B.C. woman detained by ICE for three weeks in Texas calls experience ‘traumatizing’

KINGSVILLE, TEXAS, UNITED STATES – The Canadian woman who spent three weeks detained by immigration officers in the United States along with her seven-year-old daughter says it was “the most stressful, traumatizing ordeal” she has ever been through.

Tania Warner won’t elaborate on the details of her nearly three weeks in detainment, but describes the treatment as “mentally torturing,” adding that her daughter Ayla suffered chemical burns from soap and detergent used at the detention facility and is only now recovering after returning home.

The mother and daughter were released from detention last week after initially being taken into custody at a United States border patrol checkpoint in Texas where the family lives.

“It was the most stressful, traumatizing ordeal I’ve ever been through in my life,” she said during an interview from her home in Kingsville, Texas. “And I can tell you that I’ve seen two people in my life lose their lives. And I tell you it was comparatively more stressful than those two situations.”

Warner, who is originally from Penticton, B.C., said Wednesday was Ayla’s first day back to school, and the girl showed anxiety about not wanting to leave her mother’s side.

“She didn’t want to go,” Warner said. “So, rather than be excited to see her friends and get back to being normal, she felt apprehensive. And in her words, she said, ‘I don’t want to leave you.'”

The pair also has a check-in scheduled with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement next week, and Warner said that will take place at a facility about 150 kilometres south of the family’s home in Kingsville, Texas.

Warner said she and her daughter have to cross the same checkpoint where she was detained to get to the check-in, and having to do so is terrifying for the family.

“So, I’m technically still detained by ICE,” she said. “They put an ankle monitor on me, and that’s called an alternative detention. The judge did not order the ankle monitor. I was deemed a non-flight-risk under the type of green card application that I’m on.

“They’re not actually supposed to detain me at all. So, I have an illegal ankle monitor essentially.”

She said the family is going through the courts and through the local congressman to resolve the case

She added that her family has begun discussing moving back to Canada as a backup plan in case she does get deported, although that would be a last resort if staying in Texas is not possible.

“We definitely are discussing what’s best for our family,” Warner said. “At this stage with our home and all of our belongings being here, my businesses being here, it’s not ideal for us to move back to Canada. But we are looking at it as an option as I may be forced to deport.”

Warner, whose U.S. immigration status is “lawful alien allowed to work,” said she has been told that she and her daughter were detained due to an overstay in the United States based on paperwork that has not been updated with their latest status.

What may be most upsetting for her, is the trauma suffered by her daughter in the ordeal, she said. 

“My daughter only knows Texas,” Warner said. “She’s never lived anywhere else. This is the only house my daughter’s ever lived in. This is where she spent her life.

“And when you look at that, when you tear somebody out of their environment, put them in a prison-like situation, when it’s only supposed to be 48 hours …, that’s child abuse.

“All she kept asking me was, ‘Why can’t we go home?’ And I said, well, based on the fact that we’re Canadian, this is what the government has decided that they are going to do with people like us that are living in the United States. So, we have to stay here until Papa and our lawyer can get us out. That’s all I could tell her. I had no idea what else to say.”

– By Chuck Chiang in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2026.