Cynthia Olivera Detained by ICE at Green Card Interview

Cynthia Olivera, a 45-year-old Canadian national who had lived in the United States for roughly 25 years, was taken into ICE detention on June 13, 2025, after arriving for a green card interview in Chatsworth, California. Agents handcuffed her inside the interview room after she gave a statement to an immigration officer, while her U.S. citizen husband waited outside. She was moved through four facilities before landing at an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, where she remained pending removal to Canada as of early July 2025.¹²

Why ICE Arrested Her

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called Olivera “an illegal alien from Canada, who was previously deported and chose to ignore our law and again illegally entered the country.” According to McLaughlin, a judge issued a final order of removal against Olivera in 1999, she was deported, and she reentered the country illegally that same year. The department characterized the reentry as a felony.¹

Her husband provided documentation indicating the 1999 removal carried a five-year ban on reentry. DHS described the return as an illegal reentry following a final order of removal.³ A search of California and federal court databases by local news station KGTV turned up no criminal charges under Olivera’s name before her detention. The government’s stated basis for the arrest rested entirely on the 1999 removal order and her unauthorized reentry.⁴

Her History in the United States

Olivera was born in Mississauga, Ontario, and her parents brought her to the U.S. from Toronto when she was ten. She attended elementary school, junior high, and high school in the Los Angeles area.⁵⁴⁶

In 2024, toward the end of the Biden administration, she received a work permit and a Social Security card, giving her legal authorization to work for the first time. She had applied for a waiver related to the 1999 removal order and had been navigating the green card process for years. The June 13 interview in Chatsworth was part of that application.⁴

Detention, Waiver, and Her Own Words

After the arrest, Olivera signed a form agreeing to expedited removal and waiving her right to a bond hearing or asylum claim, hoping it would speed her departure. It did not. By July 4 she had been held for more than 20 days.⁷

In a video call from the El Paso facility published July 3, 2025, she told reporters: “The U.S. is my country. That’s where I met my husband. That’s where I went to high school, junior high, elementary school. That’s where I had my kids.” Fighting back tears, she added, “The only crime I committed is to love this country and to work hard and to provide for my kids.” She said she planned to stay with a cousin in Mississauga, Ontario, and that her 15-year-old daughter Bella would have to travel to Canada to see her.⁴³

The Trump-Voter Angle

Olivera and her husband, Francisco Olvera, have three U.S. citizen children: their 15-year-old daughter Bella and two adult sons. Francisco voted for Donald Trump in November 2024, and the couple had been strong supporters of the administration’s mass deportation agenda. Cynthia herself believed her lack of legal status would not result in her own detention.⁴

After the arrest, Francisco told reporters he felt “totally blindsided” and “betrayed,” saying, “I voted for change, but I didn’t vote for this change.” He added, “I want my vote back,” and pointed out that taxpayers were covering his wife’s detention at an estimated $152 per day while the family had repeatedly offered to pay for her own flight to Canada.⁶⁷

DHS’s McLaughlin used the case to promote the administration’s self-deportation program, saying the government was offering undocumented immigrants “$1,000 and a free flight to self-deport” through the CBP Home App, and warning that those who did not take the offer would “be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”¹

A Broader Pattern of Arrests at Green Card Interviews

Olivera’s arrest was not isolated. Under the Trump administration, ICE agents began arresting people at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices during green card and adjustment-of-status interviews, a practice San Diego immigration lawyers described as a “new escalation.” Those detained typically had no violent criminal history and had already passed extensive background checks. In some cases, ICE cited visa overstays as grounds for arrest, even though immediate relatives of U.S. citizens can legally adjust their status despite overstaying.⁸

Canadian nationals have been affected in significant numbers. Global Affairs Canada reported that roughly 55 Canadians were in ICE custody as of July 2025, a figure the agency said fluctuated regularly. A Canadian government spokesperson said Canada could not intervene, noting that “every country or territory decides who can enter or exit through its borders.”⁵⁴

1
Newsweek. Trump Voter Detained by ICE at Green Card Interview
2
HuffPost. Canadian Mom Detained by ICE
3
KGTV 10News. Mother Arrested by ICE Tries to Stay Positive as DHS Defends Her Looming Deportation
4
The Guardian. Trump-Voting Family’s Canadian Mother Detained at Green Card Interview
5
CBC News. Canadians in ICE Detention Centres Left in Legal Limbo
6
HuffPost. Canadian Mom Detained by ICE
7
KGTV 10News. Canadian Arrested by ICE at Green Card Interview
8
KPBS. ICE Agents Arrest Green Card Applicants in San Diego