‘Treated like a criminal’: Everett mother and 6-year-old son detained by ICE
Aug 11, 2025, 12:30 PM | Updated: Aug 12, 2025, 7:48 am
A patch on the uniform of a U.S. Border Patrol agent at a highway checkpoint. (Photo: Scott Eisen, Getty Images)
(Photo: Scott Eisen, Getty Images)
An Everett woman and her 6-year-old son were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 24.
Sarah Shaw, a mother of three, drove her children across the border into Canada for a flight to New Zealand and was detained after trying to return to the U.S. with her youngest son.
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Everett woman and son detained by ICE
Shaw is a New Zealand national who is in the process of applying for lawful permanent residency. Shaw currently holds a “combo card,” a temporary immigration document that provides work authorization and advance parole, allowing international travel and re-entry.
Shaw’s work authorization was approved, although the advance parole was not. She immigrated to the U.S. three and a half years ago under sponsorship from her former husband, and qualified to reapply independently as a survivor of domestic abuse.
“I thought we had crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I,’” Shaw’s friend, Victoria Besancon said, according to KING 5. “Sarah had been waiting on some travel documents to be approved. But once her visa and her children’s visas were cleared, she felt comfortable taking them to Canada. We assumed everything was fine.”
Shaw currently works for the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families at the Echo Glen Children’s Center, a juvenile rehabilitation facility in Snoqualmie. Shaw is also a member of Union Local 341.
“Being treated like a criminal has been very embarrassing,” Besancon said. “One of the hardest parts for her has been her job finding out what was going on.”
Everett mother being held at Texas immigration center
Shaw is currently being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center, which is one of two facilities in the nation that house detained families facing deportation.
Shaw’s attorney, Minda Thorward, said she is eligible for a green card, and noted that in years prior, Shaw would have been released quickly. However, Thorward claimed that “anything’s possible” under the current presidential administration.
“With everything this administration has done, they’ve chosen cruelty intentionally — over and over,” Thorward said, according to KING 5.
Shaw’s 6-year-old son, Isaac, had an eligible travel document, although Shaw did not. Thorward mentioned that Isaac being detained with an active travel document was “unconscionable.”
Shaw asked Border Patrol agents to allow Besancon to pick Isaac up from being detained, but the agents refused.
A GoFundMe fundraiser has been created to cover Shaw’s legal representation and rent costs, which have currently raised nearly $35,000.
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