Summary

Welsh tourist Becky Burke was detained for 19 days in a US immigration facility and transported in chains like “Hannibal Lecter” after alleged visa violations.

Burke had been backpacking and staying with host families in exchange for help around the house, which authorities suspected breached her tourist visa conditions.

Deported on March 18, she described the ordeal as traumatizing. Her parents criticized the harsh treatment and are considering addressing the issue politically.

  • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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    23 days ago

    Traveling to a fascist country might be challenging, I personnaly wouldn’t take the chance.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    A US customs spokesman previously said they could not discuss specific cases but that travellers were treated with “integrity, respect and according to law”.

    Bullshit. Too many stories are coming out that prove that’s a lie.

    Fuck America and fuck Trump.

    • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      Trump’s tenure really exposes how many people work in various law enforcement functions apparently just for the privilege to humiliate and hurt people.

      • bampop@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        At all levels too. I mean, why the 24 hours a day fluorescent lights so you don’t know night from day? How does that help? Hell, how does it even make more money? Even with senior management, the cruelty is the point.

      • Retropunk64@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Uhhhh, that shits been exposed for way longer than krasnov has been around. Y’all just weren’t paying attention.

      • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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        22 days ago

        There is no law anymore. This is full on dictatorship. Judges are being ignored. SCOTUS is complicit.

  • peetabix@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    Me (British) and my American gf are planning to visit her friends and family over the summer in Navada, Washington and New Mexico. Not so sure i want to go anymore.

    • specterspectre@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Don’t. I used to hike around the southern states for fun. Currently residing in one. The border patrol goons are just headhunting to fill quotas now. Anybody is game. I myself am planning my move out of country right now. Even the magats are not safe and are willing to sacrifice themselves for their hateful ideals.

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I’m brown in the US and I try not going anywhere. Every morning I have to drive by a school zone to get to the freeway and the police always parks right by the 20mph sign. If you don’t see the fucker there, he is somewhere already detaining someone.

        • AoxoMoxoA@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          I’ve got a few friends that were adopted , one of Columbian decent the other Korean. I askd them how their feeling about all this if theyre worried. My Columbian buddy is a little concerned , wants tinted windows on his car etc., cant say i blame him.

          Back during fuckboys first term my Korean buddy got locked up for a few months (non violent crime). I went to pick him up , when I got to the jail they said he was being detained. I got in touch later that evening and he was released. They were about to send him to Washington D.C. to get sent back to south Korea because of some bull shit error on his adoption paperwork from the early 80’s. Luckily it all got straitened out but he was scared , he said they weren’t fucking around. He was terrified he was going to get sent back to a country he left at 3 years old with no chance to return over a clerical error.

          I could only imagine the wrong people (im not saying anyone deserves this level of harassment) are going to get hammered by all this hair trigger jackboot coward behavior.

          I hope you don’t get fucked with out there

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      If either one of you is even the slightest bit tanned, not that I find that likely in Britain, but I digress, neither one of you should even consider coming to this hateful place for the next four years at least.

    • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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      22 days ago

      Geezus. I’m right next door (Canadian), and I wouldn’t even consider going there. They’re going to start using ANY excuse to detain people. In December 2018, Canadian nationals Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were taken into custody in China. It appeared that their detention on December 10 and subsequent indictment under the state secrets law were linked to the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada on December 1. In English-language media, the pair are frequently and colloquially referred to as the Two Michaels. Wikipedia. EDIT: I spent 35 years crossing the border camping, shopping, and feeling like I was with trusted neighbours. Really sad…

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    They don’t want foreigners in that country any more, and are willing to treat them badly to get their message across.

    Don’t end up in one of their detainment concentration camps, you never know when you’ll be allowed to leave, the way they keep suddenly changing how they do things - for the worse - every few weeks, it could be never.

    Don’t go to that country. It’s too dangerous.

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      Our government certainly doesn’t want foreigners here, but the people remain welcoming.

      I lived in San Diego, CA for the entirety of Trump’s first term. He kept making it sound like criminals were flooding in there, and harming us. The narrative was that we were victims, and he was some sort of hero.

      The reality was we love our Mexican neighbors… And we fucking hate that asshole for lying and demonizing our friends, colleagues, and family members.

      This all said, it is not safe here any longer for us in the long term, or foreigners in the short term. He has lost his damn mind, literally, and his followers are brainwashed. America is unsafe, and unstable.

  • febra@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Such an inhumane country. Keeping people in shackles like cattle. Hell, not even cattle gets treated like that.

  • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Can’t wait until the summer rolls around and the fascists start arresting kids for setting up lemonade stands and whatnot.

    • ansiz@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      This is a better article but basically she was ‘working’ in the US by exchanging help around the house for a place to stay. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80y3yx1jdyo

      Apparently the Canadians were concerned she’d work while in Canada? This kind of housework for accommodation is super common in the backpacking, hostel, hitchhiking kind of space. It’s ridiculous to treat tourists like this because of simply doing a little house work.

      Another example with hikers going along the AT or PCT will frequently do housework like activities to payback hostels or shuttle drivers.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Oh sure, it’s all wink-wink-nod when it’s a white person, but soon enough you know who’ll be “backpacking” around? Brown people!. that’s right.

        I’m sorry to scare you so, but this is very important in today’s fascist putsching.

  • Vile_port_aloo@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Omg I was actually worried for a second! She had to shuffle lol true this maybe embarrassing and the process dehumanising. People are dying under state powers.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    The interesting thing about this is the amount of spin the bbc is putting on it. They generally do far less of that than US media outlets. But calling her a tourist in the headline is a clear misrepresentation. And really, they didn’t even need to go there. The real story was already bad enough. She could have been full on running a housekeeping business, and the chains still would be ridiculous cruelty worth reporting on. Even Canada said no way when she tried to enter as a “tourist”. But I guess she should have asked for assylum rather than come back to the US at that point.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      But calling her a tourist in the headline is a clear misrepresentation

      Sure thing, and if you stay over at a friend’s house and make the bed in the morning it’s their legal obligation to report you for not obtaining a proper license for your housecleaning business first /s

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        These weren’t “friends” houses. I personally think there should be some kind of visa for this. I just don’t like how media headlines continue to get worse. The BBC has been better than most.