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An Australian man has been handcuffed and locked up in a US detention centre after apparently breaching his visa conditions by just over one hour.
Sydney man Baxter Reid, 26, was in the US on a five-year visa and had travelled to Canada as part of a requirement for him to exit and re-enter America every six months to keep his visa valid.
But his American girlfriend Heather Kansco said Reid was arrested by US Border Patrol officers on 23 April after delays receiving clearance to cross into Canada meant he breached his visa conditions by just over an hour.
According to Kansco's account, the couple were given "the runaround" for more than four hours at the US-Canada border. By the time Canadian authorities referred them back to US Border Patrol, Reid had "technically violated his visa requirements".
"The US Border Patrol ended up taking Baxter away, because after waiting for hours with the Canadians, he ... was illegally in the US for a SINGLE HOUR," wrote Kansco.
A Canberra man has been detained in the United States for reportedly overstaying his visa by less than two hours.
... Mr Reid's brother, Alexander, said Canadian officials did not want to let Baxter through because his visa was close to expiring. "Because they had kept him, his visa had expired by 90 minutes," he said.
"He wants to go back home, but he wants to go of his own accord," Alexander said. "He doesn't want to get deported because he still wants to go back to the US because that's where his girlfriend lives."
"He wants to get a court date so he can say to the judge 'I was leaving [of] my own accord, I don't want to stay here illegally'," he said.
"But unfortunately a court date can be anywhere from a few weeks to six months.
"He could be locked up in detention for months only because his visa expired by 90 minutes."
Offering (forced) accommodation for free (on tax money) for at least a few weeks will prove a good investment in advertising the US tourism industry, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:00PM (7 children)
Your rant would be on point if this were simply a tourist who overstayed his visa by a few days, and was returning to his country of origin. Reid was actually cobbling together long term residency in the US by leaving and returning. It had nothing to do with tourism. My point was that he had six months to work with. It should have been easy for him to keep this up. He just couldn't be bothered with making it a priority. I don't recommend lending money to a guy like this.
In regard to being detained, I was thinking it would be for hours, or maybe days. I see that there is some concern that it could be weeks or months. That would be unreasonable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:46PM (1 child)
As was pointed out the guy was there early. Just because you take some issue with his actions does not make this detention any better.
To take it to the extreme: "civil rights violations are totally fine against that person, because they did something wrong!"
There are very important reasons why we have the concept of human rights, and why we created the concept of war crimes. Don't support the slow slide backwards with your straw man logic.
(Score: 2) by draconx on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:02AM
The guy was detained by Canadian border officials while attempting to enter Canada. As a foreign national he does have rights at Canadian ports of entry but "the right not to be detained for any amount of time" is not one of them.
The article does not say what class of US visa he had, but given these shenanigans I expect it was a B-2 (tourist) visa. It sounds like Canadian officials did not like the smell of how he was using that tourist visa, and may have denied him entry to Canada for that reason.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:49PM (3 children)
Then change the laws.
If you think he should not have been doing this, then US law should not allow someone to return for some period of time after a six month stay.
He was trying to comply with the laws but some thug with a badge decided to waste resources in order to make a completely pointless issue.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:04PM
I hate the Border Patrol as much as anyone, but to be fair, it was a Canadian thug who caused the problem.
(Score: 2) by draconx on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:30PM (1 child)
I don't think we have the whole story. We have only heard from Mr. Reid's family, and I suspect the 90 minute thing may be a red herring.
This guy was just denied entry to Canada, perhaps because Canadian officials do not like to grant entry to people playing visa games like this. Since Mr. Reid is not a resident of Canada, Canadian officials have no obligation to grant him entry to Canada.
Then he tried to re-enter the US, and he may have simply been denied entry to the US as well. Perhaps US officials also do not like people playing visa games like this. Since Mr. Reid is not a resident of the US, US officials have no obligation to grant him entry to the US.
At a Canada-US land crossing, being denied entry to both countries would definitely put Mr. Reid between a rock and a hard place since there's nowhere else to go. So it makes sense that the US would detain him until they can get him on a plane to Australia.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:05AM
This guy was just denied entry to Canada, perhaps because Canadian officials do not like to grant entry to people playing visa games like this.
Every country's immigration people are quite used to this. Around here (not the US or Canada, incidentally), they're called "visa trips", take the cheapest flight over, get your passport stamped, sit in a cafe for awhile, then get a flight back.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:01PM
My points:
1. common sense from the part of border agents missing - that means: what would have been the best outcome for US? I guess that would have been the border agent applying some discretionary lenience; maybe scare him up a bit, arrest him for 2-3 hours in an office then let then him go;
2. you're saying it like during his 5 years of staying, he wouldn't contribute to US tourism a bit; like don't spend anything of his own, live on the streets, put a pressure on the health system, etc. I really doubt this is the case. If 5 years isn't tourism, why there is a US 5 years tourist visa (B2)?
Doh... like lending money was a point of discussion or someone would ask for your recommendation.
Something I agree with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0