Morgan Bellhorror travel story - Laura McKenzie's detention in Texas
July 12th 2008 08:41
An young Australian woman from the western suburbs of Adelaide was held in a series of rudimentary detention centres in Texas for over three weeks while touring North America. Laura McKensie, 21, was arrested and thrown in a holding cell due to a mix-up with her travellers visa. Laura was held in legal limbo for weeks without access to her parents or a chance to explain herself.
Laura claims she was treated worse than illegal Mexican immigrants. The conditions she was kept in were unhygienic and inhumane. She was kept in isolation, forced to eat with her hands, and slept on the concrete floor of a jail cell which had a temperature of over 40 degree celcius. The detention centres she stayed in were designed for Mexican and South American asylum seekers with the limited ammenities of a concrete floor, concrete bench and an open toilet.
Laura's experience resulted from an expired visa, but unlike Mexicans asylum seekers and illegal immigrants Laura was not given a proper chance to explain her situation. Laura's mistake was a technical one. At the time of purchasing her six-month USA visa she was given mis-information. Laura's trip started in Canada but as part of her flight there she had a stop-over in Hawaii and the USA (unknown to her) started the clock on her visa when the plane temporarily hit the tarmac. By the time Laura left Canada the bulk of the time allocated to her USA visa had been used up.
Laura, an aerobics instructor, flew out of Australia in November 2007 to work in the Canadian snowfields for their winter. Laura worked for a ski resrt and stayed in Canada for nearly six months.
Laura's Hawaii stop-over meant that her visa started counting when she landed in Hawaii, and going to Canada does not reset this time (you have to leave the continent).
By the time Laura entered the mainland of America her visa was just days away from expiring. USA immigration let her in without question. The Customs officer did not identify the problem or alert Laura to the situation. Laura began travelling the States as a tourist for six weeks of sight-seeing believing she had ample time.
USA border control officers in Texas found Laura with an expired border entry card on May 23, she was 20 days past her limit. Laura was arrested by an immigration officer for overstaying her tourist visa. Laura was heading across southern Texas on a bus from Houston to El Paso, when a border control officer boarded the bus at a driver changeover and questioned her in a random inspection. She was dragged off the bus and thrown in the back of a police wagon with nothing explained to her.
Laura spent three weeks in custody, was moved from one cell to another, without being allowed to call home, before ending up in a detention centre on the US-Mexico border. For part of Laura's detention she occupied a cell with 20 illegal immigrants who had swum across the Rio Grande River to get from Mexico into the USA. Laura had travelled so close to the Mexican border it was assumed she spoke Spanish, she was not given a proper chance to explain her story and she never met her case officers.
Laura was released on bail from the Willacy Detention Centre, Texas, on June 11 and spent the next three weeks in California and Nevada awaiting trial, unable to return home until she faced an American court.
Laura's mother Anne flew to America to fight to free her daughter. So far, it has cost the family in excess of $20,000 in extra costs to resolve the matter.
Laura was accused of being in America illegally and put through the illegal immigration system. Random immigration inspections are apparently a common occurrence in Northern America.
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Laura claims she was treated worse than illegal Mexican immigrants. The conditions she was kept in were unhygienic and inhumane. She was kept in isolation, forced to eat with her hands, and slept on the concrete floor of a jail cell which had a temperature of over 40 degree celcius. The detention centres she stayed in were designed for Mexican and South American asylum seekers with the limited ammenities of a concrete floor, concrete bench and an open toilet.
Laura's experience resulted from an expired visa, but unlike Mexicans asylum seekers and illegal immigrants Laura was not given a proper chance to explain her situation. Laura's mistake was a technical one. At the time of purchasing her six-month USA visa she was given mis-information. Laura's trip started in Canada but as part of her flight there she had a stop-over in Hawaii and the USA (unknown to her) started the clock on her visa when the plane temporarily hit the tarmac. By the time Laura left Canada the bulk of the time allocated to her USA visa had been used up.
Laura, an aerobics instructor, flew out of Australia in November 2007 to work in the Canadian snowfields for their winter. Laura worked for a ski resrt and stayed in Canada for nearly six months.
Laura's Hawaii stop-over meant that her visa started counting when she landed in Hawaii, and going to Canada does not reset this time (you have to leave the continent).
By the time Laura entered the mainland of America her visa was just days away from expiring. USA immigration let her in without question. The Customs officer did not identify the problem or alert Laura to the situation. Laura began travelling the States as a tourist for six weeks of sight-seeing believing she had ample time.
"By the time I left New York my card had expired without me realising it. I assumed as I'd been admitted into the country that I was allowed to be there for the intended six weeks."
USA border control officers in Texas found Laura with an expired border entry card on May 23, she was 20 days past her limit. Laura was arrested by an immigration officer for overstaying her tourist visa. Laura was heading across southern Texas on a bus from Houston to El Paso, when a border control officer boarded the bus at a driver changeover and questioned her in a random inspection. She was dragged off the bus and thrown in the back of a police wagon with nothing explained to her.
