He overstayed his visa for three days due to a medical emergency.
Last fall, a 35-year-old Irish man flew to West Virginia to meet his girlfriend. After overstaying his visa by three days because of a medical emergency, he spent 100 days in detention, fearing he would not be able to return home. Identified as “Thomas” to protect his identity, he was able to return to Ireland in March, but he is still struggling to process what happened, he said in an interview with The Guardian.
Thomas had traveled to the U.S. many times. He was authorized to enter the country under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program, which offers a visa waiver to citizens of European countries for visits up to 90 days. His plan was to return to Ireland before the ESTA expired; however, he tore his calf and was ordered by a doctor not to travel for eight to 12 weeks to avoid blood clots. He contacted the U.S. Embassy, the Irish Embassy, and the Department of Homeland Security to request an extension. “I thought they would understand because I had the correct paperwork. It was just a couple of days for medical reasons,” he told The Guardian. He did not hear back.
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He already had flights booked for the following week when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him. In an unfortunate incident, he suffered a mental health episode at a hotel while visiting his girlfriend’s family in Savannah. Police were called and he was accused of imprisoning his girlfriend, charges she did not support. “I was arrested on a Sunday and the next day, they released me. When I turned around, the ICE agents arrested me,” he told The Irish Times.
Instead of deporting him, ICE sent him to a processing center in Georgia. His removal order noted that he had overstayed his visa by three days and he signed a form agreeing to be removed on Dec. 17; yet he was given no information on how long he would remain in custody. His lawyer requested voluntary departure, but the request was denied.
He spent two months in detention in Georgia, and in mid-February he was transported to a federal prison in Atlanta, where he said conditions were far worse than at the detention center. The prison did not have enough clothes; he received a pair of ripped, stained underwear, and some jumpsuits had holes and bloodstains. He eventually got access to his medication, but the guards would throw his pill and he’d have to find it on the floor. “There were riots, stabbings, fights, everything you could imagine and I was just thrown in the middle of it,” he narrated. He said people imprisoned there were denied medical help and treated less than human. “I didn’t know when I was getting home.”
In mid-March, he was transferred to another ICE facility and then flown back to Ireland with two federal officers. He is banned from returning to the U.S. for 10 years. Meanwhile, his girlfriend plans to move to Ireland because he won’t be able to return and she doesn’t want to stay in the U.S. any longer.
Thomas, who has three children, couldn’t speak with them because international calls were not allowed. “I spent Christmas in there, New Year’s, Valentine’s, kids’ birthdays. It was the first time I wasn’t with my kids at Christmas, it was the first time I’ve ever missed a kid’s birthday,” he told The Irish Times. Since his return, he has gone back to work and is trying to rebuild his relationship with his children, who do not understand what happened.
Traumatized by the experience, Thomas is facing difficulty sleeping. He is also dealing with long-term health problems from malnutrition and missed medications. He said he wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been sent to El Salvador or Guantánamo Bay because the process was so disorganized. “Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it.”
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