British cartoonist R.E. (Becky) Burke was on a four month backpacking trip around North America but has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her father, Paul Burke posted an appeal for help on Facebook. Burke attempted to cross over into Canada from the US on February 26th, but was denied because of a visa issue, and after returning to the US was arrested as an “illegal alien” and is now in detention in Tacoma.
Burke is known in the comics community, setting up at Thought Bubble, writing for Broken Frontier and making some pretty good comics. Her Instagram is as typical and normal as a cartoonists IG can be, including some now devastating photos of the earlier carefree good times on her trip. Her last post was about the joys of travel.
Her father writes:
Urgent Appeal: Help Bring Becky Home
Our daughter Becky, a 28-year-old British tourist, has been caught up in the recent immigration crackdown in the US. What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America has turned into a nightmare. Becky has now been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for over ten days, with no clear timeline for her release.
On February 26th, Becky attempted to cross the Canadian border for the next leg of her journey. Unfortunately, due to an incorrect visa, she was denied entry into Canada. When she tried to return to the US, she was refused re-entry and classified as an “illegal alien.” Despite being a tourist with no criminal record, she was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington.
Becky’s current conditions are deeply concerning. She is sharing a cell, surviving on a diet of cold rice, potatoes, and beans (she is vegan), and has limited access to phone calls. Visitors are restricted to speaking through a glass screen via telephone. All her possessions have been confiscated, and she feels isolated and desperate to come home.
We are doing everything we can. Our local MP has contacted David Lammy’s office, and we are in touch with the British Consulate in London and San Francisco. An American friend is helping by sending funds to her inmate account so she can buy basic necessities like tea and milk. However, progress has been slow, and we urgently need more support.
We are asking for your help. Please share Becky’s story widely through your networks. We hope to connect with experts, legal professionals, or anyone who can offer advice or assistance. Becky is a kind, adventurous young woman who simply wants to return home to her family.
Thank you for your support.
Without know the details of her case (or why a UK citizen was denied entry into Canada), I’d hazard a guess that any mention of making comics might have set off ICE enforcers with the idea she was here to work. And also, maybe it goes without saying, but the days of merrily traveling around North America (ie January 19th and before) are over. We’ve anecdotally heard about other cartoonists are are afraid to come to the US for shows and this story won’t do anything to calm fears.
Becky’s story has been shared thousands of times, and on BlueSky, and more journalists are getting involved, as are offers of legal advice, so the story is sure to get more traction in the coming days. We’ll update as more details become available.
Becky had arranged to work for room and board, which was prohibited by her tourist visa.
If she is vegan, why is she buying milk? I assume they are not providing almond or oat milk to detainees.
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This is pretty odd, not to mention frightening for her I am certain. I am somewhat befuddled by the description of what happened since it is (or should say was) that if you were denied entry to Canada or Mexico, while traveling from the US, you mad not yet made an exit from the US, so she should have still been here legally what with having been admitted to the US when she first entered, presumably, from the UK.
I strongly suspect that her being a cartoonist IS part of what triggered her being taken into custody as that could have been interpreted by whatever CBP person at the border saw as working while here on a visitor’s visa/non-immigrant visa. (Likely as a B2).
This similar to someone with work tools in their vehicle coming south being stopped on suspicion of working but actually, that is where they store their tools on a daily basis.
Hopefully this can be straightened out but I have a feeling that the “working while visiting” thing is what will get her eventually deported unless (and this is doubtful nowadays under the current regime from what I understand) she take a voluntary departure. Otherwise if deported, she will not be allowed to return for a minimum of ten years.
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Now I see the comment from Lisa and if she was working for room and board, then she is definitely in violation of a non-immigrant visitor’s visa. That’s been the law for decades. (I couldn’t figure out how to edit my first comment)
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I read about this on The BBC 7am PST 3/10, before I saw it here.
According to The BBC, the issue is that she arranged to work for her room and board. She did this through an established company that middleman’s such arrangements. The company website has warnings to evaluate the legality of your plans alongside their promotional material. The company takes no responsibility for her troubles.
Casual travel behavior and naïveté seem to have terrible repercussions in today’s America.
