‘We feel blindsided’: Family of Trump supporters shocked after Canadian mother living in US for 35 years detained over immigration status

The family of Canadian national living in the US, Cynthia Olivera, felt betrayed by the Donald Trump administration after she was detained by federal agents in Chatsworth, California, over her immigration status. The incident took place on June 13, 2025, when Olivera, who backed Trump’s plan for mass deportation of immigrants, was interviewed for permanent US residency. The agents began working to expel her from the country, from Toronto, without permission.

Speaking about Olivera’s detention, her husband, who is a US citizen and identifies himself as a Trump supporter, told the California news station KGTV, “We feel totally blindsided.” “I want my vote back,” he said. Olivera has been living in the US for the last 35 years and came to the country at the age of 10.

It is pertinent to mention that being in the US without carrying a legal status is generally a civil infraction rather than a criminal violation. According to the Guardian, the White House has been emphasizing that anyone in the US who does not have legal status is a criminal subject to deportation. This prevails despite the claim that the immigration crackdown is largely focused on getting rid of violent criminals.


Olivera, 45, is a mother of three US-born children. Her husband told KGTV that she unintentionally came under the scanner due to those policies after the US President spent his 2024 presidential election campaign promising to pursue them.

In 1999, when Olivera was 19, US immigration officials at the Buffalo border crossing had determined that she was living in the country without legal status, according to The Guardian. They obtained an expedited order to deport her. She, however, was able to return to the US by driving to San Diego from Mexico within a few months. “They didn’t ask me for my citizenship—they didn’t do nothing… They just waved me in,” Olivera later told KGTV.

KGTV reported that its investigative team scoured California and federal court databases, but the unit found no criminal charges under Cynthia Oliver’s name.

Joe Biden’s administration granted her a permit allowing her to work legally in the US in 2024, before his presidency ended. She had also been seeking legal permanent US residency—colloquially referred to as a green card—for years.

Olivera’s husband extended his support to Trump in the November 2024 White House election.
Trump’s plan to deport criminals en masse appealed to both him and Cynthia, he told KGTV.

It was on June 13, 2025, that Cynthia Olivera and her husband were left shocked when they learned that she would be affected by her immigration status when she went for a green card interview in Chatsworth, California. She was detained there by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, according to a change.org petition pleading for compassion on behalf of Cynthia.

Cynthia Olivera recalls her time in the US

According to The Guardian, Olivera has since been transferred to an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, to await being deported. She suggested her treatment was undeserved.

“The US is my country,” she told KGTV over a video call from the El Paso facility, The Guardian reported. She further told the station in an interview published on 3 July. “That’s where I met my husband. That’s where I went to high school, junior high, and elementary school. That’s where I had my kids.”

But the Trump administration seemed to be unmoved, with a spokesperson calling Cynthia “an illegal alien from Canada.”

Olivera had been “previously deported and chose to ignore our law and again illegally entered the country,” said the spokesperson’s statement, as reported by Newsweek.

The statement noted that re-entering the US without permission after being deported is a felony, and it said Olivera would remain in ICE’s custody “pending removal to Canada.”

Canadian government reacts

Commenting on Cynthia Olivera’s detention, Canada’s government told KGTV that it was aware of the matter but could not intervene on her behalf because “every country or territory decides who can enter or exit through its borders.”