So upset about ICE killings in Minnesota

[Allotmentblackfly]

So upset about the killings. No investigation and victim blaming from the Trump administration. I see no hope for America. Trump will cancel the midterms possibly elections or will rig them. The most powerful western country - one we thought was our friend is dying
im so sad for the bereaved and do sad for the country

She probably committed some sort of visa fraud, reading between the lines.

First of all, it’s very weird for her to have gone through the trouble of getting a B2 visa when she could have just got the ESTA (but the latter cannot be renewed … )

The fact she used a rental car is also a very interesting detail—it tells me they very likely planned to return to the US.

Nah. It's pretty clear what happened and, really, the only people who seem to be disputing it, or justifying it, are randoms on the internet. I mean, what exactly could there be to explain why a 65 yr old woman who had committed no crime and had ensured she had the correct paperwork for travel, to be shackled and detained for 45 days in inhumane conditions? 🙄

The were travelling. They were headed to Canada. They didn't have the correct paperwork for the hire car.
She had a valid visa. The fact that it was a B2 isn't unusual considering he was there already on a valid work permit and a B2 allows for more time.
HE hadn't made sure his paperwork was valid and in order. Detaining him? Sure. I'd still question the 45 days considering they used to just send them home when stopped.
She had done nothing wrong. There were no grounds to hold her, especially after they had both agreed on day 3 to self deport (after they'd firstly offered to pay their own way home)
They were kept another 42 days after they had signed the paperwork foisted on them on day 3. It cost WAAAAAY more to imprison them than allow them to leave when they had agreed to. Is the punishment really proportional to the 'crime'?
This is just one case of many btw and that's without the thousands in the legal system 🤷‍♀️

The were travelling. They were headed to Canada. They didn't have the correct paperwork for the hire car

Yes, what were they planning? You can’t just ‘drop off’ a rental car in Canada—if they had cleared the route into Canada, then they’d have had the correct paperwork in the first place. It seems probable that they intended to come back to the US, unless they were really going to dump the car and fly home (seems unlikely tbh)

She had a valid visa. The fact that it was a B2 isn't unusual considering he was there already on a valid work permit and a B2 allows for more time

They may have suspected her of lying about her intentions on the B2 visa. UK citizens can get a ten-year B2 visa. That means she could have been constantly in America, for up to six months at a time, for years, to accompany her husband, who was illegally present in the US. It is reasonable to suspect she was not just a tourist, she was someone who probably intended to reside (or had resided) in America for extended periods of time, well past the parameters of this type of visa.

Tbh the B2 visa is really open to this type of abuse, and CBP watch for this sort of thing, patterns of entry/exit. Was this her first visit to the states or another one of many? We don’t know just from reading the article.

All that said, I agree they should have just been deported and slapped with a ten-year ban. But wasn’t there a government shutdown that delayed things?

They are both from the UK. He had been working in the US under a work visa but had been declined a green card, decided to give up on the appeals process and return to the UK to retire.

She went to visit him for a US/Canada road trip.

Various car rental companies do let you rent a car in the US and return it in Canada. They likely did not make adequate arrangements to do so, or perhaps lost their paperwork.

I doubt they planned to return to the US given they knew he did not have a valid VISA for entry - how could they?

ICE's explanation for her detention was that by helping her husband pack for tbe trip (oddly, to leave the US), she had broken the terms of her VISA.

I'm not disagreeing that it was horribly managed. I just wonder if they're swamped with detainees and just bunged them in a cell until they could get round to dealing with it. I think that if visiting the US right now you need to be 110% sure you've got all your ducks in a row to avoid being at the mercy of their completely inept authorities.

The whole "what were there intentions" doesn't really matter because you can leave a car in another country. They'd travelled the US and Canada was likely their last destination. Nothing criminal there either. Just stupidity for not making sure they could take/leave the car there.
Their own actions caused them to be refused entry to Canada but you say THEY should have been deported and slapped with a ten year ban. Why would SHE when she had done nothing wrong? Why do you think she should cop a ten year ban and forced removal when she had valid paperwork to be there?

