President Donald Trump ran his campaign on immigration. He promised his followers that he would be hard on illegal immigrants, deport all criminals, and make the country safe.
But that did not happen. And Jim Brown is learning it the hard way.
In a case that is a perfect example of how harsh, unrealistic, and borderline illegal Trump’s immigration policies are, an Irish green card holder is in fear of being deported back to her country, after being in America for more than 40 years.
Donna Hughes-Brown has been detained for over a month, and now her husband, who once supported President Donald Trump, has publicly denounced the administration’s policies against immigrants.
Hughes-Brown is 58 and has lived in the United States since she was 11 years old. She has been married to Jim Brown for eight years now. The couple has built a peaceful and active life in Missouri, where they are proud members of their local community.
In July, Hughes-Brown was visiting her family back home in Ireland, where she had attended a funeral. On her way back, she was detained at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had detained her on a past conviction and determined that she needed to be removed from the home she had known since she was 11 years old. Her conviction- writing a $25 bad check almost a decade ago.
It is to be noted that Hughes-Brown repaid the money and served probation at the time. But since the federal law allows green cards to be revoked on grounds of ‘moral’ turpitude, she was first sent into detention and then has a fear of deportation hanging over her head.
“I think it’s nonsense,” Jim Brown told KMOV, a Fox affiliate. “I think it’s a blanket thing to catch everybody, to fill beds. It’s crazy that this is even allowed in this country.”
St Louis grandma Donna Hughes-Brown, 58, married 20-yr vet & farmer Jim Brown.
Back from Irish funeral, 47-yr resident & green card holder Donna, snatched on July 29 at Chicago airport, now facing deportation in “deplorable” KY jail for writing bad $25 check a decade ago. pic.twitter.com/uVwtelVmv7
— TruthSeerum (@TruthSeerum) September 5, 2025
Brown claims that his wife’s situation has gotten worse in recent weeks. Initially, she was able to speak with her husband regularly, but recently she has been moved into an isolation cell. Brown said she had refused to eat hot dogs and chili mac that was being served repeatedly.
“She probably told them after the fifth time they tried to serve her: ‘I’m not eating that,’” Brown explained. “So they locked her up. I haven’t heard from her in three days now. It’s stupid.”
Her husband’s anguish is justified as there is complete silence from officials. Brown says he has reached out to Senators Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley to plead his case. He even reached out to ICE and the White House, but so far, he has not received any response.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe also wrote back to him, but clarified that he can’t do anything since it is a “federal issue.”
The DHS has defended its decision to detain in a statement to HuffPost.
“A green card is a privilege, not a right,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with certain criminal convictions may be found inadmissible, placed in removal proceedings, and subject to mandatory detention.”
Brown, who was once a Trump supporter, now says he deeply regrets his vote in the last presidential election against immigration.
“Trump advertised that he was getting criminal illegal immigrants and deporting them, which I don’t disagree with,” Brown told Newsweek. “But that’s not what he’s doing.”
Migrants Are Leaving the US Because of Trump’s Immigration Policies
As more migrants self-deport and turn around before they get to the border, their new future comes into focus.
Story: https://t.co/muXfOWBVSH pic.twitter.com/ndkcKtiU39
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 27, 2025
With his wife behind bars, he is now questioning the system that he once endorsed, and he is demanding that someone stand up and do something.
He wants someone to “have the guts and the fortitude to stand up and say, ‘You know what? This is wrong.’”
yeah, well– these trumpers knew all along that they were voting for a well-documented bully, a con-man, a criminal who takes advantage of people, an assaulter of women, one who boasted that he loves to “grab them by the pussy”, a draft-dodger who considers military veterans “suckers and losers”, a pathological liar, and pretend ‘christian’ who appointed conservative judges to help overturn Roe V Wade because he knew full well that the base he needed to win are equally ignorant so-called ‘christians’ who have tried for 50 years to ban abortion in the guise of being pro-life.
Stephen Miller and Tom Homan would deport their own mothers! They’ve set a quota for deportation so anyone who has so much as a traffic violation is now labeled “a criminal.” All “criminals” are subject to removal. Thank God I didn’t vote for King Donald l but we all have to put up with his asinine and draconian policies. They are spending foolish time and money rounding up innocent people while real criminals run free. What’s wrong with this picture?