AI6YR BenFeb 22

The Guardian: ‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice

#tourism #fascism #ice #USpol

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

The Guardian
Show threadClaire McNab
@ai6yr Where had this idiot been for the preceding year? What on earth made her think that her whiteness made her safe in a violent empire?
Feb 22 at 4:14pmWeb
Show threadArtemysiaFeb 22
@2legged @ai6yr right? Why on earth would you risk travel to America? I'm sad I'll never get to go, because even with Trump gone, the people enforcing his policies will still be there. I'd have liked to see Yosemite.
Show threadClaire McNabFeb 22
@artemis @ai6yr I did a circuit of Lake Superiior in the early 1990s. The Murican side was eautiful scenery, but a weird weird weird society. Guns everywhere, flags everywhere. It felt like some desperately insecure dictatorship, but with more money
Show threadArtemysiaFeb 22
@2legged @ai6yr interesting that it's that tangible.
Show threadClaire McNabFeb 22

@artemis @ai6yr My single strongest memory of rural upstate Michigan is of compact wee rural houses of a standard design, presumably the result of some government scheme. They looked to be wooden, probably two bedroom, of about 500 or 600 sq ft.

Fine wee homes, but modest.

And in front of these wee homes, there would usually be a big flagpole, at least 30 feet high, with a huge US flag.

In the wee towns, every lamp post had a small US flag on it.

Show threadArtemysiaFeb 22
@2legged @ai6yr that's so strange. I sometimes drive past a suburban house here that has an Australian flag, and find it so odd. I figure they must be president of the RSL or something.
Show threadClaire McNabFeb 22

@artemis what's the RSL?

@ai6yr

Show threadArtemysiaFeb 22
@2legged @ai6yr Returned Serviceman's League.
Show threadΞVΞ🦋Feb 22

@2legged

I’m American but I don’t live on the side of the country with Lake Superior, but if you saw a lot of guns, it was likely a military town and if they had a lot of people with rifles, then those were MPs. Military police.

But if they were walking around like that in plain clothes, then those were just white towns who live their lives terrified of the world and everyone who isn’t white. Could also be a town of veterans who haven’t let go of the wars they been in. I don’t know why they carry guns like that for. There’s nobody to shoot. Imo if they have to live in an area where people walk around with guns like that, then they should probably move. That’s no place and no way to live.

Show threadClaire McNabFeb 23

@eve No, these were not military towns. No police towns.

Just standard, flaghagging towns.

@Mastodon