They were on an 8 week holiday. Canada was their last destination.
There was absolutely no reason to believe she was anything but a tourist. A B2 visa is not just handed out for fun, lol. She clearly fulfilled the conditions of having one. She may have applied for it believing that her husband was going to continue working in the US. Who knows? Doesn't change the fact that there were no grounds to treat her that way. You can speculate on what she 'might' have done but, she hadn't done anything wrong. There is no justification.

You are also focused on him being in the US illegally but that is a common tactic. What was his status? He had been on a valid work permit. At some point he had tried to get a green card I believe. Didn't happen so, at some point, I assume his visa ran out or he was not fulfilling the conditions of his work one. He was leaving the country and would not have been able to reenter obviously. Applying intentions to justify disproportionate treatment is still just making stuff up.

Oh, and they WERE slapped with a 10 year ban on day 3 when they were told to sign the self deport paperwork. Their offer to pay for their own flights home was denied so they accepted the path suggested and then spend another 42 days being jailed. There was a shutdown but guess which section of 'Govt' was NOT affected by it? Was business as usual in the camps and on the streets so holding them for those extra 6 weeks was what? For fun? For punishment?

If they are so swamped then maybe they should stop arresting people on dubious pretexts (driving while brown being a common one) and concentrate on "the worst of the worst" or something.

The whole "what were there intentions" doesn't really matter because you can leave a car in another country. They'd travelled the US and Canada was likely their last destination

It’s not like the EU. You can’t just take a rental car into Canada without having cleared it with the company in question. So they lied to the rental company, because if they had cleared the route, they’d have the proper paperwork. This is the reason Canada refused them entry in the first place.

If you believe that they would leave for the UK from Canada, then either they were going to abandon the car in Canada or they lied about their route to the rental car agency. That doesn’t reflect well on them.

Their own actions caused them to be refused entry to Canada but you say THEY should have been deported and slapped with a ten year ban. Why would SHE when she had done nothing wrong? Why do you think she should cop a ten year ban and forced removal when she had valid paperwork to be there

If you abuse the spirit of a B2 visa (ie they suspect you intend to reside in America) then they have valid grounds to detain and deport you. The small detail that they did not have permission to take the rental car to Canada is suspicious, in this light.

They were on an 8 week holiday. Canada was their last destination

So why didn’t she take the ESTA instead of going through all the trouble of a B2 visa?

There was absolutely no reason to believe she was anything but a tourist. A B2 visa is not just handed out for fun, lol. She clearly fulfilled the conditions of having one. She may have applied for it believing that her husband was going to continue working in the US. Who knows? Doesn't change the fact that there were no grounds to treat her that way. You can speculate on what she 'might' have done but, she hadn't done anything wrong

You can technically stay within the conditions of a B2 visa by crossing the border into Canada or Mexico every six months or so, but it is not in the spirit of the visa and they will rightfully suspect you of intending to reside in the US. And CBP will be aware that people abuse this visa in this exact manner.

You are also focused on him being in the US illegally but that is a common tactic. What was his status? He had been on a valid work permit. At some point he had tried to get a green card I believe. Didn't happen so, at some point, I assume his visa ran out or he was not fulfilling the conditions of his work one. He was leaving the country and would not have been able to reenter obviously. Applying intentions to justify disproportionate treatment is still just making stuff up

We don’t know anything about her husband’s status other than whatever he entered on had expired—and this omission is curious. Did he overstay a tourist visa? Who sponsored him? Was she ever in America before? Is this the first time she entered on a B2 visa?

Honestly a lot of unanswered questions here. They are curiously silent on what exactly Bill was doing in America, why they were living separately, why she went through the hassle of a B2 instead of just going ESTA (particularly since she was only going for 8 weeks?)

