For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.

He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.

From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

  • PlaidBaron@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    Daily reminder (especially to my Canadian homies) for the love of fuck do NOT travel to the US. They have made it clear they dont want visitors and it isnt safe for us to go there.

    Do not risk it. Find any other safe country to visit and go there instead. Or stay home and see your own country.

    Or if you want to visit North America, may I suggest Canada? Its nice here and we have cool things to see too. Also you wont be detained for no reason and live for months in a cage.

    • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 days ago

      And may I suggest Mexico? It’s a beautiful country full of wonderful food, music, and people. North America is a shit sandwich, but the bread on both ends is quite magnificent.

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        Yeah, never mind that the murder rate per 100k in Mexico is quadruple what it is in the “backwater” US (25.2 vs 6.3). It’s flawless and beautiful, and the US is just horrible and worse in every way than there and everywhere else, “shit”, as you said.

        Wonder why so many people are trying to immigrate there, then, hm. Also, Mexico’s got more people trying to get out than get in, how strange.

        Ah, what do all those people know, anyway? They’re just making the decision to completely uproot their lives and go to another country for fun, not because they’re desperate for a better life!