A young Welsh woman by the name of Becky Burke, age 28, had planned a "life-changing" backpacking trip around North America. She comes from the country that has a "special relationship" with the US.
US border immigration officials are holding her in a prison for a "life-changing" experience because she "violated" her visa - to my knowledge, travelers holding British passports are welcomed into the United States without the need for a tourist visa and they can stay up to 90 days. She has been detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center for 12 days.
Her violation? She spent a few days as a guest with a host family in Portland, Oregon, free of charge helping with house chores. Immigration officials consider this "work" and therefore a violation of the conditions of entry.
ICE said: "All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States regardless of nationality."
Ms Burke, an artist from Portskewett, Monmouthshire, began backpacking around the US on 7 January. She had flown from New York to Portland, Oregon, where she spent time with a host family, helping with household chores in return for accommodation.
At the end of February she travelled to Seattle with plans to travel to Vancouver in Canada to stay with another family. However, when she reached the border, Canadian authorities denied her entry as they were concerned she may try to work illegally. She spent six hours at the border, waiting while officials were "trying to determine if what I had been doing in America counted as work".
She said she was "interrogated" and is staying in a dormitory of 110 people in a "maxed out" immigration detention centre in Tacoma, Washington, in "horrendous" conditions.
Immigration experts say that when Canadian officials denied her entry, a suspension of her visa waiver and detention on the US side was unavoidable. Many countries strictly interpret what constitutes compensated work - even if no money changes hands. And under the best of circumstances, processing within by the US immigration system can move slowly. Add to this, the Trump administration's harsh immigration enforcement methods across the US.
Her father told BBC he could not understand why his daughter was "locked up and she's in an orange prison jumpsuit whilst the paperwork gets sorted out". Her life-changing backpacking trip "has turned into a nightmare". The British consulate in San Francisco, which is the nearest one to the
detention facility, says "official channels can't get a clear
answer about what is going on".
In order for Ms Burke to benefit from voluntary departure or expedited removal, she has to appear in front of a judge, but this is now delayed because several dozen of the approximately 700 immigration judges had resigned or been fired by the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Ms Burke's "crime" is a speck of dust compared to the many crimes of the man who runs the US these days: A convicted criminal felon who led a violent seditious mob to attack the US Congress and turn over the results of elections. Yet, he has spent zero hours in detention. Instead he is spending four years in the White House.
How did it come to this?
No comments:
Post a Comment