Mother-in-law Danielle Jensen posted that she never imagined federal policies would apply to white people with decades of residency when she supported stricter border controls.
Jensen, whose Canadian son-in-law Curtis was detained by ICE after a minor teenage offense from over 20 years ago, emphasized that the executive order authorizing detention and removal of noncitizens "to the maximum extent of the law" was clearly meant for other families—specifically those she described as "actual illegals," not permanent residents married to her daughter with three American children.
"When they said 'protecting American people,' I thought they meant from the bad ones," Jensen explained, apparently unaware that the policy directs enforcement "against all inadmissible and removable aliens" without carve-outs for people who seem nice or have blonde children. "Curtis has a good job. He goes to church. His baby misses him. This wasn't supposed to happen to us."
The family expressed particular confusion about why ICE detained Curtis at customs, noting he's been a permanent resident since his teenage years and is "almost 40." Sources confirmed the family was somehow unaware that the Trump administration's enforcement memo explicitly states "prosecutorial discretion shall not be exercised in a manner that exempts or excludes a specified class or category" of removable individuals, even those who make really good points about why they personally should stay.
Jensen's Facebook post, which has gone viral, carefully explains that Curtis "is NOT A THREAT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" and has "made amends" for his youthful mistakes, suggesting she believes immigration enforcement operates on a case-by-case basis where officials carefully consider each person's redemption arc and family circumstances before detention.
The post further notes that Curtis is now being held in what she describes as "deplorable conditions" at a privately-owned detention facility, apparently expressing surprise that the vastly expanded detention infrastructure she may have supported doesn't feature luxury accommodations.
"He's in a cell with 30 men. The water is bad. He's sleeping on concrete," Jensen wrote, somehow failing to connect these conditions to the detention expansion policies implemented under the very executive order she references. "Due process is a joke, as is the violation of Human Rights."
