Details Of British Comic Creator R.E. Burke's Detention By ICE Emerge
Source: Bleeding Cool
Yesterday, Bleeding Cool reported on London-based comic book creator R.E. Burke, or Becky Burke, whose family is in Portskewett, Monmouthshire in Wales, being held in detention by I.C.E. in Washington state in the USA, after she crossed from the US to Canada and back again on a tourist visa, as part of a four-month backpacking trip across North America. Despite attempts to get her released and sent home, she has remained in confinement in onerous conditions for the past eleven days.
Paul Burke advised travellers to be "very careful" about their visa requirements but says he could not understand why she was "locked up and she's in an orange prison jumpsuit whilst the paperwork gets sorted out" and that what was meant to be a life-changing backpacking trip "has turned into a nightmare". Previously, he states that R.E. Burke had visited New York and Portland, where she spent time with a host family, helping with household chores in return for accommodation. She then travelled to Seattle with plans to travel to Vancouver in Canada to stay with another family, "just like a cultural exchange". But the Canadian authorities then denied her entry as they were concerned she may try to work illegally and returned her across the border. It was then that US officials told her she was being detained as, according to her father, they considered "that host family cultural exchange to be work… So basically she couldn't go into Canada, she wasn't allowed in the US". That led to her being taken by US Homeland Security to an immigration detention centre in Tacoma, Washington. Paul Burke says that R.E. Burke has described the conditions in the immigration centre as "horrendous… at first she was just distraught. She was inconsolable. She is allowed to ring out using a shared iPad but we can't call her." And because their family is not American, they cannot add money to her inmate account for her to buy essentials, so have reached out to American friends for help. Paul Burke says that R.E. Burke has told him that she just wants to come home and has requested voluntary departure but has received "radio silence". They have been told voluntary departure has to be approved by a judge, but do not know "how to make that happen". Her parents are in daily contact with the British consulate in San Francisco, the nearest one to the detention facility, but "official channels can't get a clear answer about what is going on".
Read more: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/details-british-comic-creator-r-e-burke-detention-ice-emerge-canada-usa-border/
Detained trying to re-enter the USA from Canada.
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