Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end.

[yaesu]

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Karen Newton left home in late July 2025, she knew that international travellers were being locked up in immigration detention centres in the US. “I was aware,” she nods. “But I never thought it would have any impact on my holiday.” Karen, 65, had a British passport and a tourist visa. She hadn’t been abroad for eight years, and was keen for some guaranteed sun. “I really just wanted to get away from the house.”

She and her husband, Bill, 66, had an ambitious itinerary that would take them through California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and then on to Canada over two months. Las Vegas wasn’t to Karen’s taste: “Way too commercialised.” She much preferred Yellowstone, where they saw Old Faithful, the famous geyser, as it shot boiling water into the air, and got up close with some extraordinary wildlife. “There was a bison right next to the car. Another time, a wolf walked past.” Her eyes sparkle at the memory. “It was just amazing.”

The dream holiday ended abruptly on Friday 26 September, as Karen and Bill were trying to leave the US. When they crossed the border, Canadian officials told them they didn’t have the correct paperwork to bring the car with them. They were turned back to Montana on the American side – and to US border control officials. Bill’s US visa had expired; Karen’s had not.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

She didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of an ordeal that would see Karen handcuffed, shackled and sleeping on the floor of a locked cell, before being driven for 12 hours through the night to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre. Karen was incarcerated for a total of six weeks – even though she had been travelling with a valid visa.

Karen has no criminal record. She is a grandmother who spent eight years working as an admin assistant at a primary school before her retirement. “I don’t even have parking tickets in the background anywhere,” she says. “I am not a dangerous criminal. I didn’t enter the country illegally and I had everything I needed to be there.”

So why did ICE detain her, and keep her locked up for so long? A possible answer began to emerge over the weeks she was incarcerated. As Karen got to know the guards at the Northwest ICE Processing Center where she was held, she kept hearing the same thing from them: that ICE officers are paid a bonus every time they detain someone. “Individual ICE agents get money per head that they detain – the guards told me that,” Karen says.

[Girard442]

2. To effectively terrorize people, punishment needs to be unpredictable and arbitrary.

The population has to see that the hammer can fall on anyone, at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all.

[dalton99a]

3. +1

[leftstreet]

8. +1

[oasis]

4. She should have a gigantic lawsuit in the works.

[edhopper]

17. My guess is

it would eventually go to the SCOTUS, which will rule she has no standing.

[Hope22]

5. Thanks for posting this.

I have to wonder about Canada refusing entry and forcing them back to this hostile place. They should have requested asylum right there! This being said I have thought my Canadian friends should have stopped visiting the US years ago. I could never understand vacationing here as Americans rights were being squashed and life became harder for so many. I guess it’s like a cruise ship landing on an island. Giving tours of what they wanted people to see and hiding the rest behind walls and fences. I hope more potential visitors to this place think twice and then a third time. This is no place to visit!

[Melon]

10. It's weird Canada rejected them and it reads that the husbands work visa had already expired.

I imagine this is a situation that they tried to get into Canada, were told no. They then had to clear US customs again which they couldn’t with an expired visa. I don’t think she should have been removed this way, but the husband effectively had no visa. They aren’t releasing people anymore with expired visas.

I guess the reasoning to remove them together was that they were married?

[Hope22]

11. Much safer to have flown home from Canada.

Despite warnings people discount the severity of this police state. Never underestimate a madman.

[Melon]

12. Canada denied them entry.

They accepted self deportation where the government pays you $1000 and arranges your deportation. That was the mistake. They aren’t releasing people now also banned for 10 years. They should have spoke to a judge. It’s all back to the husbands visa was expired while they vacationed.

[Hope22]

26. I understand....

But while you are still on Canadian soil you have a voice. Seek refuge or access transportation home. I do cross the border from time to time and if I had an issue or needed help I would certainly ask for it. Once back in the US…a cot on the floor. Also it was stupid that they hadn’t reviewed their documents before travel or at least headed the expiration date! Also good to set up auto payment before leaving the country. It was ignorant to come ahead after being warned not to. I tell my Canadian friends to stay the heck out!

[travelingthrulife]

14. The 'reason' is because the ICE goons get a big bonus for incarcerating people

So they got 2 bonuses instead of one.

[Melon]

16. There was no releasing them when they signed a contract to deport

They should have seen a judge although that may not have helped. I also don’t think they had return tickets.
They would probably been better off if they were Mexican because or Latin because those planes leave daily. Do they deport on commercial flights or do they wait and fill a charter to the UK?

