313 Comments

Dear Friends,

I'm absolutely overwhelmed with your responses to my post "ICE has captured and detained a British girl on a backpacking trip through North America."!

Thanks, Good People of America!

Please make sure to read my articles here:

Authoritarianism doesn’t take over overnight; it creeps in gradually...Authoritarianism doesn’t take over overnight; it creeps in gradually...

https://open.substack.com/pub/laragelya/p/authoritarianism-doesnt-take-over?r=40ay92&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

February 28, 2025 - Zelenskyy at the White House:

https://open.substack.com/pub/laragelya/p/february-28-2025-zelenskyy-at-the?r=40ay92&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Expand full comment

Laura, why does your daughter not have a correct visa, what is incorrect about it.

Expand full comment

She did chores in return for lodging. Canada and the US classified this a working while having a visitor visa. It’s a crappy situation

Expand full comment

Becky' father, Paul Burke, FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/paulrburke

Expand full comment

I’m so sorry the assholes who are currently running our government have treated your daughter this way. Will share her story.

Expand full comment
1dEdited

…he’s a dictator and dictators do not govern, they rule

Expand full comment

no one rules if no one obeys.

Expand full comment

I sent the information from this story to Joyce Vance who is an attorney with a well known Substack. Hopefully she can help Becky.

Expand full comment

…what do you know about dictatorship ?

Expand full comment

…obeys what exactly, they are not pushing you against the wall

…yet

Expand full comment

??

Expand full comment

…i understand it’s a brand new concept for america, but i have a very short article about what it is and how it works

…”There are no rules in dictatorship. Officials don’t feel bound by rules – rules of decency, justice, rules of any kind – it’s all about what they can get away with. People working for dictators often live off graft, corruption and intimidation – their power over you is more than bad service in a restaurant. And beware, in a dictatorship, criminal organizations can always outbid you.”

https://www.wamc.org/commentary-opinion/2023-12-12/dictatorship-isnt-pretty?_amp=true

Expand full comment

…what do you mean by your reply, i don’t understand, and i asked you: what do you know about dictatorship ?

Expand full comment

It’s too bad her Visa was wrong. She would be enjoying her trip right now. The peculiar thing is if she’s a BRITISH CITIZEN and Canada is part of the Commonwealth she shouldn’t have been denied entry into Canada. This should be a warning to all Foreign Visitors don’t come to America.

Expand full comment

She was coming to Canada from the US, so the rules could be different in this case...

Expand full comment

Bro your gonna have to try another sob story she got busted illegal in America. Try again!

Expand full comment

You sound like a fella who is dumb enough to vote for a con man!

Expand full comment

Have you ever tried drinking bleach? You really should.

Expand full comment

Says a guy who's probably never travelled out of his county.

Expand full comment

you’re a dickwad

Expand full comment

That’s what I was about to say! These people have regressed from Homo sapiens to Neanderthals in ten years time. Have no idea 🤷‍♀️ if this be reversed but until there is a change in government all international visitors stay away. I hate to say this but go elsewhere for holiday

Expand full comment

This is shameful. America has become a country I don’t recognize anymore.

Expand full comment

This is what an authoritarian dictatorship looks like.

Expand full comment

Bull shit.

Expand full comment

You are a fucking idiot.

Expand full comment

Second that.

Expand full comment

This is awful. I’m shocked Canada turned her away, they let us back in with duty free booze when my Canadian passenger was turned away by the US (under GW Bush, her dad was a damn diplomat, my car got tossed after they read and did not understand a joke on my live journal). US Border patrol at Blaine were dicks.

I live in Renton, about 30 minutes from Tacoma.

Can I help somehow? Is she allowed visitors? Is anyone protesting down there? Maybe there needs to be.

Sharing here and a Wa group. 💕

Expand full comment

Becky' father, Paul Burke, FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/paulrburke

Try to contact him

Expand full comment

Thank you!

Expand full comment

I’ll wave a sign with you. I’m on Kitsap and was considering taking her some vegan goodies if they’ll let them in.

Expand full comment

Just an fyi - Although Canada is part of the Commonwealth, we are a constitutional monarchy and a sovereign nation. There are no special immigration or entrance rights amongst Commonwealth nations. My English grandmother cried when she had to renounce her British citizenship in favour of Canadian back in the 1970s. Canadians cannot be denied entry into Canada, just as Americans can't be denied entry into the US. International law of right of entry.

Expand full comment

It seems like a steep price for having the wrong visa.

They should have contacted her family to see if she could be sent home for a technicality, but the cruelty is the point.

Expand full comment

Exactly! I remember years ago ICE 🧊 deported a little girl that just had major surgery and they knew it but they just walked into the recovery ❤️‍🩹 room and rolled her out, bed, IVs and all. To this day I have no clue where she is or how she’s doing. Had I been the CNA on duty they wouldn’t have taken her without a fight.

Expand full comment

But one can have dual citizenship, so I don't understand why your grandma had to give up her British one.

Expand full comment

…within a year or two this country will have no people coming in and steady flow of american refugees, a new world phenomenon

Expand full comment

The US produced many refugees in the 18th and 19th centuries, and into the 20th century.

Canada was the final destination for many people on the Underground Railroad. Liberia was founded/colonized by refugees from the US. Josephine Baker is an example of a US refugee in the 20th century.

Expand full comment

…i appreciate and dig history and aware of it, but you perfectly understand what did i mean, it’s a 180 degree turn for this country that claimed its place in 20th and 21 centuries as a refuge and not a refugee producer

Expand full comment

Thank god ICE is protecting us from backpacking tourists…(sarcasm)…

Expand full comment

If this doesn’t kill tourism to America, well, you know the rest.

Expand full comment

Damn fascists.

Expand full comment

British tourists BEWARE, America is an unsafe destination….Go elsewhere for your holiday.

Expand full comment

Nobody is safe- when do we start acting like the free and independent country that we always loudly claim to be?? My American flag is tucked away and there it will stay until I can be proud of my country again.

Expand full comment

There has never been a time in your lifespan when that flag should have been raised proudly.

It has always been white supremacy. You just weren't the ones being targeted before.

Burn that fucking flag.

Expand full comment

You are right. As a white person in this country , I have not suffered what many have. The racism in this country is shameful and I’m sorry that is a fact. I have people of color in my family that I love very much, and are very dear to me. But I have raised my flag in honor of my father and his 5 brothers who fought the nazis in WWII.

Expand full comment

raise a black flag instead

Expand full comment

We ARE Russia now. Shame on us.

Expand full comment

Anyone who serves ICE is on the side of Evil.

Expand full comment

Stop calling it ICE. It’s the racism enforcing arm of the Gestapo and is sanctioned by the fascist faux government because they stole the election.

Expand full comment

You are right as to what it really is but I always thought ICE is an appropriate name for such a cruel, cold group.

Expand full comment