“American Pie” actress Jasmine Mooney is finally back home in Canada after being detained at the US-Mexico border for 12 days while trying to get a new visa — saying that nobody “deserves to go through what I witnessed.”
Mooney, a 35-year-old actress and entrepreneur, returned to Vancouver just after midnight Saturday after she was held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the San Ysidro border between Mexico and San Diego since March. 3.
“I’m still, to be honest, really processing everything,” Mooney told CTV News as she arrived at the airport.
4 Jasmine Mooney was detained for 12 days at the US-Mexico border after trying to get a new visa. CTVNews
“I haven’t slept in a while and haven’t eaten proper food in a while, so I’m just really going through the motions,” she said, noting she would “never in a million years” have gone to the border had she thought there was “even a possibility” she could be detained.
“I do not wish it upon anyone. No one deserves to go through what I witnessed.”
Mooney, a co-founder of the health-focused tonic drink brand Holy! Water, said she went to the southern border — where she obtained her first work visa — on the advice of her lawyer, and came prepared with a new job offer and her visa paperwork in hand.
While Mooney, who appeared in a racy scene in “American Pie Presents: The Book of Love” in 2009, had a work visa revoked in November, she said she didn’t think she would have any issue applying for a new one with her recent job offer — just as she had previously done.
Mooney said she was transported three times over 12 days, hadn’t slept in 24 hours, and still had no answers as to why she was detained.
4 Mooney (right) appeared in a racy scene in “American Pie Presents: The Book of Love” in 2009. Courtesy Universal
“I still don’t even know how I’m home,” she said. “My friends and my family and the media are the reason, I think, that I’m home.”
When asked if she felt President Trump’s border policies led to her detention, Mooney said she couldn’t say as she still had received no explanation for her detention even after returning to Canada.
“I have no idea,” she said. “I don’t want to point fingers at anything. I really don’t know. But, obviously, people can speculate what they want.”
4 Mooney had previously gotten her visa in person and didn’t think she would face any issues. REUTERS
Mooney is also warning other Canadians against making the same mistake.
“Don’t go where you can’t come directly back to Canada,” she said, adding that she was told by US officials at the border that she hadn’t done anything criminal and would be sent back to Canada.
4 Mooney is warning other Canadians against making the same mistake. Instagram/jasminemooney
Mooney said her situation was better than most of the women she encountered in her various confinements.
“When I got to know everyone else in there, and heard all of their stories and how long they were in there, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not allowed to feel sorry for myself at all, because every single person in here is in a way worse situation than me,’” she said.