2) She applied for a TN visa that was sponsored by her own company, which is illegal.
"I was granted my trade Nafta work visa, which allows Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in the US in specific professional occupations, on my second attempt."
4) She was trying to enter the US illegally with an illegal work visa and even though the first TN was granted, she was likely detained because of the illegal nature of her TN visa application and the multiple attempts she made.
Did you look up Section 214.6(b) [0] before you posted?
Curious how you determined
>> A professional will be deemed
to be self-employed if he or she will be rendering services to a corporation or entity of which the professional is the sole or controlling shareholder or
owner.
Do you have a link to the ownership structure of Holy! Water?
She has publicly stated she is a cofounder of the company. In order to qualify for the TN visa there has to be a legitimate employer-employee relationship, and as cofounder, that makes that impossible. At the very least this makes her subject to detainment for possible immigration fraud.
Was she accused of these things by ICE? Was she told which laws she allegedly broke? Was she being detained ahead of a trial? I don't understand how even allegedly illegal activity results in her indefinite detention without anyone telling her anything.
TN self sponsorship is not allowed. However, it's not immediately clear to me that she would meet the standard of self-sponsorship as laid out in the law:
>> A professional will be deemed to be self-employed if he or she will be rendering services to a corporation or entity of which the professional is the sole or controlling shareholder or owner. [0]
I did quite a bit of digging to see if I could find corporate entity filings that might indicate if she is a sole or controlling shareholder. My initial findings suggest that she's not, but with low confidence.
Her product's site lists a mailing address in Illinois. I noticed the first line was "My Crew Doses"[1] (side note: lol - I guess this is a pun and a double entendre for "microdoses" but also "my friends dose"). I checked the Illinois register of corporations for that entity but came up short. I noticed the email listed on the contact page was "jeremy@enjoyholywater" and searched for 'Jeremy Holy Water' and came up with this guy [2] who lists himself as "Chief Scientific Officer" and a Co-founder of Holy! Water. I noticed he's in Colorado and checked the Colorado corporate register and bingo, came up with this: The corporate entity for My Crew Doses[3]. Not much info there but it lists the home registration of the entity as Wyoming. Going to the Wyoming register, we find the listing: [4]. That lists "Brian Mccaslin" as the sole corporate officer (President) with an @enjoyholywater.com email address. Cross-referencing his LinkedIn, it seems to be this guy: [5]. He also seems to go by BJ.
Now, assuming that this is the corporate entity for Holy! Water, I find it highly doubtful that the subject of the article is a controlling shareholder. We don't know what the ownership breakdown is but the fact that she isn't even listed as a corporate officer or a director is to me a strong indication that she isn't a majority shareholder. My hunch is that she in fact would be eligible (or at least not disqualified under this rule) for a TN visa.
TN visa requires a legitimate employer-employee relationship. If she is a co-founder of the company, which she has advertised herself as being, then the TN visa is illegal. Add on the fact she tried 3 times in various borders is more than enough evidence to detain her for immigration fraud.
Do I think it's right? No.
But is it lawful? 100% yes. I've seen draconian behavior at the border so I'm completely familiar with how things are so I'm not surprised.
1) She co-founded a hemp drink company in California as a Canadian.
"Jasmine Mooney, an actor who is also co-founder of the beverage brand Holy! Water, was detained on 3 March in San Diego, California."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/canadian-act...
2) She applied for a TN visa that was sponsored by her own company, which is illegal.
"I was granted my trade Nafta work visa, which allows Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in the US in specific professional occupations, on my second attempt."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...
3) She self-sponsored her own TN visa through her company that she co-founded and this is illegal.
Visa Sponsorship Required
Contrary to popular belief, the TN visa classification does require an employer to “sponsor” an individual for TN visa work status.
The TN visa classification, unlike e.g. the E-2 visa, does not permit self-sponsorship.
https://www.bdzlaw.com/nafta-tn-blog/tn-visa-employer-obliga...
4) She was trying to enter the US illegally with an illegal work visa and even though the first TN was granted, she was likely detained because of the illegal nature of her TN visa application and the multiple attempts she made.
Everything ICE and CBP did was lawful.