SANTA CRUZ — Cliona Ward, a green card holder and Santa Cruz County resident that has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than two weeks, was granted release by a federal judge Wednesday, according to Rep. Jimmy Panetta.
Related Articles
Man booked on attempted murder in San Jose police officer stabbing
Ronn Owens’ daughter indicted in alleged ‘Bachelor’ paternity fraud
Berkeley police officer video of April shooting released but details missing
Cliff-jumper still missing after rescue operation near Santa Cruz coast
‘Fortunate to be alive’: Oakland murder case thrown out through plea deal
“Cliona Ward’s release demonstrates what can happen when we come together to fight for transparency, due process, and justice. We fought for Cliona from the top down and the bottom up,” Panetta wrote in a statement. “I pressured officials from the White House to the Irish government. We worked with her exceptional legal team from Seattle to Santa Cruz. And we coordinated with community advocates and her family. We fought to make sure that all of the facts about Cliona and her case were presented so that the Court could use its full discretion and do the right thing.”
Ward, who moved to the United States from her native Ireland when she was 12, was stopped by immigration authorities in Washington state in late March on her way back to Santa Cruz from a trip to her homeland to visit her ailing father.
The federal officials called into question Ward’s decades-old drug possession convictions that Ward explained had been expunged and cleared from her record. But despite presenting this information to officials in San Francisco in early April, she was taken into custody by border protection officers and eventually moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Washington, where she had been confined since April 24.
This story will be updated.