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She was doing workaway, exchanging accommodation for work in USA which is unlawful with a tourist visa. She was denied in Canada border because she had no funds and explained she will do the same in Canada, work for accommodation. She was walking dogs and other services. This is average rules in almost all countries under tourist visa. She also overstayed her visa. ESTA visa only allows 90-days, if she wanted to stay 4 months she needed a B visa. She is detained for deportation because of breaking the law. This is nothing new.
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Good grief. It’s dispiriting to see how a young person gets treated under Trumpism. But MORE dispiriting to read Lisa and Carl and Seth and Ann all eagerly lining up to side with the authorities like a little bunch of junior brownshirts. They all chirped “the law is the law” and such. Not one spoke up against this sort of ugliness. The fact is that every Western country depends on the hard labor of immigrants, and uses border patrols and police raids to keep an underclass work force frightened. Borders don’t touch goods and capital and oligarchs, just working people. Michael McGettigan, Philadelphia.
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Seconded, Michael. I don’t care if the laws predate this administration. You know what’s barely 2 decades old? ICE and the entire DHS. And yet the majority of comments here are rushing to normalize draconian border enforcement in the name of technicalities. You want to give this administration, which is already arresting and deporting permanent residents and promised “more to come”, the legitimacy they need to do truly horrible things to anyone? Then keep doing what you’re doing. Sooner than you expect, ICE will be at your door, and you’ll be shrieking about the rights you thought you had. That’s the future if we get in line now.
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I’m a bit confused. Did she recently arrive in the US to begin her trip? If so, why wasn’t her visa challenged at before she left England and again when she arrived in the US? I ask because I took a trip to the Dominican Republic last month – the checks and challenges of my visa were immense going out of and into the US.
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Why do they imprison her, take away all her belongings including her clothes? All she wants is to return to the UK. US government is spending US taxpayers money stopping her going home. Her Family will get her home in the day when they let her go. Visa requirements have changed rapidly over the last few weeks, and sadly so has Christian values of compassion and justice.
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At least ICE is protecting the country from dog walkers taking jobs away from Americans. The rapist, insurrectionist and convicted felon President is doing the people’s work keeping that until control and keeping them detained for weeks. You’re earning the respect of the world.
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Rice and beans are staple food items for other US “tourists”. I’m praying her suffering is of the strengthening variety and that she grows in endurance and compassion. I anticipate she’s allowed a pencil and paper and will emerge more famous with doodles of documentation!
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ICE is considerably older than a couple of decades old. ICE was a name change to a long existing department during the formation of Homeland Security.
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To be fair, I don’t think people in the comments were necessarily defending the government’s actions or condemning Ms. Burke, they were simply stating what the law is. I agree that jailing her and treating her like a criminal and a threat, is ridiculous overreach.
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This is why non domestic artists are really taking chances coming over to cons. If Canadian or American border guards think you are working (selling merch and doing commissions is working) and you don’t have a work permit, you could end up not getting in and possibly banned for a number of years.
