Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Lucas were released from an immigration facility in Texas on April 2, after being held for nearly three weeks.

Warner, who is originally from Penticton, B.C., said they were unlawfully detained and she wants to speak out about her experience in custody.

“I am concerned about retaliation,” Warner said, while wearing an ICE-issued ankle monitor. 

“Being a Canadian with privilege, I believe that it’s my duty to share, no matter what the outcome.”

She said her seven-year-old daughter Ayla, who is on the autism spectrum, was harmed by the prolonged detention.

Warner said she plans to file a lawsuit for the harm caused to Ayla.

‘There were no criminals there’

The ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas, where Warner and Ayla were held is considered more family-friendly.

She said every family she met while detained had, at the very least, attempted to move to the United States lawfully. She claims many of the people who were being held — like her — had filed the proper paperwork.

Warner maintains that she and Ayla were unlawfully detained and had followed the correct protocols to move to the U.S. to be with her husband, nearly five years ago. 

“As a Canadian citizen, I had no idea that this could happen to me,” said Warner.

CBC News was provided with a copy of a document that says Warner is a lawful alien, allowed to work.

She said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledged her green-card application and issued an extension to their stay in the U.S. while the application is processed.

Warner said some people she met at the facility in Dilley had made unintentional clerical errors, while others had simply trusted immigration lawyers who took advantage of them and their vulnerable positions. 

She said before she was detained, she thought the U.S. government was focused on stopping criminals and people who were sneaking across the border. 

“There were no criminals there,” said Warner.

Warner said some of the detained families, like her, had been living in the U.S. for years without any indication that anything was out of order. 

Warner said even those who made mistakes deserve the opportunity to file their paperwork properly. She said the Constitution states all persons on U.S soil have the right to due process, but many of the detainees she met at Dilley do not know that.

Limited education

Warner said from what she witnessed, the education system inside the facility is not in line with Texas’s curriculum standards. She said one teacher and a few guards would lead a room of students through a lesson for a few hours each day. Regardless of what was being taught, Warner said most children, Ayla included, had difficulty focusing on the lessons due to the stress of the environment.

“They’re breaking the law by not having proper schooling for kids,” said Warner.

Many of the detained families had been living in the U.S. for several years, she said, and some of their children had goals of attending university. Now, she said, some of the children and teenagers she met have missed nearly a year of school while detained.

CBC News has requested comment from ICE, which runs the Dilley facility, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro has visited the Dilley detention centre four times so far this year, most recently on Wednesday. He has called for the detention centres to release detained children, and has been highlighting what he refers to as prison-like conditions where they are held.

“We have to shut down the Dilley detention centre,” said Castro on social media.

“We have allowed investors to profit from the imprisonment of innocent children.”

Beautiful friendships inside detention facility

Warner said Ayla became friends with other children in their wing of the facility. She said those friendships made a traumatizing situation bearable.

“You know, she did have really beautiful people in there to play with,” said Warner.

“It was really hard to say goodbye and leave them behind.”

Their next immigration hearing is on April 16. In the meantime, she said she plans to pursue legal action for Ayla, who said she was “scared all the time” while detained.

Warner said she will also continue to speak out about conditions at the ICE facility, for those who are not able to speak out themselves.

“If I could take them with me, I would,” said Warner.