Laura spent three weeks in custody, was moved from one cell to another, without being allowed to call home, before ending up in a detention centre on the US-Mexico border. For part of Laura's detention she occupied a cell with 20 illegal immigrants who had swum across the Rio Grande River to get from Mexico into the USA. Laura had travelled so close to the Mexican border it was assumed she spoke Spanish, she was not given a proper chance to explain her story and she never met her case officers.
Laura was released on bail from the Willacy Detention Centre, Texas, on June 11 and spent the next three weeks in California and Nevada awaiting trial, unable to return home until she faced an American court.
Laura's mother Anne flew to America to fight to free her daughter. So far, it has cost the family in excess of $20,000 in extra costs to resolve the matter.
Laura was accused of being in America illegally and put through the illegal immigration system. Random immigration inspections are apparently a common occurrence in Northern America.
References and photo source
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Comment by RubySoho
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I don't get it. Do Mexicans and South Americans deserve to be treated worse than white people? I'm no fan of detention centres, for anybody, but I find it at once amusing and offensive when white people balk at being treated like "dirty foreigners". Immigration thought she was illegal, so they treated her like all illegals. Again, I'm not saying the treatment was deserved, but I don't see why she should have been treated any different than anyone else that was deemed to be in the country illegally simply because she is white.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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yes i found it shocking two-fold
1. how is that treatment standard for ANYONE
2. how can you not ask someone for an explanation, check with customs if the person entered legally, check whether they have plans and an airfare to return home, call their embassy or their lawyer or their parents
surely the fact that she had only been there a short time, had a passport and other identifying papers and had plans to leave should be enough to give her the benefit of the doubt . . . i cant believe they have a system in place that doesnt even afford people the right to explain themselves before being locked up
Comment by postmoderncritic
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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i think Texas is probably the worst state to get caught . . . they sound pretty ruthless towards Mexican immigrants, i cant imagine them being so severe towards Canadians
like Ruby was pointing out, i think it takes a white person being embroiled in the situation to highlight how badly the Mexicans are treated everyday
i think we all know im not much of a traveller anyway but things like this (and gun control) put me off the USA bigtime
not the best advertisement for tourism
Comment by postmoderncritic
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Of course, let's not forget that most people have no troubles when they travel.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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a cage?
geez remind me not to go there! haha
im sure once people have more experience travelling it probably doesnt seem so daunting, but the more horror stories i read the more i fear foreign places
i just wouldnt want to go anywhere that i could have my civil rights stripped off me like an animal . . . apparently the whole phone call and legal representation deal only applies if you are a citizen?
terrible!
although i would love to swan around Broadway one day . . .
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity
But seriously, I have alot of travel (mostly when I worked in the airline business) and although I'm sure part of it is just coincidence, I have never had any problems at all - except coming back into the states. I was once grilled by a customs agent on a flight coming from Amsterdam - not for what one might think, but because I was holding a bag I bought at the airport in Moscow.
I think with the American dollar playing voyage to the bottom of the sea many more people will want to visit America. I think most will go off without a hitch, most will have a great time. And if you come to the NW, give me a shout. But there are some who will be treated like shit just because of a paperwork glitch or something simple.
I did a post on the Hutto Detention Center in Texas that has more info about the abuses.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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i like your optimism!
alas i am a fraidy cat when it comes to far off places! haha
but i guess if noone has ever arrested PoMo then im probably safe!
i just dont know how a western country can justify locking someone up for 3 weeks without a trial or hearing or access to the outside world . . . sounds pretty fishy to me!
thanks for the comment
Comment by postmoderncritic
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I should add that I've been to Thailand three times and my experience has been invariably peaceful, hassle-free and enjoyable (well, apart from ppl trying to sell me their services on the street, which is repetitive and annoying). I would totally go again. You should go because of the great transvestite cabarets and other 'queer' performances... As for America, there are lots of hot-spots for gay life which you would just love... Castro, in San Francisco, for instance, is really pretty and I think everyone should go there at least once. As long as you're careful it's very unlikely you'll encounter problems.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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maybe i will go as a roving reporter one day?
or i could marry Donald Trump and jetset around the world in safety and comfort!
i admire anyone with the bravery to try new things!
Comment by Florin
Being detained for 3 weeks without access to a phone call is definitely not ok in my book! In such a case one should at the very least be granted access to the consular services of the country of citizenship. The authorities have violated that right.
Still, whenever traveling abroad I think it is the responsibility of the traveler to abide by local laws. Laura's first mistake was not doing her homework. Her second mistake is NOT looking at the date on her I-94. You HAVE TO be very careful with travel documents, visas, passports, etc and you HAVE TO be aware of immigration laws/policies before you travel.
I hope the situation works out well for Laura and that the court shows understanding towards her situation.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
i think Laura referred to the "Mexican illegals" because they were the only other people in the centres and she considered her treatment to be worse than everyone else because she was not allowed any contact with the outside world but the Mexicans were
from what i heard as soon as a judge heard the case she was immediately released, its a shame she wasnt given an interview or a chance to explain a bit earlier!