The husband of an Irish citizen who is facing deportation in the US says the whole situation is "just crazy and insane", and that it is "unreal that someone can be treated like vermin for a petty crime that was committed ten years ago".
Jim Brown said his wife, Donna Hughes-Brown, who was arrested earlier this summer when she returned to the US from Ireland, has a deportation hearing on the 17 September and he hopes that they can put forward a valid case on her behalf and prevent her deportation.
Ms Hughes-Brown has lived in the US since she was 11, he told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, and has a green card.
The problem centres around a petty crime committed by Ms Hughes-Brown in 2015 when she wrote a $25 cheque while overdrawn, Mr Brown said, for which she received probation and made restitution for at the time.
However, she was arrested in July when she travelled home from a holiday.
Mr Brown explained he and Ms Hughes-Brown had gone through customs at Dublin before their departure, but a police officer apprehended her as soon as they landed in Chicago.
He said that officers said Ms Hughes-Brown had some paperwork to do and she could then travel onto St Louis, which was their final destination.
He said he continued on his journey to St Louis and expected his wife to follow.
The next day, he received a call from customs saying Ms Hughes-Brown still had to clear some things up, but would be home in a couple of days.
Five days later, he was informed Ms Hughes-Brown was being sent to an ICE detention centre in Kentucky.
No contact for five days
Mr Brown said hasn't been able to talk to his wife in five days because she is in medical isolation in the ICE centre.
"This solitary confinement isn't a punishment isolation," he said, and explained it was because she won't eat the food in the ICE centre.
Mr Brown said he wasn't entirely sure why his wife is in isolation, but suspects that authorities want to limit her commentary on the food.
"She's supposed to be on a low sodium diet and they restricted her commentary. But they were feeding her meals of bologna and hot dogs," he said.
"And if you disobey in a facility like that, they're going to lock you up."
He said he said he has already spent around $7,000 on legal fees and this, combined with the loss of Ms Hughes-Brown's income, has put a strain on their finances.
Mr Brown said the predicament was at odds to the promises that were made about deportation.
"It is just insane that they are putting people in this predicament for the advertisement that is heard worldwide - which is getting rid of all the bad criminals. But that is not entirely true," he said.
"They're taking out innocent people as well," he added.
