{"id":350732,"date":"2025-08-17T03:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350732\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T03:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:46:15","slug":"incredibly-isolated-new-zealand-mom-and-son-freed-after-weeks-in-us-immigration-detention-who-is-she","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350732\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Incredibly isolated\u2019: New Zealand mom and son freed after weeks in US immigration detention \u2013 who is she?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u2018Incredibly A US mother and her 6-year-old son were released this week after spending more than three weeks in US immigration detention, following a brief trip to Canada and what her attorney called a minor paperwork mistake. Sarah Shaw, a 33-year-old New Zealand citizen who has lived legally in the U.S. since 2021, was detained at the Blaine, Washington, border checkpoint while returning from Vancouver, where she had dropped her two older children off for a flight to New Zealand to visit their grandparents. Shaw\u2019s attorney, Minda Thorward, told CNN that Shaw didn\u2019t realize her travel permit\u2014part of a \u201ccombo card\u201d granting both work and travel authorization\u2014had expired. Although her son\u2019s documents were valid, both were taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection and transferred nearly 2,000 miles away to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.In June, Shaw received confirmation of her work permit renewal, but mistakenly believed it also extended her travel authorization \u2013 a \u201cminor administrative paperwork error\u201d \u2013 according to her lawyer.\u201cShe had completely re-established herself. She had a full-time job, an apartment, adopted a dog, a new boyfriend, and the kids were in school and doing great,\u201d Thorward said. \u201cShe made a mistake, but she has no previous convictions \u2013 none. This is a very clean case.\u201dShaw, who works for the state of Washington and had just renewed her work permit, mistakenly believed the renewal also extended her travel authorization. Her attorney said she applied for humanitarian parole, which would have allowed her to return home, but was denied. Requests for her boyfriend or a friend to collect her son were also rejected. A friend of Shaw\u2019s, Victoria Besancon, told CNN Shaw has spent three weeks in a cramped detention facility, feeling \u201cincredibly isolated.\u201d \u201cEach room contains 5 to 6 bunk beds, and rooms are locked from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.,\u201d Besancon told CNN, adding that she has been able to phone Shaw daily and recently video chat. Her son, who had expected to spend summer vacation at home, spent weeks confined indoors with limited activities. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot for kids to do\u2014maybe some coloring books,\u201d Thorward said. Shaw arrived in the U.S. in 2021, married a citizen that year, and later filed an I-360 petition after the marriage ended. Her application remains pending. She has since built a life in Washington\u2014working full time, raising her children, and preparing to begin a master\u2019s degree in psychology this month at Northwest University. A CBP spokesperson defended the detention, saying individuals with expired parole documents must be held under immigration law. ICE has insisted its family facilities are safe and equipped with medical, dental, and mental health services, though critics argue the conditions are traumatizing for children. New Zealand\u2019s foreign ministry confirmed it was in contact with Shaw but declined to share details, citing privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US mother and her 6-year-old son were released this week after spending more than three weeks in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[124002,124001,94942,124000,49,978,123999,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-350732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-6-year-old-son-detained","9":"tag-blaine-washington-border-checkpoint","10":"tag-customs-and-border-protection","11":"tag-sarah-shaw-immigration-case","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-immigration-detention","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115042057434302954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}