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A British tourist on a four-month backpacking trip around North America has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US for 10 days after trying to enter the country via the Canadian border.
Rebecca Burke, 28, a graphic artist from Monmouthshire, was trying to cross into the state of Washington when she was refused entry.
She was planning to stay with a host family where she would carry out domestic chores in exchange for accommodation and was told she should have applied for a working visa, instead of a tourist visa.
She had previously been staying with a host family in Portland, Oregon, under a similar arrangement after spending some time sightseeing in New York City, where she first arrived from the UK at the start of the year.
“She’s basically living with a family, doing a little bit of housework, taking the dog for a walk, whatever it is. She’s been a part of a family,” her father, Paul Burke, a consultant in the steel industry, said.
Canadian authorities told her to go back to the US and fill in new paperwork before returning to cross into Canada.
However, when she tried to re-enter the US she was handcuffed and put in a cell before being taken to Tacoma Northwest detention facility in Washington state.
“She’s been there for over 10 days now,” Paul Burke said. “We haven’t got any clear timeline for her release. I really can’t understand why someone, a tourist, would be incarcerated and locked up.”
“It’s like we’re living in a nightmare we can’t wake up from,” he added. “It’s like we’re having an out-of-body experience. We’re watching ourselves go through the motions of life, but we’re not really doing it, we’re not really there.”
His daughter wants to leave the country and fly back to the UK, he said, but he feared the immigration crackdown in the US meant there could be a long delay before her case was dealt with.
“She’s in this orange prison outfit,” he said. “She just feels so isolated and desperate, you can imagine, she’s saying, ‘I want to come home’.”
She is safe, he said, but living “in horrendous conditions” and had not had access to legal representation. He was taking comfort from the fact that the other women at the facility, many of whom have been incarcerated for months or even years while fighting deportation, had “all been really nice to Becky,” Burke said.
Burke said he and his wife, Andrea, had naturally had some worries about their daughter travelling, but thought the US and Canada would be one of the safest places for her to go as a solo traveller, and her plan to stay with host families provided further reassurance.
“The only thing really we were concerned with, in general, was our little girl was going off for four months as a solo traveller,” he said.
“We knew for a long time in advance of Trump being inaugurated what his plans were for immigration, but that didn’t enter our minds with respect to Becky,” he added. “She was going on a four-month backpacking tourist trip. We wouldn’t even think of her as an immigrant.
“We were horrified about what was planned for immigrants and illegal aliens in the US, just like many people around the world were,” he added. “But why would we put that together with Becky making this trip? We now know better, because we believe it’s had a direct impact.”
Burke said he wanted to warn other families who may have children travelling to the US. “The key thing is check and double-check and triple-check the visa requirements, especially if it’s an extended visit like Becky’s was, rather than just a couple of weeks’ holiday,” he said. “I really don’t want anyone else to go through this.”
The family’s local MP Catherine Fookes, the Labour MP for Monmouthshire, said: “I am deeply concerned about my constituent’s welfare and the distress this situation is causing her and her family.
“Her family is desperate to bring her home, and I share their urgency in seeking a resolution.“Since being made aware of the case, my team have been in regular contact with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and other relevant authorities to press for urgent action. We have relayed the family’s request for voluntary departure and continue to push for clear answers on the next steps to get her home as soon as possible.
“My team and I will continue doing everything in our power to secure a swift resolution and will not stop working until my constituent is safely reunited with her family.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting a British national detained in the USA and are in contact with the local authorities.”
