Family Calls On Trump To Help Free College Student Jailed In The Cayman Islands For Breaking Covid-19 Rules

A teenage girl who was jailed in the Cayman Islands for violating Covid-19 protocols is calling on Donald Trump to have her freed.

According to NBC News, Skylar Mack, 18, was sentenced to four months in prison for breaking the Cayman Islands’ mandatory 14-day Covid-19 isolation protocols for visitors. The pre-med student from Georgia traveled to visit her boyfriend, who was in the Cayman Islands for a jet-skiing competition. Instead of being quarantined for 14 days, she decided to only isolate for two days before leaving isolation and her tracking device behind. Mack said she tested negative for coronavirus twice before leaving. 

Last week, Mack was sentenced to prison for four months. Her family has since sent an appeal to the U.S. government, directly to Trump. “She just wants to come home,” 18-year-old Skylar Mack’s grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told the “Today” show on Monday. “She knows she made a mistake, she owns to up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.” Trump’s office responded, saying that Mack’s case would be forwarded to the “appropriate” federal agency, likely the U.S. State Department, NBC News reports.

Jonathan Hughes, who is representing Mack and her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, said four months in prison would have “a particularly harsh effect on her.”