A Canadian woman who sparked outrage by assaulting a teenage girl on a New Jersey boardwalk over the Fourth of July weekend has been ordered deported by an immigration judge. Kaitlyn Tracey, 33, appeared before the court via video link from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Texas on Tuesday, where she was formally removed from the United States.

The incident unfolded on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk on July 3, when Tracey confronted a group of teenage girls. According to police documents, she yelled at them for wearing patriotic-themed sweatshirts emblazoned with the words "Trump" and "ICE." The confrontation escalated when Tracey struck the victim twice—first on her body, then across the face—before walking away. Officers ordered her to stop, but she refused, police said.

Tracey pleaded guilty to simple assault, a disorderly persons offense, on the same day as the deportation hearing in Ocean County Superior Court. Her attorney, Francis R. Hodgson of Toms River, confirmed she entered the plea on August 4, with other charges including harassment, obstruction, and endangering the welfare of a child dismissed under the agreement. She received credit for the single day she spent in jail after her arrest.

Tracey was arrested on July 13 and spent less than 24 hours at the Ocean County Jail before being transferred to Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark. Her husband, Matthew Geroni, declined to comment on the case at the direction of her attorneys but said, "I'm going to make it to Canada to see her through the whole process" of her repatriation. He previously described the incident as "insanely blown out of proportion."

The Department of Homeland Security took the unusual step of publicly branding Tracey on social media platform X, calling her the "Maple Leaf Menace." The post read: "This illegal alien who assaulted a teenager has no business being in our country. In violation of our nation's laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart."

Court records show Tracey entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa that was scheduled to expire on September 6, 2024. The assault occurred while she was legally in the country but before the visa expired. However, the DHS cited her overstay as a key factor in the deportation proceedings.

Surveillance footage from the boardwalk captured an obscured view of Tracey striking the girl. Police later verified the incident through additional video evidence. Detectives identified Tracey using social media posts and the passport information she provided upon entering the U.S. from Canada earlier this year.

The victim told police that Tracey "verbally berated" the group over their clothing, persistently approaching them, harassing, and yelling. The teen and her friends were wearing tops with political slogans that apparently triggered Tracey’s reaction.

Tracey now awaits formal deportation to Canada. Her husband said they had been married for three years and were in the process of applying for U.S. citizenship for her when the incident derailed those plans. The immigration judge’s order finalizes her removal from the country, though she has not yet been physically transported across the border.

The case has drawn attention to the intersection of immigration enforcement and criminal justice, with federal authorities leveraging visa violations to expedite removal after a relatively minor assault charge. The DHS’s aggressive social media messaging further underscored the politically charged nature of the episode.