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.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    15 hours ago

    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! 😬

      • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        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?

        • redwattlebird@lemmings.world
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          12 hours ago

          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.

        • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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          12 hours ago

          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.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      13 hours ago

      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.