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Canadian Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter Ayla Lucas are shown in an undated photo.HO/The Canadian Press
A Canadian mother and her seven-year-old daughter have been detained by U.S. immigration authorities despite having valid visas, according to their friends and family.
Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Lucas, who has autism, were travelling home to Kingsville, Tex., with Ms. Warner’s husband, Edward Warner, last Saturday after attending a baby shower in a nearby town.
But they were stopped at a checkpoint in Sarita, about 130 kilometres from the U.S.-Mexico border, according to family friends Mario Muñoz and Lizette Gonzales.
Mr. Muñoz said Mr. Warner called to tell him that they had been stopped and that his wife and Ayla were taken for fingerprinting. Mr. Muñoz assumed it was just routine, and the belief was that their paperwork was “ship shape.”
Edward Warner, the husband of a Canadian woman, says he has no idea why his wife and seven-year-old stepdaughter were taken into custody by U.S. border patrol in Texas on March 14.
The Canadian Press
Edward “texted me to let me know that ‘Hey, they’re fingerprinting them, but they should be right back out,’ ” Mr. Muñoz said. They never came back out.
Instead, they were taken to a processing facility and later moved to the Dilley Detention Center in San Antonio, nearly 300 kilometres away, Mr. Muñoz said. He said Mr. Warner has struggled to stay in touch with his wife and daughter, he said.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Mr. Muñoz said. “I feel more for my friend, for her husband that’s going through this, and of course, them being stuck in detention.”
The Globe and Mail reported in December that a sweeping immigration crackdown in the United States is increasingly ensnaring Canadians who don’t have criminal records – including at least six children.
An estimated 207 Canadians have been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at some point since January, 2025, when President Donald Trump took office. The total number of Canadians held in 2024 was 130.
Vicente Gonzalez, the Democratic congressman for the district, said his office is in touch with the Warner family and is working to secure the release of Ms. Warner and Ayla.
“Tania has a work permit and is part of the fabric of our Kingsville community,” Mr. Gonzalaz said in a statement on X. “She nor her daughter Ayla, a 7-year-old with autism, should be in detention. We must bring them home and reunite yet another family being ripped apart by this Administration’s rogue immigration enforcement operations,” the statement said.
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Canadian Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter Ayla Lucas in a photo provided by her husband Edward Warner.Supplied/The Canadian Press
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to The Globe’s requests for comment.
Global Affairs Canada did not confirm any details about Ms. Warner and Ayla’s case. In a statement to The Globe, the agency said it “is aware of multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the U.S.”
Ms. Warner’s cousin, Amber Sinclair, a dual Canada-U.S. citizen who immigrated to Texas from B.C. in the 1980s, said Ms. Warner moved to the U.S. a few years ago, and had been following the required entry laws. She said her cousin had her green card and permission to work in the country.
Ms. Sinclair said she has no idea why Ms. Warner and Ayla would be flagged by immigration authorities or detained.
“That is the big question that we’re all trying to understand, because she did have all her paperwork in order,” she said.
“She had a visa that was good through 2030, she had a social-security card based on the visa, and a valid driver’s licence. So, I’m not too sure exactly what transpired as to why she was flagged or taken in,” Ms. Sinclair said.
She said the family is now trying to figure out what the next steps are.
Mr. Muñoz said they are especially concerned given Ayla’s autism diagnosis, and her family worries about the traumatizing impact of detention on her.
“There’s been other reports of people with autism being mistreated,” he said. “Luckily, her and Tania have been kept together. … It’s a big shock for any child you know, much less one on the spectrum.”
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Since being detained, Ms. Warner has been able to speak to her husband only a handful of times on quick one-to-two-minute phone calls, Ms. Sinclair said.
The family has started a fundraiser to help cover costs for legal representation.
“We’re not billionaires,” Ms. Sinclair said. “We’re all just trying to make it day by day.”
While she’s hopeful that Ms. Warner and Ayla will be released soon, she’s angry.
“I’m infuriated by what has happened, and not just to my cousin, but to everyone who is being detained, who are hard-working Americans or on work visas, even immigrants,” Ms. Sinclair said.
With reports from Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Chen Wang
