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.
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.
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.
Like 80 years ago. Nobody was safe from Nazi German GeStaPo. Why do people expect safety from or accountability of the Nazi American GeStaPo?
It is justification of budget. They are apprehended criminals as long as they are on the books.
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.
“he’s been here too long, keep him here longer!”
The most conservative thing I’ve read all day
You forget that the camps are private, so they need to keep him there to get paid. 100 days seems like about enough.
Detaining people isn’t free either, we also paid to keep them here longer. The whole thing is immensely stupid.
Only if you believe their words, which you absolutely should not. A for profit prison management company got paid for 100 days detention when they would have gotten 0 if they let this guy leave.
Everything working out as planned.
Lives gets destroyed, everyone pay for it, money is diverted from actually useful stuff, but all this is a low price to pay for a handful of mafia bosses to get even richer.
Private prisons have an incentive to keep people like him in the system as long as possible.
You gotta be pretty in love to travel to a backwater nation like the US. Traveling to WV though, that’s beyond insanity.
Blame it to the country roads, I heard they take you there.
Love makes you do crazy things, I suppose.
Well, as they say: “a single cunt hair’ll pull a battleship across the desert.” Pardon my vulgarity
You can say “battleship” here. It’s fine.
Have you ever been to WV? It is incredibly beautiful.
Yes. Visually it’s ok. Just don’t talk to the inhabitants or try to get educated in one of their schools and if you need to go to a hospital I recommend having one of those helicopter insurance plans that people get when they visit the Congo.
Mostly fair :(. Too bad, since WV used to be full of working class heroes.
tbf I‘m glad it doesn’t only happen to people from poor countries
Removed by mod
Indeed and spiraling toward a 3rd World dictatorship.
Wonder how much it cost to keep him instead of just let him back to Ireland. Bunch of cunts
hundreds of thousands per person.
With these assholes it’s not about money, it’s about cruelty.
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.
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.
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!
remember they hid the identity of all the construction companies that help build the florida concentration camp.
They’re paid in how many teeth they can pull out with rusty pliers. Compensation isn’t always in hard cash, you know.
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
isnt carney currently cozying up more and more to the right.
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
Irish are non-white again. We’re going back to the 1800s, baby.
Look up the unjust hangings of Dominic Daley and James Halligan in 1806. There was no evidence whatsoever that they committed the murder they were accused of other than maybe being in the area at the time and even that was based on shaky grounds. The defense even had their closing statement saying that the prosecution had no evidence other than ‘aww come on! They’re Irish! You know how they’re like! Besides, someone has to hang for that murder!’
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.
why would an irish tourist go to a place like west virginia. why not NEW YORK, or washington, or california, or even canada.
Stop traveling to that shithole.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Tell people you’re Canadian
It’s aboot time someone came up with a good solution for that thanks!
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
That’s an unusual situation. Normally, Mexicans are trying to get a US citizenship, not the other way around. In any case, I wonder how long does it take for US citizens to apply for political asylum elsewhere.
Mexican immigration rules from what I am seeing are very reasonable with clear processes and do not require a lawyer for most people. So you rarely hear about immigrants having issues. The entire process is relatively inexpensive as well.
To legally immigrate to the U.S. almost always requires a lawyer, the process is deliberately convoluted, and costs thousands of dollars in fees.
Applying for political asylum outside of the U.S., good luck. The burden of proof is quite high and costly. Most people will not qualify, yet…
https://www.relocate.world/articles/us-citizens-seeking-asylum
mexican born , are tyring to flee to the usa, but american citizens to mexico, probably more common than you think. i have met college students who stayed in mexico permanantly after thier semester was over in the us, this was a long time ago though. its quite common apparently. hard to justify staying in HCOL country.
Come to Japan but avoid the big cities. Check out our smaller prefectures instead. It’s not as glitzy as Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto, but there will be less crowds and beautiful nature.
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.
How many tourists to Mexico are having problems with cartels vs how many tourists to America are having problems with ICE?
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
You’re literally 4 times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US, according to both countries’ own statistics.
Edit: lol, imagine downvoting a plain fact.
Does this include school children?
I see what you’re implying. However:
Homicide has been the leading cause of death [in youths age 1-19] since 2017 in Mexico…it reached 6.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022.
But in Figure 1 here, it shows the rate among US children to be about 1.5 per 100,000, in the same year, 2022.
Children are, likewise re the general population, four times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US.
Also worth pointing out that in 2022, the rate for only Mexican children (6.5) is greater than the rate for all ages in the US (6.3). That fact should speak volumes all on its own.
Edit: Never stops being funny to see a simple, plainly-laid-out debunking of an assertion, with cited evidence, downvoted by ideologues who apparently just can’t handle having their narratives challenged.
