The New Zealand Embassy is contacting the Texas immigration processing centre where Kiwi mum Sarah Shaw and her six-year-old son Isaac are being held to advocate for their release.
Shaw and her youngest son, who live in Washington State, were detained on the Canadian border three weeks ago.
Shaw’s friend Victoria Besancon told RNZ’s Morning Report this morning that Shaw was not originally made aware that she could get help from the New Zealand Embassy to the United States.
“That’s actually ICE’s job and the facility’s job to offer that to her, which they did not. So we were actually unaware until maybe last night that was even available to Sarah.”
Besancon, who has been speaking to Shaw’s lawyer on her behalf, said she “just got off the phone” with the embassy and that officials are contacting the facility to advocate for their release.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was having a meeting about whether Isaac would be released tomorrow, she said.
“As for Sarah, her work visa is still current. She still is able to be within the United States and all of her son’s paperwork was current and approved. So there was actually no reason for him to be detained.”
Besancon earlier told the Herald that she’s hoping to get an update on Shaw’s detention status by tomorrow.
Shaw was detained on July 24 crossing the border back into the US after driving her two oldest children, Grace, 11, and Seth, 9, to the airport in Vancouver for a flight to New Zealand.
Isaac didn’t go on the trip because he wasn’t old enough to fly unaccompanied.
Besancon told Morning Report that the conditions in the centre, where Shaw and her son are being held together, are “very similar to a prison”.
They are only allowed to roam freely between 8am and 8pm, otherwise being locked in a room with multiple other families, none of whom speak English, she said.
Shaw’s lawyer, Minda Thorward, told local media she had a temporary immigration document which allowed her to travel and re-enter the US, but there was an “administrative error” with it.
Shaw and her son were being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Centre in Dilley, Texas.
A GoFundMe was set up by Besancon to get Shaw and her son back home to Washington.
Besancon told the Herald yesterday that Shaw is “absolutely terrified.”
The children in New Zealand had not heard from their mother since the day she was detained.
Besancon said ICE should have put Shaw and her son in a locator system and filed paperwork establishing a court date, which it did not do for almost three weeks.
“It was about two-and-a-half weeks of basically legal-sanctioned kidnapping, which is a really big deal here in America.”
Besancon has been able to speak with Shaw in a controlled capacity because Shaw signed a privacy release between herself, Besancon and her lawyer.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson (MFAT) said yesterday that consular officials were aware of reports of a New Zealander and her young son in detention in the United States and were seeking further information.
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