'Regret voting for him': Trump supporter's British wife faces deportation; lived legally in US for 37 years

A 59-year-old British woman, wife of a Trump supporter, who has lived legally in the United States for more than three decades, is facing deportation after being detained at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Donna Hughes-Brown , originally from England, is the wife of James Brown, a Trump supporter who now says he regrets his vote. She was stopped on July 29 after returning from a holiday in Ireland, held in Chicago for five days, and then transferred to a detention facility in Kentucky.

James Brown says he “100 per cent” regrets backing Trump, blaming the US president’s immigration purge for his wife’s case. “You look at the news, and they're not telling the truth about what's actually happening to a lot of legal immigrants. What's bad is that Trump is so demeaning to people, and he's so condescending and so retaliatory that people are afraid to say anything,” he said as quoted by Mirror.

The case against Hughes-Brown relates to a misdemeanour from 2015, which her husband says was resolved years ago.

Hughes-Brown has held a US green card for more than 37 years, renewing it twice, and has built her life around her four children and five grandchildren. Her bond hearing, delayed due to a clerical error, was later denied twice under new legislation. She remains in custody in Kentucky.

Brown described his wife as active in her community, helping single mothers, maintaining free food “blessing boxes” and organising aid for families after Hurricane Helene last year.

“We helped with supplies for Hurricane Helene. We do volunteer work all the time. We give to single mothers. We help out military families. We have a son who is a Marine, and this is our payment,” said Brown who himself served in the US Navy from 1985 to 2005.

If deported, Hughes-Brown could be barred from returning to the US for 10 years.