Both have been through the ringer after Hughes Brown was detained by immigration and customs officials at Chicago airport when returning home from Ireland last July. “She didn’t want to.”Donna Hughes Brown and her husband Jim Brown visit their horses at a field behind their home in Missouri. While in detention, Hughes Brown took solace in a depth of fortitude that is, clearly, remarkable. English became the default language and Hughes Brown spent that week, bewildering and frightening as the situation was, teaching basic phrases through sketches and hand signals. It drives me nuts that they have been allowed to do this to people.”“If I am the worst of the worst then America has a bigger problem than it thinks it does,” Hughes Brown adds.

Source: The Irish Times February 21, 2026 15:00 UTC