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.

  • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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    24 days ago

    And he was locked up before Trump took office.

    Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it

    This applies to all aspects of the US “justice” system. Once it has a hold of you, it’s extremely hard to get out.

    • NostraDavid@programming.dev
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      23 days ago

      And he was locked up before Trump took office.

      So you’re saying this happened under Biden? Not sure whether this is the dunk-on-Trump that people think it is >_>

      • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        It’s not really a dunk on Trump though is it, it’s a dunk on ICE, which Trump values very highly and loudly

    • ansiz@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Nobody can hold a candle to ‘deporter-in-chief’ Obama. Secretly, the Democrats have been much harder and more effective on deportations and the border for decades.