Wtf they randomly just kidnapped a German tourist as she was entering the U.S. (instead of, I don't know, refusing entry) and now have held her much longer than she was planning to stay, because they were afraid she was going to do art while in the U.S. - ThreadSky

slucy.bsky.social • 10 days ago

Wtf they randomly just kidnapped a German tourist as she was entering the U.S. (instead of, I don't know, refusing entry) and now have held her much longer than she was planning to stay, because they were afraid she was going to do art while in the U.S.

Reposted from Lilly Irani

CBP is detaining german tourist for over 1 mo because they accused her of intending to tattoo for $$ while in US. In jailing her to deport, they held her in solitary for 9 days, also kept her from her return flight Feb 15. She's still jailed.

CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵

www.kpbs.org/news/border-...

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slucy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Detaining people so they miss their return flight so you can deport them is kind of deranged behavior.

stephenjacobsmith.com•10 days ago

It’s very fucked up, but I feel like it’s a bit unfair to non-artists in the same situation to say “do art” – she’s a tattoo artist by profession, she was probably gonna engage in that art, and not for free.

stephenjacobsmith.com•10 days ago

To be clear the U.S. government has kidnapped her and I am outraged. I just feel like there are probably people in the same boat who were suspected of coming to do less artistic work, and their situations are no less fucked up.

slucy.bsky.social•10 days ago

I just mean the alleged contemplated crime here is like de minimis payments for art, it's not like she was selling drugs or planning to murder someone or something.

stephenjacobsmith.com•10 days ago

My understanding is that traveling tattoo artists often expect to make more than de minimis wages, not just do a few little things for pocket cash

stephenjacobsmith.com•10 days ago

It’s a whole thing, I think it’s not cheap or easy to travel with equipment (which I suspect is why they suspected her of this…unless she just really manic pixie dreamgirl’d the agent when they asked what she’s coming to the U.S. to do – “make people smile with my art”??)

slucy.bsky.social•10 days ago

I think my point is that the working without a visa is the only alleged contemplated violation. There's no underlying crime, like drug running or whatever.

stephenjacobsmith.com•10 days ago

Op, here we go – she’s on Instagram and had dates of her travel, and a directive to “DM.” And she references working in Berlin and Barcelona (which I assume were totally legal), and implies that she also worked in Mexico (idk about legality)

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