Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney has spoken out about her detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials while attempting to renew her work visa. Mooney, known for her roles in American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, Kid Cannabis, Loudermilk, and iZombie, was held for nearly two weeks in what she described as “inhumane” conditions after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on March 3.
Mooney attempted to enter the U.S. at the San Diego border, where her lawyer is based, in order to process her visa renewal. Instead of being allowed entry or returned to Mexico, she was taken into custody and detained at the privately operated Otay Mesa Detention Center. Speaking to San Diego outlet KGTV, Mooney described the conditions as harsh and dehumanizing.
“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days,” she said. She also reported being forced to sleep on a concrete floor and experiencing extreme food deprivation, stating that she refused to eat due to the poor quality of meals.
During her detention, Mooney was transferred in the middle of the night to a facility in Arizona, where she said she was “wrapped in chains” and forced to remain awake for 24 hours.
This is Trump's America!
Canadian ‘American Pie’ actress Jasmine Mooney was literally detained by Donald Trump’s ICE agents at the US-Mexico border and jailed for 12 days. And she's confused as to why.
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She was forced to sleep on concrete floors and said that she felt like she… pic.twitter.com/rfHrHb0vaK
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) March 17, 2025
The reason for her detention has not been confirmed, though speculation has arisen regarding her business ties. Mooney is the co-founder of Holy! Water, a brand that sells beverages containing full-spectrum hemp, including Delta-9 THC. Some have suggested this could have been a factor in her detention, but no official explanation has been provided.
“No one told me anything. Not once,” Mooney said after arriving back in Canada. “I still don’t even know how I’m home. My friends and my family and the media are the reason, I think, that I’m home.”
British Columbia Premier David Eby, who publicly advocated for her release, voiced concerns over the incident, calling it an example of the unpredictability of U.S. immigration policies. “This reinforces the anxiety that many British Columbians and Canadians have about our relationship with the United States right now,” he said, questioning how such cases impact workers, travelers, and businesses dependent on cross-border ties.
Mooney acknowledged that her ordeal, while distressing, was not as severe as what other detainees face. “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 recalled meeting a woman who had been in detention for ten months.
Asked whether she would put herself in a similar situation again, Mooney was emphatic. “Of course not. If I knew that was even a possibility, I would have never, in a million years, gone there.”
