An England-born grandmother who has lived in the United States for nearly five decades was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as she re-entered the country and now faces possible deportation over a bounced check worth $25 from more than a decade ago.
Donna Hughes-Brown, 58, a lawful permanent resident who arrived in the United States at age 11, was taken into custody on July 29 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport after returning from Ireland, where she attended a family funeral, her husband and local reports said. Officials have argued the old check offense qualifies as a "crime of moral turpitude," a designation that can render a green card holder inadmissible and subject to removal.
Hughes-Brown has been detained for more than a month at a facility in Campbell County, Kentucky, according to her husband, Jim Brown, a former U.S. Navy service member. Brown said the $25 bounced check was an old matter that had been settled long ago and disputed that it amounted to conduct meeting the legal standard for a crime of moral turpitude.
"You don't arrest 58-year-old grandmothers. It's just wrong," Brown told local television station KMOV. He said his wife, a grandmother of five who lives with him on a nine-acre farm in Troy, Missouri, has been active in community charity work and poses no public-safety threat. Brown said he has contacted state leaders without success and that Missouri's governor declined to intervene, calling the case a federal matter.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services defines crimes of moral turpitude as conduct that "shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality," a broadly interpreted legal category that has been the basis for immigration inadmissibility and removal proceedings in past cases. The Department of Homeland Security has said green card holders who attempt to re-enter the United States with certain criminal convictions may be found inadmissible and subject to removal.
"A green card is a privilege, not a right," DHS said in an earlier statement. "Under our nation's laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused."
Supporters of Hughes-Brown have launched a fundraising campaign to cover legal costs; organizers said the fundraiser had reached most of a modest $6,500 goal. Brown said his wife has Irish citizenship in addition to her long-standing U.S. permanent-resident status and that the family is pursuing legal avenues to challenge the detention and potential removal.
Legal experts note that whether a particular nonviolent offense qualifies as a crime of moral turpitude depends on the specific facts and the wording of the criminal statute under which an individual was convicted, and that immigration consequences can be triggered even by long-ago convictions. ICE and DHS routinely review re-entry cases and remove noncitizens found inadmissible under immigration statutes.
The case highlights continued tensions over immigration enforcement policy and its impact on long-term lawful permanent residents. Federal authorities in the past decade have prioritized removal of noncitizens with criminal convictions, and courts have at times differed over which offenses meet the threshold for moral turpitude. Hughes-Brown's husband said he voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election but now regrets that choice, calling the situation "egregious" and urging leaders to intervene.
ICE and DHS declined additional comment beyond their prior public statement. As proceedings continue, Hughes-Brown's case will be decided through the immigration court process or other administrative channels available to lawful permanent residents seeking to contest removal.