Canadian father enduring cold, poor food and water in Texas ICE detention centre

A Canadian arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas has been stuck in a detention facility since November, enduring cold and crowded conditions, poor food and water, and long delays to plead his case to a judge, says his fiancée.

Kayla Thomsen says Curtis Wright, who was born in Edmonton, has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years.

He is currently listed by ICE as being detained at its South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall, southwest of San Antonio.

“The water is contaminated at the facility he’s at. He got extremely sick,” she said Thursday in a phone interview from Houston, where she and Wright live with their 18-month-old daughter and Wright’s two young sons from a previous marriage.

Wright, 39, works in the oil and gas sector and is a permanent resident of the U.S., Thomsen said.

On Nov. 6, he was returning home from a business trip in Mexico and texted Thomsen that he had been taken aside for secondary screening at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.

“I had all the kids home, and they were so excited to see their dad. We had made dinner. We were all waiting for him,” the woman said, adding the texts from Wright went silent for a couple of hours.

Then finally, Wright texted. He was being detained and sent to an ICE facility.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” said Thomsen. “In my head I’m thinking he’s been locked up with rapists and murderers. So I was beside myself.”

Thomsen said Wright was detained for an old drug possession conviction from when he was in high school. He had been in a car with friends and Xanax tablets were found in the back seat, she said. Wright did community service for his sentence.

Detainees like Wright have the ability to self-deport to their home country, Thomsen said, but moving to Canada would put in jeopardy the custody he shares of his two sons.

He was supposed to have a virtual court date last month, said Thomsen, but the judge didn’t show up and another date was set. A trial still needs to be scheduled, she added, and no one has answers on how long any of it will take.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond when asked about Wright’s case.

The administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly portrayed its mass deportation efforts as a way to get rid of immigrants who have committed crimes or are a danger to society, calling them “the worst of the worst.”

Prolonged detention has become more common in Trump’s second term, at least partly because a new policy generally prohibits immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation cases wind through backlogged courts.

Thomsen said Wright has been moved to different facilities four times.

She said Wright has told her it’s cold, and detainees have no blankets or jackets. At one point, she said, Wright was given one frozen waffle to eat in a 24-hour period.

She’s allowed to visit him, but it’s a long drive, she said. She brought their daughter once to see him but won’t again.

“It’s hard to watch her try to grab at him through the glass, and she doesn’t know why she can’t get her dad, you know? And he’s visibly upset and crying because he’s missing his child,” Thomsen said.

“It’s hard on her. It’s hard on me. It’s heartbreaking to see.”

Thomsen said Wright had other prior troubles with the law. He was arrested for impaired driving about eight years ago, and police found his ex-wife’s gun in a car during a traffic stop.

But he wasn’t convicted, Thomsen said, and those incidents are not listed as reasons for his current detention.

He was also an alcoholic but has been sober for five years, she said. “The amount of men that he has helped and continues helping in Alcoholics Anonymous is amazing. I mean, he really does a lot for the community.”

Thomsen said Wright has also been helping other detainees, adding they aren’t criminals either.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re on a work visa or a school visa or anything like that. They’re just taking everybody,” she said.

“It just doesn’t make any sense.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.