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Questioning a few things: as a cartoonist and working for a newspaper, did she not have access to the front page stories that tRump won the election. Did she not know about his Project 2925? And yet she still naively chose to come to the U.S. as many did recently, thinking oh, all of this has nothing to do with me, I’m white and British, they are just deporting ‘them and those’? Even if the trip was planned for a while, one didn’t plan student visa trips to Austria or Germany in ’39 unless one felt protected. If I had a trip like that planned, on Nov 6th, I would have changed my plans for a Canada ONLY trip. Plenty to see in Canada in 6 months- 2nd largest land mass in the world. When traveling and entering a country, one of the first things they want to make sure of is you have a plane. boat, train or bus ticket out of there, That you have a certain amount of money with which you can support yourself. I am surprised she did not have a reserve or arrange with her family for them to wire her a certain amount of money. About the ICE food: can’t imagine there isn’t toast, oatmeal or cereal for breakfast and peanut butter or jam? These are basic staple American breakfast foods- cheap. And no vegetables- would have figured ssome salad kind of scenario. Tea with milk- really? for a Vegan? Unless ICE has almond and oat milk which is highly unlikely. Yes the work exchange is a bit sketchy- working for room and board certainly exists in excellent programs like WOOFING. I also had a student visa which allowed me to work in the UK for a few months. If her program was legit, why didn’t the company help? Bad on them if they dodn’t. If her folks are healthy and if one isn’t working,, or retired, I would suggest a Go Fund Me to pay for flight to the U.S. and arrange a homestay with Americans who are sympathetic in the tacoma region. So they can help her on teh ground. Can’t imagine you can’t raise $10,000 from sympathetic Brits, I would also try to hire an Immigration/ICE lawyer. You see NONE of the others rounded up will have access to this, they will be lead away in chains on a U.S. military transport and end up in an Ecuadorean jail or in the Panamanian hungle. The days of thinking one is exempt from this hate, are OVER. All of this said, Yes ICE is rounding up people left, right and center. They are going after mostly Back and Brown people and Asians. This is the racist tRump and his Neo Nazi followers dreams. Next up are the Haitians, after that it’s the Ukraanians who were here on protected status, as were the Haitians. The Haitians, he is going after because they are Black- he has a lifetime of racist statements and actions. It also pleases his Christian Nationalist crowd who mainstreamed the once fringe, ‘great replacemenr’ theory. This should surprise NO ONE, as disgusting as it is. He is going after the Ukranians to appease Putin, plain and simple. Also as a further dig to Zelensky who had the nerve to assert his country’s sovereignty and independence, in front of the Cameras in the Oval Office. I would not be surprised if he declares Trudeau a war criminal. This syphylitic dementied grievance ridden,racist lunatic is a traitor to the U.S. and a large percentage of Americans think he and his policies and behavior, are fantastic. They were all holding up signs that said, ‘Mass Deportation, NOW!’ at the Republican convention. Do you not understand that the YUS. is a fascist state, now? As shocking as this young woman’s arrest and detention are, this should surprise No ONE.
Becky had arranged to work for room and board, which was prohibited by her tourist visa.
If she is vegan, why is she buying milk? I assume they are not providing almond or oat milk to detainees.
This is pretty odd, not to mention frightening for her I am certain. I am somewhat befuddled by the description of what happened since it is (or should say was) that if you were denied entry to Canada or Mexico, while traveling from the US, you mad not yet made an exit from the US, so she should have still been here legally what with having been admitted to the US when she first entered, presumably, from the UK.
I strongly suspect that her being a cartoonist IS part of what triggered her being taken into custody as that could have been interpreted by whatever CBP person at the border saw as working while here on a visitor’s visa/non-immigrant visa. (Likely as a B2).
This similar to someone with work tools in their vehicle coming south being stopped on suspicion of working but actually, that is where they store their tools on a daily basis.
Hopefully this can be straightened out but I have a feeling that the “working while visiting” thing is what will get her eventually deported unless (and this is doubtful nowadays under the current regime from what I understand) she take a voluntary departure. Otherwise if deported, she will not be allowed to return for a minimum of ten years.
Now I see the comment from Lisa and if she was working for room and board, then she is definitely in violation of a non-immigrant visitor’s visa. That’s been the law for decades. (I couldn’t figure out how to edit my first comment)
I read about this on The BBC 7am PST 3/10, before I saw it here.
According to The BBC, the issue is that she arranged to work for her room and board. She did this through an established company that middleman’s such arrangements. The company website has warnings to evaluate the legality of your plans alongside their promotional material. The company takes no responsibility for her troubles.
Casual travel behavior and naïveté seem to have terrible repercussions in today’s America.
She was doing workaway, exchanging accommodation for work in USA which is unlawful with a tourist visa. She was denied in Canada border because she had no funds and explained she will do the same in Canada, work for accommodation. She was walking dogs and other services. This is average rules in almost all countries under tourist visa. She also overstayed her visa. ESTA visa only allows 90-days, if she wanted to stay 4 months she needed a B visa. She is detained for deportation because of breaking the law. This is nothing new.
