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.
Tweak@feddit.uk 22 hours ago
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.
echodot@feddit.uk 20 hours ago
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.
Tweak@feddit.uk 15 hours ago
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.