9mo ago

I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre

www.theguardian.com I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre

Graphic artist Rebecca Burke was on the trip of a lifetime. But as she tried to leave the US she was stopped, interrogated and branded an illegal alien by ICE. Now back home, she tells others thinking of going to Trump’s America: don’t do it

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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.
  
  this is well within the territory where you shouldn't feel bad about pulling out all the stops and making a personal emotional appeal, outright beg her not to go, tell her you're terrified of losing your mom
  
  There's a significant amount of Americans that are trying to get out. After they close the boarders in they start closing them going out.
- When in fact her advice should have been “understand the terms of your visa”
  
  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.
  
  What about what now ?
  
  www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/venezuela-migrant-deported-el-salvador-no-criminal-record/
  https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2025/03/14/hmong-american-woman-from-milwaukee-deported-to-laos/82415744007/
  
  Their silence was expected.
  
  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.
  
  Exactly. Canada refused her entry first, then when America learned why they detained her.
  She should have been deported and put on the next flight at her expense, not detained for nearly 3 weeks, but she definitely fucked up and took the piss with her visa.
  
  So send her home then. She's obviously not trying to illegally live in the US so there was absolutely no reason to arrest her. The problem is they think it's appropriate to arrest anyone they like and absolutely no one can stop them. I wouldn't dare go to the US anymore even if I followed every single rule because they can just do whatever the hell they want to whoever the hell they want with absolute impunity.
  Obeying the letter of the law is absolutely no guarantee they won't decide to just screw you over because they get off on it.
  
  There is some reason to arrest her. She had already been in the country for 3 weeks doing who knows what, so now that they suspect she was doing something wrong it's worthwhile to investigate.
  There's even some justification for making the detention a miserable process, so as to deter others. It's very shitty, and I don't agree with it, but there is at least a rationality about it.
  The real kicker is the length of the detention. This isn't in the interests of America, this is only in the interests of the private prisons padding their bill to the American taxpayer. The whole process is shitty, but this last part proves that they are only serving their own interests.
  
  Meh, sure she was wrong on that, but that doesn't justify taking her into custody and refusing to allow her to go home.
  
  Trump doesn't care about law, be it domestic or foreign. He will just grab you by the nethers and say that your visa is dead because he thought it should be.
  
  Her visa was dead. That’s the point.
  This is a completely typical outcome for anyone who doesn’t understand the terms of their visa under any administration.
  The trap it seems you and many others have fallen into, is the media using a middle class white girl along side emotive language such as “shackled” and “held with criminals” to elicit the outrage response.
  
  Normally if someone enters on a wrong visa, they get informed and sent back (often at their own expense). She was willing to do so once she figured out her mistake, but instead she was thrown in prison for weeks for no real identifiable purpose. She was treated like a criminal who tried to purposefully illegally enter, whereas she just made a mistake on her visa. Her devices were confiscated too so she couldn't really make contact with friends or family for help.
  And if this happens to someone making a mistake, it can happen to someone where border patrol makes a mistake. Fuck that, if that's how y'all want to treat your guests, I ain't visiting.
  
  You are mistaken and This ‘oh sorry, I’ll just go home’ is childish and naive.
  There are dozens upon dozens of ICE cases where people are routinely treated like this. A quick google is all you need.
  I’m not making any argument for the rights or wrongs of the matter, but this is a very typical encounter with ICE for a Visa infarction .
  
  this is absolutely wild behaviour for someone on slrpnk.net
  
  That's BS. She did chores. Did she even earn wages? She stayed 7 weeks, no overstay.
  
  I’m leaving now because no one here can read.
  
  I'm leaving now because people are challenging my black and white view and they're making me question my beliefs.

87 comments