New Zealand woman and son detained by Ice 'being treated like criminals'

A New Zealand woman who is being held at a US immigration centre with her six-year-old son is being wrongly "treated like a criminal", according to her friend and advocate.

- Eva Corlett

Sarah Shaw, 33, a New Zealander who has lived in Washington state for just over three years, was detained on 24 July after dropping her two eldest children at Vancouver airport in Canada so they could take a direct flight back to New Zealand for a holiday with their grandparents.

When Shaw attempted to re-enter the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained her and her youngest son. Victoria Besancon, Shaw's friend who is helping to raise money for her legal fight, said the mother and son had found the experience a "terrifying" ordeal.

"Sarah thought she was being kidnapped," Besancon said. "They didn't really explain anything to her at first, they just kind of quietly took her and her son and immediately put them in an unmarked white van."