A British grandmother’s vacation to the U.S. ended with the woman being unlawfully held in immigration detention for six weeks.
Karen Newton, 65, along with her husband Bill, 66, were detained by ICE after attempting to leave the U.S. and enter Canada. Karen told The Guardian that her tourist visa was valid, but her husband’s had expired.
Karen said that they were both detained and held in a detention facility. She and Bill were “shackled” by the wrists, waist, and ankles upon transportation.
“There was no reason to hold me,” she told The Guardian. “Bill’s an adult. Why am I held responsible for him?” She later added that she was told she was “guilty by association.”
When they were first held, the couple were persuaded to sign a voluntary self-removal form, which would allow them to return home on the U.S. government’s dime plus receive a $1,000 “exit bonus.” In return, they would not be able to return to the country for a decade.
Despite signing the form after three days of detention, they were kept for an additional 39 days. When Karen looked for answers as to why she had been taken, she said she had heard from multiple guards that they were incentivized to detain as many people as possible.
“Individual ICE agents get money per head that they detain, the guards told me that,” Karen said.
The Daily Beast reached out to ICE for comment.
Karen described the detention centers as prison-like. She said she was told to sleep on the floor because she had difficulty climbing bunk beds.
“Locking doors, guards everywhere, cells, everything clamped to the floor—it’s how I imagine a prison to be,” she said. “Prison would actually be better, because if you’re in prison, you get a sentence—they tell you how long you are going to be there.”
There have been numerous reports about the conditions in ICE detention centers. Human rights experts raised concerns over treatment at “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, where some detainees were being held in “the box,” a small cage-like structure where they are shackled to the ground, unable to sit or move.
Meanwhile, there was a measles outbreak in the family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was held. In January, children in this facility wrote letters describing the conditions they were being held under, which the Department of Homeland Security claimed were false.
“I’ve been detained for 45 days and I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here,” a 14-year-old named Ariana wrote. “Since I got to this Center, all you feel is sadness and mostly depression.”
Karen and Bill Newton were released in November, according to The Guardian. As for the self-deportation payout, Karen got $1,000 while her husband received nothing. She, along with other tourists who have been detained, are urging international visitors to avoid the U.S. while Trump is in office.
“I worry about young people going out there for the World Cup, I really do,” Rebecca Burke, a British backpacker detained by ICE, told The Guardian. “I imagine a group of young guys getting drunk at a game, getting arrested. I could see them easily ending up in the same place as I did. They’d find some reason to detain them. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.”
The Trump Administration’s hardline immigration policies have indeed affected tourism. Last year, the U.S. was the only major tourist destination that saw a decline in travel, resulting in billions of dollars in losses.
