Edmonton-born father back in Canada after 9 months in ICE detention

A Edmonton-born man who lived most of his life in the United States is back in Canada, after losing a legal fight to remain south of the border to be with his two young sons.

Curtis Wright, 40, said he endured terrible conditions at different U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in Texas after he was taken into custody just under 10 months ago.

Rather than self-deport to Canada, Wright said he fought to remain in the United States to raise the children he shares from a previous marriage.

“Can it be done from a different country? Sure, but that’s going to be holidays and summers,” Wright said in an interview from Kelowna, B.C.

“It drastically reduces my time and my ability to, you know, connect and be their father.”

Wright said he was returned to Canada from the South Texas ICE Processing Centre a little more than two weeks ago. His sons, ages eight and 11, remain in Texas.

Wright moved to Houston in his youth. He later got work in the oil and gas industry, and has held a green card for decades as a permanent resident of the U.S.

In November, while coming back from a work trip in Mexico speaking with oil companies and distributors, he was interviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and an old conviction resurfaced.

When he was 17, he said, he was convicted of drug possession and ordered to do community service and serve probation. Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, had been found in his truck, he added.

Wright said when he returned from Mexico, immigration agents shackled and hauled him away in the back of a van.

He blames U.S. President Donald Trump’s heightened focus on deportation for why his life in the country hadn’t been an issue for nearly 30 years.

The whirlwind shift from unfettered freedom to being in federal custody was unbelievable, he said.

In the blaze of the Texas heat, he said, he ended up in freezing cold intake processing cells at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall.

“The concrete that you’re sitting on and laying on is colder than the air itself,” he said.