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.
Just stupid all around…
“You overstayed your welcome, buddy. Now instead of letting you go home, we’re going to keep you trapped here even longer.”
Do you want them to stay or to go? Make up your friggin’ mind! 😬
They’re trying to meet quotas, they don’t give a shit about anything else.
But at this point why even bother meeting the quotas? Can’t they just lie and tell everyone they deported 3 billion immigrants so that the racist rednecks will all cheer and smile?
It’s likely that both things are happening. I’m sure there are some that stretch the numbers but there are also others who revel in the cruelty.
I think people aren’t realizing, they’re racist af. They are actually doing nazi things all the fucking time now. They have actual concentration camps. The point is to get rid of anyone not white. Their lead nazi dude (white nationalist) is a Jewish person. It’s just as insane as the nazis too.
Edit: Also, to fill their prisons to hand out prison contracts and get slave labor. This is also a money grab.
Kolanaki, i guess you’re not really getting the point here. The point is intentional cruelty to demotivate these people to ever come to the US again.
You gotta be pretty in love to travel to a backwater nation like the US. Traveling to WV though, that’s beyond insanity.
Love makes you do crazy things, I suppose.
Blame it to the country roads, I heard they take you there.
And he was locked up before Trump took office.
Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it
This applies to all aspects of the US “justice” system. Once it has a hold of you, it’s extremely hard to get out.
While visiting his girlfriend Malone’s family in Savannah, Georgia, Thomas experienced a mental health episode. After a conflict in their hotel room, someone called the police. Though Malone didn’t support the charge, Thomas was arrested for allegedly “falsely imprisoning” her.
Yes, it was before, but, there is a little more to it. It was a mental health episode and the police were called. One would think they would just have an air marshall fly back home with him, But the US is really not good at mental health problems.
Regardless, imprisoning him for months is completely indefensible.
Should have been a psychiatric eval and a trip home. If it would have happened the month or two earlier probably would have went down like that. He had the bad luck to have a break and still be locked up when everything was getting DOGEd
I mean, how else do you expect the present industrial complex to make all the money that it does?
Shit, presents are evil now too
Nobody can hold a candle to ‘deporter-in-chief’ Obama. Secretly, the Democrats have been much harder and more effective on deportations and the border for decades.
And that excuses the inhuman trash breaking into homes with explosives to drag parents from their children?
It is justification of budget. They are apprehended criminals as long as they are on the books.
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.
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.
This is beautifully written. 🤌🤌
I hear the cartels are doing a great job on running things.
Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I live on the border, am in Mexico several times per week, and have traveled the country pretty extensively. Most areas of Mexico are as safe as any city in the rest of the western world as long as you’re not intentionally fucking around and finding out.
And I’ll say this—you’re way less likely to get a mass shooting at a Walmart in Mexico than you are to get one in America.
Seconding this, I’ve had the great fortune to spend almost 18 months of my life in Mexico, visiting over 20 states. I’ve yet to feel unsafe in all that time. It’s an incredibly beautiful country with an extremely welcoming culture, stunning architecture and natural beauty, and unmatched cuisine. Mexico is a bucket list destination for sure.
Hell pretty sure we have more masked armed men shoving people into vans in the us now as well
I know several people with dual citizenship Canadian/U.S. who have moved from the U.S. to Canada in the past several months.
I just figured out a path for me to gain Mexican permanent resident and eventually Mexican citizenship if needed. It will take some time but with how this country is going, My wife and I need an escape route.
If you have an escape route available, I suggest getting it prepared now. Hopefully you won’t need it, but it’s better to be prepared than not.
If only the dumbfucks with the stupid slogans like “love it or leave it” knew just how difficult and costly it is to legally move to another country. Unless you have money, work in a high demand job or have family connections it’s fucking difficult or close to impossible to do.
Most of the dumbfucks have no way to legally move to any other country legally.
My partner and I made the decision to leave the day after inauguration. We’re comfortably in Canada now.
I hope that’s far enough. As a Canadian, I’m not so sure.
It was really our only choice. I have friends who went to Mexico and are also worried
Fam has researched the same things, but have worried that Mexcico might not be far enough.
