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I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

theguardian.com

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Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#41

If the objective is to scare people off from going to the USA, then they're doing a magnificent job. I've heard other cases of people with green cards being arrested and put in terrible conditions, with absolutely no reason given. This woman was ready to go back home and not enter the US, but instead she was dragged through hell and only released because she was Canadian. All those with different passports get subjec…

This whole situation -coupled with the outright bans or obstacles in giving visas to people from several countries- cannot but have unpredictable consequences. For example, right now, I cannot imagine any big academic international conference keep taking place in the US. And if they do, they should get boycotted. US right now is neither accessible nor safe for foreign citizens. And I bet recruiting or holding to highly skilled labour force will start being a problem too.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#42
post #4

My takeaway from this is that laws and rules don't matter if the officials on the ground are incompetent, ignorant, and have contempt for you. There is a lot of unnecessary cruelty and lack of due process in this story.

I sort of disagree. There _is_ a process, which optimises for holding people as long as possible for the prison industrial complex to make money. When you privatise these kind of social services, this is what happens. This is not due to a few officials on the ground that just happened by chance to be "incompetent, ignorant, and have contempt for you". As the article concludes, > The reality became clear: Ice detentio…

It's a couple things.

One is the private prison industry being incentivized to hold as many people as possible.

But there's also a bureaucracy (ICE and State) with little to no pressure to perform better for this particular population (because who cares about criminals?).

Consequently, you get an industry that's perfectly happy to warehouse people... coupled with a slow and ineffective government controlling the keys to their release.

Private detention facilities should be banned.

But the government also needs KPIs with consequences tied to them. E.g. average holding time, average response time to filing, etc. And leaders get fired / budgets cut if targets are missed.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#43
>There were around 140 of us in our unit. Many women had lived and worked in the US legally for years but had overstayed their visas – often after reapplying and being denied. They had all been detained without warning.

Okay so, not legal then?

These articles are always like this. "omg I just overstayed a little bit!!! uwu"

Btw, I am European and will never hopefully have to visit the USA again.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#44

This is horrible and scary, why border guards are even giving the authority to revoke visas is beyond me. When people think about giving cops/guards authority like this they need to be picturing the dumbest bully from their grade school. That's who is going to be using the power

Every country is like this. Israel is the scariest but I remember decades ago crossing into Switzerland by train and in the middle of the night being woken up by border guards with barking German shepherds asking for my passport. I have so many stories it’s funny. On top of the other stories I’ve already posted, my friend who is Canadian drove into Buffalo for dinner and on his way back, they asked him where are you going. He answered “Canada” and they detained him and pulled apart his car looking for drugs. He was detained for hours until they let him go.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was wrong with Harris?

Extremist positions on trans issues. To quote Sam Harris: "Congratulations, Democrats. You have found the most annoying thing in the fucking galaxy and hung it around your necks."[1] [1] https://samharris.substack.com/p/the-reckoning

Harris said almost nothing about trans issues during the election. You're attempting to rewrite history if you're claiming it was somehow a core tenant of her campaign. That was entirely propaganda by the opposing party.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#46
As a lawful permanent resident, I'm terrified of the country I've called home for a quarter century.

I don't think I would have survived what the Canadian woman went through.

EDIT: please call your congressperson and your senators. Tell them to stop this cruelty.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#47
>I was taken to the nurse’s office for a medical check. She asked what had happened to me. She had never seen a Canadian there before. When I told her my story, she grabbed my hand and said: “Do you believe in God?”

>“I believe God brought you here for a reason,” she said. “I know it feels like your life is in a million pieces, but you will be OK. Through this, I think you are going to find a way to help others.”

You've got to be fucked in the head to think this is an appropriate thing to do as an agent that's part of a federal process. Keep your god out of work!

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#49

If the objective is to scare people off from going to the USA, then they're doing a magnificent job. I've heard other cases of people with green cards being arrested and put in terrible conditions, with absolutely no reason given. This woman was ready to go back home and not enter the US, but instead she was dragged through hell and only released because she was Canadian. All those with different passports get subjec…

I wonder why agents in the field, customs, immigration etc, seem so eager to implement these changes.
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