A New Zealand woman and her young son thought they were being kidnapped when ICE officers detained them as they returned to the US following a trip to Canada.
Sarah Shaw and Isaac, six, have been held in United States immigration detention in South Texas for three weeks, despite them living in Washington state on valid visas for more than three years.
Ms Shaw and her three children - Grace, 11, Seth, nine, and Isaac - briefly crossed the US border on July 24 to drive to Vancouver Airport in Canada - less than three hours away.
The young mum dropped off her two eldest children for a flight back to NZ to see their grandparents - Vancouver was the closest airport with direct flights - before she turned around and headed back to America with Isaac.
However, what should have been a standard crossing back home - where she had been living since 2021 after she moved to the US to marry her then-husband - turned to disaster.