Also some worry that the locals might take it out on expats if it becomes a war.
Also some worry that the locals might take it out on expats if it becomes a war.
Learn Spanish, and hope they focus on the gringos that only speak 'Murican
Working on that for about a year I still suck
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Wonder how much it cost to keep him instead of just let him back to Ireland. Bunch of cunts
Sure it cost the taxpayers something, but that went directly into the pockets of the for-profit prison company. So you see, this is actually great for the economy!
With these assholes it’s not about money, it’s about cruelty.
Oh sure, but they’ll continually claim until they’re blue in the face that everything they do is about money. So they should be continually exposed as the financially irresponsible idiots that they are.
For the people where egregious human rights violations and terrorism aren’t deal breakers, wasting money is. Frankly I don’t respect their opinion, however, they also vote, therefore their opinion does matter.
It’s both. They are unequivocally profiting from the cruelty.
I still think it’s about money, especially considering the size of the prison industrial complex. It just so happens that capitalism encourages cruelty when it’s profitable.
They’re paid in how many teeth they can pull out with rusty pliers. Compensation isn’t always in hard cash, you know.
For your own personal safety, never travel to the United States.
Never travel to countries where the secret police just kidnap people off the streets.
Every country should have travel warnings against visiting the Untied States
Canada doesn’t even have any new warnings. They have the regular “gun ownership” and stuff they’ve had for years, but not a single word about the new administration. US travel is still listed as “green”. Travel to the UK is “yellow” for fuck’s sake.
Yes, according to the Canadian government, it is less safe to travel to the UK than it is to the US. And that’s after admitting that about 55 Canadian citizens are in US custody at any given time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-ice-detention-1.7577584
Our government is failing in their responsiblity on this. Makes my blood boil that they still are walking on eggshells with the us.
Agreed. They’re neglecting their duty to warn us of the dangers of traveling to the US.
I fear unless something is done that Carney will go down in history as a modern day Chamberlain.
Ridiculous
Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia
See? That’s the problem here.
Really, people, do NOT go to the US.
Do NOT follow the country roads.
I’d be interested to see what Republican policies have done to the US tourism industry. I know it’s taking a hit, but how much I’m not sure. I know I wouldn’t come here by choice.
Completely crushed the industry…95 billion dollars loss projected this year
And that’s with people going on trips they planned a year ago. 2026 will see tourist towns turn into ghost towns.
that’ll teach them nasty foreigners
And in completely unrelated news, why can’t I get cheap fresh produce any more? Where did my favorite taco truck go???
where’s my MacArthur Park ice cream vendor?
I don’t know, but someone left the cake out in the rain.
I don’t even want to travel within the country. Or leave it if I had to come back.
I’m in a red state tourist town and our overall visitation is down over 30%. That said, international visitors only account for about 3% of tourism in this state, so there’s much more involved with that loss than just the international travel.
I know I’m not trying to visit any red states anytime soon. I have some inlaws in red states and they better stay alive and healthy for the next 3.5 years or I will be FaceTimeing into any familial obligations
Inflation caused by corporate greed kills people’s ability to take vacations for some reason.
Gonna be even worse now too with the National Park Service cuts: there are so many foreign tourists at the parks. As there should be too! Our National Parks are amazing!
Our National Parks are amazing!
For now.
Until they have open pit mines and clear cut logging.
I am a citizen and live in the states, once I finish my planned US vacations this year, I am exclusively going to vacation in other counties.
I don’t want to support the country with any more money than I have to to live and survive
People are only still going to the states because they had trips planned before the shit hit the fan. Once those trips are over, tourism to the states will be near zilch
The Irish were second class citizens when segregation was a thing. This makes sense, I you don’t think too hard.
And folks here in the US are making jokes about the FBI demanding polygraphs and loyalty tests, overlooking the fact that this is happening (along with the vulgar overfunding of ICE) in anticipation of a greater and more extended fascist crackdown. It’s the deliberate removal of any conscience from our governing system, and we all can look at history and understand why that’s happening and what it means for the future.
Just don’t come here.
Well, maybe he can become the modern Brian Boru and kick some medieval ass in the US — apparently, they can’t defend themselves against the tyranny of the savages.
