Wife held in ICE facility for months after visiting Ireland with her husband, but what authorities did to her is heartbreaking

Donna Hughes-Brown has been locked up in an immigration detention center since July, even though she has lived in America legally for nearly 50 years. The 58-year-old woman with an Irish background was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport after coming back from a vacation to Ireland with her husband Jim Brown.

According to The Irish Times, the two had enjoyed a nice two-week trip around Ireland together. They went to Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Dundalk where they attended a funeral for Donna’s aunt. It was Jim’s first time seeing Ireland, and he got to learn a lot about his wife’s family history. Everything seemed normal when their plane touched down in Chicago, but then immigration officers came up to them out of nowhere. 

Jim was told that his wife just had to sign a few papers and she would be put on the next plane home to St. Louis. But that is not what happened. Instead, Donna was put into a van used for prisoners and driven six hours to Kentucky. She did not get any food or water for 12 hours, and there were no seat belts. “Since being detained there, she has been degraded and subjected to absolutely awful conditions,” he said.

This all started over two bad checks from a decade ago

The whole mess began because of something that happened 10 years ago. Back then, Donna was going through a really hard time with money. She wrote two checks at a grocery store that bounced because she did not have enough money in her bank account. The two checks together were worth less than $60, and she paid the money back later. Now those old mistakes might get her kicked out of the country.

Jim is a former Navy sailor who fought in Desert Storm. He has been trying everything to get his wife out of detention. He called more than 100 politicians in Missouri where they live, including senators and local representatives. But everyone just gave him the same basic answer that did not help. Donna has a court hearing coming up on December 19th that will decide if she gets sent to Ireland.

Jim and Donna met because they both loved horses and liked helping people who needed it. Jim said he first met Donna when she was working at a dog rescue place in southern Missouri. The couple spent a lot of time helping poor families, especially those from minority groups.

They keep a cabinet full of food in their home that they give to homeless people, and they drive around three counties making sure food boxes stay filled up.

A congressman from Rhode Island named Seth Magaziner asked Jim to come speak to a committee in Washington about homeland security. Jim told the politicians that he and his wife were living the American dream, but the government took it all away for no good reason. 

Right now, Jim and Donna can only talk through video calls every few days, and each call only lasts 15 minutes. Jim says Donna looks okay considering everything she is dealing with, and she has been helping other women in detention learn how to speak English. The situation has made people pay attention to how travelers coming back from trips to other countries can suddenly get arrested by immigration officers without warning.