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British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

theguardian.com

31–40 of 257 posts

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#31

The story is missing an important detail, I'm not assuming malice btw, why was she refused entry into Canada as well? Edit: Lol, there's literally nothing wrong with this observation. HN has truly gone down the gutter. I know not everybody here is part of the hivemind but the few that are completely spoil the experience for everybody else.

She was not detained by Canada's border service.

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#34
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enforcing the law is one thing. If they refused entry or forced her to fly back immediately, nobody would care much. Detaining is all of: cruel, expensive, unnecessary.

Forcing her to fly back immediately (and detaining until the flight if not immediate) seems reasonable, but both countries at a land crossing can't refuse entry. The article states she was refused entry to Canada, and then detained when she returned to the US; I don't know if there are international norms here, but I think in this situation if both countries would refuse entry, one of them has to accept entry and con…

Sure, they could consider detention. But then there are daily flights back to the UK. Anything beyond an overnight stay (if necessary for the wait) is unfair.

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t want people to come in for 6 months, work below minimum wage and then take all that cash abroad without paying taxes. That would be a bigger drain on the economy than the supposed waste of govt resources.

Mmm, she’s getting the whole border patrol indefinite incarceration oubliette treatment, it’s not going to take long to rack up more cost than your hypothetical taxes on 6mo @ But sure, if the ‘tourists’ are working for a company en masse, I can see how that could be a problem. The feds will probably do better going after the company, in my estimation. For some reason they don’t seem to do that very often. Self-emplo…

You’re looking at one case and arguing “one person couldn’t hurt much”. But that argument could be made for a million cases individually. But together, that will amount to a lot. And it’s not just taxes, those are wages another citizen could be making. We have work visas, which already face a lot of opposition. Why should we then be okay with tourists working and taking up American jobs?

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#36
post #29

Probably shouldn't tell border patrol you're doing unpaid labor in a country you're visiting. When speaking to authorities it's best to say the absolute minimum required for the encounter.

I've never had anything to do with foreign exchange students, but are they absolutely prohibited from work of any kind? If there is ambiguity, then we can't have them here.

Basically.

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#37
post #29

Probably shouldn't tell border patrol you're doing unpaid labor in a country you're visiting. When speaking to authorities it's best to say the absolute minimum required for the encounter.

I've never had anything to do with foreign exchange students, but are they absolutely prohibited from work of any kind? If there is ambiguity, then we can't have them here.

In the US, it's very clear. If they don't have work authorization from USCIS, they shouldn't be doing work. There's some guidelines out there on the internet [1], but the students should be extremely careful; any form of compensation or expectation of future compensation for their work could put them in serious trouble. The University of Michigan has a more fleshed out guideline page for their international students [2].

[1] https://marksgray.com/immigration-blog/can-foreign-nationals...

[2] https://internationalcenter.umich.edu/students/employment-vo...

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#38

If she is on a "four-month backpacking trip around North America" and tried to return to the US, she has exceeded the 90-day limit allowed by the Visa Waiver Program (which counts days both in the US and "adjacent territories") and is now an illegal overstayer. The unpaid labor stuff and getting refused entry to Canada is icing on the cake. For the record, I'm no fan of ICE/CBP, but it looks like they're just enforci…

Given the sum of facts, poor vacation planning is a fair interpretation of the final story. There's a general absence of hostility towards the US in this story and instead a sense of attraction and willingness to spend vacation time and money here.

We should be directing the treatment of such minor offenses through polished administrative pathways and not 10 days in prison. That person will likely not come back ever again, and it's a shame because there's every indication that this woman would be a fine visitor and customer to local businesses, US and Canadian.

They're just here for pure sightseeing under the most amicable of moods. 10 days in prison.

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#39

It sounds like she was rightfully detained, but it seems crazy to hold her for 10+ days. Why not just let her get back on a flight to the UK and tell her not to come back for 10 years or whatever.

Yeah, some details are definitely missing.

Re: British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue

#40

The story is missing an important detail, I'm not assuming malice btw, why was she refused entry into Canada as well? Edit: Lol, there's literally nothing wrong with this observation. HN has truly gone down the gutter. I know not everybody here is part of the hivemind but the few that are completely spoil the experience for everybody else.

She was not detained by Canada's border service.

Canada's border service sent her back to the US. At that point, the US can't exactly tell her to go back to Canada, and have her walk back and forth until the problem solves itself.

Immigration detention pending a return to the country of origin seems reasonable at that point. 10 days of detention to figure out transportation to the country of origin doesn't seem reasonable though.

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