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.
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.