I'm not saying this was the right thing to do.
I'm just saying that, if this is happening, you know we are doing something right:
A Welsh woman has spoken about being held in 'horrendous' conditions after she was accused of 'violating' her visa and was stopped at the US border.
Becky Burke, 28, has spent 11 days in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in Washington State and was also denied entry into Canada, over a 'visa mix-up'.
Ms. Burke, "an artist from Portskewett, Monmouthshire, began backpacking around the US on 7 January."
She flew from New York to Portland where she "spent time with a host family, helping with household chores in return for accommodation." After that she headed to Seattle "with plans to travel to Vancouver in Canada to stay with another family."
And that's when things went haywire:
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'.
She said she was 'interrogated' and, despite explaining she was "not paid at all', it was decided she had 'violated' her visa.
Well, gee, it sounds like it's the Canadians' fault! You know what that means:
Well, maybe not quite. Honestly, the Canadians are probably a little jumpy due to the Trump administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement.
So they brought the hammer down hard — and Becky ended up in a U.S. immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington:
Ms Burke said she was being held in a dormitory of 110 people in a 'maxed out' immigration detention centre in Tacoma, Washington.
'They wake us up at 6:30am. There is never enough time to sleep. It's so cold,' she said.
'I wear the same jumper for a week. They're short or out of stuff, like blankets and extra clothes. I have one towel.'
You got to feel for the young lady. Maybe you have marginally less sympathy for the illegal immigrants in there that should never have been in the U.S. in the first place.
(Of course, they should be deported ASAP rather than being forced to stay in an overcrowded facility.)
Still, Ms. Burke is trying to make the best of the situation:
She's trying to stay detached from this, trying to see this as an experience to talk to the people in there and share their stories as well.
Hope you get out soon, Becky — and please don't let this experience sour you on the United States!
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