a motion to terminate the immigration proceedings. Advertisement Yesterday, a judge at the Tacoma Immigration Court signed an order ending the removal proceedings.