[AZJonnie]

20. Seems like there's reasons wherein it was correct to deport the husband

But not the wife, and more importantly why were they held captive for SIX FUCKING WEEKS?!?

How is there ANY possible valid excuse for that? They should've both been on a plane back to their home country the next day.

Also are we sure Canada rejected THEM, or just the car they wanted to drive in, leading them back into the corrupt clutches of CBP as they sought to get the proper paperwork to drive the car in or make other transport arrangements?

Also UK citizens don't need a visa to drive into Canada and can stay for up to 6 months (though I don't think they can work there legally). Seems possible they waited til like the last day the husbands US visa was valid (or maybe overstayed a little bit as they traveled to leave), tried to drive into CA, not expecting a problem getting in cause UK citizens are basically automatically allowed in.

What they might've done is leave the hubby inside CA at a motel while she drove back with her valid US visa to try to get whatever auth she needed to drive the car into CA.

[Melon]

21. Yep....6 weeks is horrible.

[ToxMarz]

22. I thought it said they didn't have the right paperwork to bring the car

They probably turned back because they didn't want to abandon the car

[haele]

23. Being in Southern California, whenever I rent a car -

- The rental car companies have always warned me against even thinking about taking it across the border. If you ask, they will tell you to drop it back off at the lot, or park in the Border parking lots, take the Blue line to the border, walk across, and rent another car in the many rental lots in Mexico set up right along the border - just for tourists who want to go to Ensenada, travel on 2D on a brewery, hot springs, and spectacular high desert day trip from TJ to Mexicali, or head down to the Gulf of California for some fishing.

It's not just in the small print like with most car rental documents, California rental companies tell you up front before they give you keys.
When I rented a car in VA or FL on work, it was a little paragraph on the rental form. Easy to miss or ignore if you're picking the car up at an airport in, say, Denver.

Likewise, when I was growing up in Seattle, our HS soccer team had to get special consular permission and everyone had to sign international travel paperwork to take a school bus up to Vancouver BC on a exhibition game - and that was in the early 1970's.
And in those days, we could just cross the border in the family car with dad's driver's licence, proof of registration and Canadian insurance (purchased for the trip in Seattle or Blaine, if dad forgot) if we wanted to go up there.

It's not Canada being pissy about expired visas. It's the rules bringing a rental car that doesn't have the insurance or other paperwork to drive in Canada.

[Melon]

24. I'll post in the full heading. You can't enter canada

With an expired visa in the US. You need to leave the US under a valid visa.

[Lonestarblue]

6. No one from another country should risk traveling to the US today.

Trump is killing our tourism industry. If I were a citizen of another country, I would now travel here now. ICE gets most of the attention, but many CBP agents are just as bad and they're often the ones arbitrarily detaining travelers or just forcing them to return home immediately.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Do not travel here!

These two were lucky, they could have been sent to some prison in another country where they’d still be rotting or even dead. All of these people and prisons are making money by head count.

And these were people from English speaking ally countries. Imagine what could have happened if they were vacationing here from a Spanish speaking country.

There are people locked up all over the world who will never get out that were taken for visiting the US.

[wnylib]

9. Excellent examples in this article of why

private prisons have ZERO place in a democracy.

[Stargazer99]

13. Got to increase those profit margins increasing-it is the middle class paying for this not the wealthy

[hatrack]

15. Wow! You just can't buy PR like this in the runup to the World Cup!!!!

I hope the whole fucking thing face-plants.

[NoMoreRepugs]

18. Bonus per detainee, ICE buying warehouses from Russian owners for 4-5x their value to house

“prisoners” - in Trumplandia one need only follow the money.

[mountain grammy]

19. unbelievable waste of money

that could be spent on healthcare, housing, infrastructure.. all to improve life in America..

Instead, concentration camps and a bunch storm troopers.

[Melon]

25. You can't enter Canada without having left the US with legal documents

You can’t leave the US to Canada with an expired US visa unless you are requesting asylum. Otherwise you are flagged as high risk and denied entry. You need to go from the US back to the home country to get valid travel visa or passport first. This would have applied to the husband.

I thought this was the case because I know you can’t go to Mexico this way either if your visa is expired in the US.

“Canadian immigration officials require legal status in the country of departure, and you will likely be denied entry or flagged for attempting to leave the U.S. illegally. “