Right, the US isn’t going to murder you, they’ll just deport you to some other country you’ve never been to and that country will torture and murder you!
How many people has that happened to? Surely you can show that it’s happened a statistically-significant number of times, to talk about that as if it’s a normal/typical course of action.
Or has alarmist media made you assume it’s a common event, when it isn’t?
Fascist countries are well known for their spotless record keeping easily accessible to the public.
Those statistics can be misleading. I spend a huge amount of time in Ciudad Juarez, a city known for violence. What the base murder rate doesn’t tell you is that over 90% of the murders are by cartel members to other cartel members, which means that only 10% or less of the murders are happing to a random bystander.
Furthermore, Mexico has extremely strict weapons laws which means it is very unlikely for bystanders to get caught in the crossfire of a “good guy with a gun”.
That’s what I mean by you’re relatively safe if you aren’t fucking around and finding out—just like how New York City was a lot safer back in the day if you weren’t interacting with the mob.
I’ve been all over Juarez at literally every time of the day and night walking alone, and I’ve never been threatened by anyone. Just last night, I walked several miles totally alone at 2 AM. I’m not saying that nobody ever gets in hot water there, but it is far from a guaranteed danger. By contrast, I experienced many more threatening situations both day and night in NYC while spending about an equal amount of time there. I know these experiences are anecdotal, but they are also first hand accounts from someone who has actually been there rather than just reading the news.
And if you’re a tourist visiting a popular place like Roma Norte in Mexico City, you will not only be very safe, but you’d be hard pressed to not have an amazing time.
What the base murder rate doesn’t tell you is that over 90% of the murders are by cartel members to other cartel members, which means that only 10% or less of the murders are happing to a random bystander.
And what makes you think the type of murder breakdown isn’t similar in the US? Most of the murders there are gang violence etc. as well.
The fact that Mexico’s raw number of annual murders is higher than the US’s, despite being a much, much less populated country, is not something that can just be handwaved away.
There is a reason Mexico’s net migration rate is negative.
Fine, I’ll concede and move passed the murder rate.
We are talking about the risk to travelers. America currently has a government sponsored effort to detain people who are visiting here, sometimes even when they are here legally. Mexico is not doing that. The risk to travelers is pretty damn clear right now.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don’t think that the gang violence rate breaks down differently for the US—before this latest ICE takeover, I would have said it is safe for travelers here too.
Fun fact: Mexico only has two legal stores in the whole country.
Wanna take a random guess at where the cartels get all their guns?
spoiler
About 70% of guns recovered by Mexican law enforcement officials from 2011 to 2016 were originally purchased from legal gun dealers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Maybe they wouldn’t have so much power if the yanks weren’t busy buying them coke
Yeah, never mind that the murder rate per 100k in Mexico is quadruple what it is in the “backwater” US (25.2 vs 6.3). It’s flawless and beautiful, and the US is just horrible and worse in every way than there and everywhere else, “shit”, as you said.
Wonder why so many people are trying to immigrate there, then, hm. Also, Mexico’s got more people trying to get out than get in, how strange.
Ah, what do all those people know, anyway? They’re just making the decision to completely uproot their lives and go to another country for fun, not because they’re desperate for a better life!
Please see my other comment about how the statistics can be misleading.
I am in no way saying that Mexico is utopia, they have their problems just like all countries do. Wealth inequality is a big problem. That doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t travel there though. If you are a traveler from outside of North America, no Mexican version of ICE is going to put you in Alligator Auschwitz.
Also, it is worth noting that many of the immigrants coming through Mexico are from South America, where there are even larger problems with poverty than in Mexico. Sure, plenty of Mexicans are coming too, but not all brown people are running from the same problem.
No, sir, you may not. I’m currently in Canada travelling with a group of people. Several times we heard strangers passing by were mumbling “f**king tourists”. We tried to ask the last one what did he just say, he avoided to answer, we told him to shut the f**k up, and after that he attacked us.
You can say fuck in the internet, it’s okay… the Canadian can’t hurt you here.
True, sir. They can hurt me only in Canada.
Uh huh.
Let me guess. You disarmed them with your martial arts skills and everyone clapped, saluted, and sang God Bless America.
No. A guy from the group managed to de-escalate the situation. As for the “God Bless America” song why do we need to sing it? We are a mixed group from Germany, France and China, half of the group doesn’t speak English and the other doesn’t know the words.
Either way, assuming youre telling the truth, thats a very rare occurance. Tourists are welcomed here. Sometimes tourists cause problems (they do in all countries) but being attacked? That isnt the norm at all and I have real doubts youre being entirely honest.