Again, these are not normal tourists.

We voted for mass deportations

Not just deportations of criminals, which is just like, the lowest hanging fruit you could ever imagine and should be happening regardless of the party in charge.

I mean to believe this shit is to believe that Biden wasn’t deporting anybody at all.

Holding someone for 42 days when they were willing to just pay for their own flight out doesn't seem like the admin is very effective at deportations.

You voted for billionaire paedophiles to line their own pockets and avoid prosecution - because that's the only achievement the administration actually has to its name.

I’m actually happy with the progress made with deportations.

Of course I’m disappointed that more hasn’t been done with employers who knowingly hire them, but it’s not like I could ever expect the Democrats to enforce those rules either

Yet Trump is not deporting as many as Obama and he managed to not terrorise the population, decimate the migrant workforce and lock up innocent people.

How many times must it be told to you that immediately detaining and deporting border crossers is not the same as deporting illegal immigrants that are scattered throughout America?

and your ilk still whined around that Obama was the ‘deporter in chief’

While we're on the subject, what happened to her belongings?

If you get arrested in the UK, all of possessions you are carrying will be accounted for (down to the last penny) and stored securely until your release. Because the police here aren't thieves.

CBP on the other hand appear to have stolen her luggage. Which is true to form, I suppose: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ice-reportedly-stole-10th-grader-230138675.html

According to latest communications from the horse’s mouth, Americans voted to provide healthcare for Greenland.

My ilk?

Whatever

Well well well.

Looks like there was more to the story. There always is.

https://x.com/dhsgov/status/2025975226002018309?s=46&t=LHu5hEVEgoG4lIIfMesJGA

She had a history of overstays herself and her husband had overstayed an H1B by nearly 20 years. Since she somehow got a B2 visa, she had clearly lied about past overstays.

At this stage it's just not even surprising is it. The 'we were arrested and detained by ICEstapo and did nothing wrong waaaah' always have these very predicatable backstories. The only surprise is that very gullible folk keep falling for it.

She never received her belongings back. They kept them

Yes, but what did they do with them? Flog them? Wouldn't surprise me if they did, bunch of grifters...

Is there a reliable source for this? Something not so blatantly politicised?

I've never been so grateful that the UK Civil Service is run by boring professionals. The US seems to have forgotten that the Hatch Act exists.

Now, why was it a good use of taxpayer funds to detain them for 42 days rather than sticking them straight on a plane at their own expense? And why have their possessions been nicked?

None of it makes any sense. In the Guardian she says she hadn’t been abroad for eight years and just wanted to get away for some guaranteed sun. She claims to have been going to the US and Canada for a two month holiday.

However, instead of getting an ESTA, she applies for a B2 visa. She would have had to have an interview at the US embassy where she would have had to explain why she needed an extended visa, not an ESTA. The US is very reluctant to give out B2 visas when an ESTA would be appropriate (which it would be for her two month trip).

Did she plan this 2 month trip before her DH decided to give up on the green card application, aiming to come back to the U.K.? If so, why the B2 not an ESTA. If it was planned while her DH was still trying to stay in the US, did she declare her full circumstances to the embassy? I’d think it would be a red flag that she’d be trying to permanently join her DH.

The car rental is also odd- if they were planning on dropping off the car at a rental place in Canada, this would have been agreed as part of the rental agreement and so there shouldn’t have been hassle at the border. Or were they going to return to the US, knowing the husband’s visa had expired? That makes no sense either.

It’s a very odd story.

(speaking as a US born but U.K. resident who renounced my US citizenship over a decade ago)

Oh, I have no doubt they will be picking through the contents and flogging what they can.
Imagine that room full of suitcases...

Given how many times DHS has posted lies on Twitter in recent months, and that it seems unlikely someone would go to the press to tell their story if they had a problematic immigration history, I'll be reserving judgment. DHS is simply not a credible source of information.