no tourists should be visiting the unstable united states. its a dystopian nightmare that can and should be avoided.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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can we just clear the whole damn country out of human critters until we have this thing figured out??? /s
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, Mr Burke said the Canadian authorities denied her entry as they were concerned she may try to work illegally.
She described how 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".
A few words about interacting with immigration: Less is more. Normal categories are good. Why are you in the country? "Tourism." Where'd you stay? "In a hotel." What do you do for work? "I'm a student." Did you see any sights while you were there? "Yeah." / "Not really."
Don't elaborate. Don't embellish. It's not that good an idea to lie outright, because they are pretty good at getting you tangled up in any little holes in your story, but you definitely don't need to paint any extra pictures for them, either. You were traveling. You stayed in a few different places. End of story. This woman's story is why. The immigration people are not good people.
I'm also interested to learn more about the people who have been in this facility for years. Why? What did they do? When are they getting out? Are they charged with anything, or just... there? Someone should really look into that. Trump definitely wants to find little crevices like that that he can stick people in. I expect that people like this guy from Columbia are going to be the first test cases of whether he can get away with it.
Yeah, the chores-for-accommodation thing is a gray area that can be used against you, because it can be interpreted as work, which is not allowed on a tourist visa. She was able to enter without issues before, so it’s either she wasn’t asked or she didn’t mention the details.
Either way, she should’ve just been turned back and allowed to fly home to the UK, instead of being detained for over 10 days.
You are assigning a type of objectivity to the process that simply doesn't exist. They've taken people's kids away because they came into the country and then requested asylum.
This whole situation is appalling.
You'd think that being able to approve voluntary deparature on the spot would be high on the Trump administration's list for political points - a "quick win" to get people out of the country as soon as possible and help meet Trump's deportation targets. But being able to process people quickly means resources and a functional government, which is not consistent with Trump and co's agenda.
I don't think "solving the problem" is the goal. I think cruelty is the goal. Sometimes that can be accomplished by kicking someone out of the country, but there are other ways, too.
Melissa Chavin, a US immigration lawyer based in London, said Ms Burke could be released either through voluntary departure or expedited removal, but the process of appearing in front of a judge as part of voluntary departure could be delayed because several dozen of the approximately 700 immigration judges had resigned or been fired by the Trump administration.
This is pretty much is in line with what you say. Processing cases quickly to legally and humanely bring people through the immigration doesn't appear to be the goal from this administration's actions.
... WTF!?