An Irish grandmother, detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been released after her husband appeared at a hearing in Washington, DC.
Donna Hughes-Brown, an Irish citizen who has lived in the US legally since she was 11, was apprehended over issues relating to two bad cheques she wrote, totalling $80 (£59), more than 10 years ago.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom committed to reviewing her case during a committee hearing on Capitol Hill, where the case was raised by Rep Seth Magaziner, with Jim Brown in attendance.
“By actually appearing in front of these folks, it opened a lot of eyes,” she told BBC News NI.
Mrs Hughes Brown, 59, was detained at Chicago O’Hare airport in July after returning from a trip to Ireland.
She was then brought to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Kentucky – six hours away from her family home in Missouri.
Mrs Hughes-Brown was released last week after a judge’s ruling that she was not a threat to the community.
She was freed as 30 character witnesses came to testify. Eighteen U.S. senators had also signed a letter of support.
Speaking to Good Morning Ulster after her release, she said: “At the time, when they came to tell me that I was getting out, I thought they were joking.
“It’s important for me to be home with my family to be able to still be a steward in the community that I’m in, knowing that I can still advocate for the other folks that are still detained.”
House hearing
Between January and September 2025, 99 Irish people were deported, according to statistics from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit.
Rhode Island Rep Magaziner had invited Mr Brown, a Gulf War veteran, to the House Homeland Security Committee meeting in Washington DC where he highlighted cases where veterans and family members of veterans had either been deported or were facing deportation.
During the hearing, Secretary Noem turned to Mr Brown, thanked him for his military service and committed to looking at his wife’s detention.
Mrs Hughes-Brown’s detention came over an issue with two cheques – one which was cashed in at a supermarket and the other at a petrol station.
She said that she had not expected such strict immigration enforcement in the wake of President Trump’s second term.
“It never occurred to me that, even if Trump did the roundup like he did, that innocent people were going to get caught up in this,” she said.
She was first detained and handcuffed at the airport in Chicago; she assumed “something in the system had gotten mixed up somewhere.”
‘Lowest of the low’
During her 143 days of detention, Mrs Hughes-Brown said the conditions at the facility in Kentucky were “not good”.
She added that the experience had a huge impact on her.
“Emotionally, I was all over the place. I’m usually a fairly strong woman, but this brought me down immeasurably,” she said.
“It has really changed me.”
Congressman Seth Magaziner said the deportation proceedings against Mrs Hughes-Brown had ended, and critiqued the Trump Administration’s “unjust detentions”.
“Jim Brown served our country in combat, and his family deserved better than months of unnecessary separation,” Magaziner said.
“This patriotic couple are now reunited just before Christmas.”
Mrs Hughes-Brown said she wants to see others in the situation she was in protected.
“We had folks from Europe detained, we had folks from China, we had folks from Latin [American] countries, we had folks from literally everywhere, and they all need advocating for,” she said.
“My story is not a one and done.”
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