I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre
I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre
Her advice to anyone planning to travel to the US is simply not to go. “First, because of the danger of what could happen to you. And, secondly, do you really want to give your money to this country right now?”
I'm having real difficulty convincing my mother not to go to the US. She doesn't really pay much attention to the news and although she knows some things are going on I find it very hard to get her to understand how serious it is.
When in fact her advice should have been “understand the terms of your visa”
Yeah
She had been travelling on her own, staying on homestays free of charge in exchange for doing household chores, drawing as she went. For Burke, 28, it was absolute freedom.
Within hours of posting that drawing, Burke got to see a much darker side of life in America, and far more than a glimpse. When she tried to cross into Canada, Canadian border officials told her that her living arrangements meant she should be travelling on a work visa, not a tourist one. They sent her back to the US, where American officials classed her as an illegal alien. She was shackled and transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention centre, where she was locked up for 19 days – even though she had money to pay for a flight home, and was desperate to leave the US.
Meh, sure she was wrong on that, but that doesn't justify taking her into custody and refusing to allow her to go home.
Tell that to the man in an El Salvador prison admitted to be an "admin error". He knew exactly what his terms were and didn't break any laws. He was sent illegally and he's not coming back. This isn't "it happens under all administrations". Wake up, people are being detained in broad daylight and then theyre cancelling their visas. Wake up before it starts happening to you too.
There were other tourists, too. Bana, from Romania, was on holiday in Canada and visited Peace Arch park, on the international boundary between the US and Canada. She told Becky she had been taking selfies with her husband when a US border official told her they had strayed into American territory without the right visa and took her into custody.
So they're bringing people into the country to arrest them. Genius. Those detention centers must be rolling in cash right now and DOGE is ignoring it.
I want to know who narced on her.
She was just doing chores at houses in exchange for boarding. She wasn’t paid. She just did chores.
That would qualify as work according to the US gov. Because by doing these chores, you are potentially causing someone to not need to pay a nanny or whatever. Be careful how you define work -- you don't need to be directly paid.
By throwing your rubbish in a bin whilst in the USA, you are causing the city to not need to pay a litter picker to collect and throw your rubbish into a bin.
I know I'm just being silly, and I know you're not wrong, I'm just sayin. There's a thousand ways one could look at almost any action and suggest ways in which it is "work" if we define it as causing someone else to not have to do a job or get paid for something.
It's not work because you're depriving someone of the job, it's work because you are doing a task for a benefit. It's just a non cash benefit.
She narced on herself to Canada, then America overheard.
Those peace bridge agents are always looking for this. They have you narc on yourself. Had an incident there going back and forth with a foreign born USA citizen.
She was doing work for a benefit. It wasn’t cash, but it had value. If that wasn’t work, and therefore not taxable, everyone would just switch to getting paid in services and benefits that aren’t cash.
She was treated extremely harshly but she was working illegally. There are lots of digital nomads that do similar. They work in places where they are staying on a tourist visa, it’s illegal. I run a small business. When I am away on holidays overseas, my staff need to be paid. I log in and pay them while away. Technically that is in breach of my visa for most countries, I’d say.
You're an idiot.
Yea, no. This is only considered 'work' if you're a physics teacher.
That's not work? That's common courtesy! You stay at someones house so you help out.
Best to get a lobotomy before going to the US that way they won’t be able to accuse you of trying to work illegally while you’re there. It also has the benefit that you’ll finally be on the same mental level as Trump and his supporters.
Speaking as an American, everyone who can needs to stay the fuck out until we can get some semblance of having our shit together.
I'm sorry, but this is NOT the kind of person I want in prison. AND I don't want prisons profiting off her misery.
Doing payroll would be you performing a transaction in another country to people in that other country. At no point are you performing work where you receive remuneration in the country you're visiting - which is the point of working visas. Just because you did a bit of paperwork for your work back home doesn't mean you're violating tourist visa conditions.
So what I'm not understanding is, why are we putting people in jail for something that isn't causing harm? Unless, is there something about overstaying your visa that is harmful?
Catering to your idiotic voters is the reason.
Did you not simply say “British ! Enough of your nonsense! “ and come home to your king ?
This article could have been written as a warning to others about lying to Immigration officials and the possible repercussions but they just go straight to making this girl the poor victim.
The whole article can be summed up with, If you lie to ICE (FA) and they find out (FO) you're going to have a bad time.
She had been travelling on her own, staying on homestays free of charge in exchange for doing household chores, drawing as she went. For Burke, 28, it was absolute freedom.
It's not free of charge if you have to work in exchange for room and board. She was employed by the home owners and instead of cash she got a room.
Her whole trip was planned around working off her room and board with manual labor. She knew exactly what she was doing, she lied, she got caught.
Yeah, doing chores around the house in exchange for stay is "payment". No money exchanges hands, she gets to make friends, sometimes even have a personal guide, she wasn't short on money and could pay for groceries herself, she even had the money to pay for a flight home.
Framing this as "she was employed" is ludicrous. Painting it as if she was dependent on it is ridiculous. Locking her up instead of sending her straight home is bonkers.
Also saying she was "fucking around" is a straight lie. She told ICE she was there with Workaway. She actually told them the truth. Lying would've been "I paid for my stay".
I know empathy is difficult on the internet, but it seems like reading is even more difficult for you.
Framing this as "she was employed" is ludicrous. Painting it as if she was dependent on it is ridiculous. Locking her up instead of sending her straight home is bonkers.
And if it had been employment, the correct law enforcement action would've been to arrest her host for trafficking/modern slavery/failing to pay minimum wage, not go after her, the victim.
You're angry at America and ICE, but it was Canada that refused her entry and first took issue with her activity. After that, when she immediately came back across the border, America was pretty much obligated to look into things.
They definitely should have just deported her immediately, but she apparently did break the visa terms. I read somewhere it was to do with her giving tattoos, or at least that was part of the accusation against her.
3 weeks' detention is the fucked up part.
That maybe so, but why such an excessive stay? Stick her on a plane, sorted.
While I agree the time in detention was excessive, this wasn't at an airport, it was at the Canadian land border. So it's understandable that she wouldn't immediately get on a plane back home - she'd likely have to be taken to a central facility and then transferred to an airport. But yeah, that shouldn't take 3 weeks.
Okay Maga Hat.
Because what the ICE did, while maybe de jure legal, was overexatturated?
If they didn't want to go to prison, they shouldn't have stolen the candy bar. FAFO! Also I hate authoritarians. FREEDOM!