Good grief. It’s dispiriting to see how a young person gets treated under Trumpism. But MORE dispiriting to read Lisa and Carl and Seth and Ann all eagerly lining up to side with the authorities like a little bunch of junior brownshirts. They all chirped “the law is the law” and such. Not one spoke up against this sort of ugliness. The fact is that every Western country depends on the hard labor of immigrants, and uses border patrols and police raids to keep an underclass work force frightened. Borders don’t touch goods and capital and oligarchs, just working people. Michael McGettigan, Philadelphia.
Seconded, Michael. I don’t care if the laws predate this administration. You know what’s barely 2 decades old? ICE and the entire DHS. And yet the majority of comments here are rushing to normalize draconian border enforcement in the name of technicalities. You want to give this administration, which is already arresting and deporting permanent residents and promised “more to come”, the legitimacy they need to do truly horrible things to anyone? Then keep doing what you’re doing. Sooner than you expect, ICE will be at your door, and you’ll be shrieking about the rights you thought you had. That’s the future if we get in line now.
I’m a bit confused. Did she recently arrive in the US to begin her trip? If so, why wasn’t her visa challenged at before she left England and again when she arrived in the US? I ask because I took a trip to the Dominican Republic last month – the checks and challenges of my visa were immense going out of and into the US.
Why do they imprison her, take away all her belongings including her clothes? All she wants is to return to the UK. US government is spending US taxpayers money stopping her going home. Her Family will get her home in the day when they let her go. Visa requirements have changed rapidly over the last few weeks, and sadly so has Christian values of compassion and justice.
At least ICE is protecting the country from dog walkers taking jobs away from Americans. The rapist, insurrectionist and convicted felon President is doing the people’s work keeping that until control and keeping them detained for weeks. You’re earning the respect of the world.
Rice and beans are staple food items for other US “tourists”. I’m praying her suffering is of the strengthening variety and that she grows in endurance and compassion. I anticipate she’s allowed a pencil and paper and will emerge more famous with doodles of documentation!
ICE is considerably older than a couple of decades old. ICE was a name change to a long existing department during the formation of Homeland Security.
To be fair, I don’t think people in the comments were necessarily defending the government’s actions or condemning Ms. Burke, they were simply stating what the law is. I agree that jailing her and treating her like a criminal and a threat, is ridiculous overreach.
This is why non domestic artists are really taking chances coming over to cons. If Canadian or American border guards think you are working (selling merch and doing commissions is working) and you don’t have a work permit, you could end up not getting in and possibly banned for a number of years.
Questioning a few things: as a cartoonist and working for a newspaper, did she not have access to the front page stories that tRump won the election. Did she not know about his Project 2925? And yet she still naively chose to come to the U.S. as many did recently, thinking oh, all of this has nothing to do with me, I’m white and British, they are just deporting ‘them and those’? Even if the trip was planned for a while, one didn’t plan student visa trips to Austria or Germany in ’39 unless one felt protected. If I had a trip like that planned, on Nov 6th, I would have changed my plans for a Canada ONLY trip. Plenty to see in Canada in 6 months- 2nd largest land mass in the world. When traveling and entering a country, one of the first things they want to make sure of is you have a plane. boat, train or bus ticket out of there, That you have a certain amount of money with which you can support yourself. I am surprised she did not have a reserve or arrange with her family for them to wire her a certain amount of money. About the ICE food: can’t imagine there isn’t toast, oatmeal or cereal for breakfast and peanut butter or jam? These are basic staple American breakfast foods- cheap. And no vegetables- would have figured ssome salad kind of scenario. Tea with milk- really? for a Vegan? Unless ICE has almond and oat milk which is highly unlikely. Yes the work exchange is a bit sketchy- working for room and board certainly exists in excellent programs like WOOFING. I also had a student visa which allowed me to work in the UK for a few months. If her program was legit, why didn’t the company help? Bad on them if they dodn’t. If her folks are healthy and if one isn’t working,, or retired, I would suggest a Go Fund Me to pay for flight to the U.S. and arrange a homestay with Americans who are sympathetic in the tacoma region. So they can help her on teh ground. Can’t imagine you can’t raise $10,000 from sympathetic Brits, I would also try to hire an Immigration/ICE lawyer. You see NONE of the others rounded up will have access to this, they will be lead away in chains on a U.S. military transport and end up in an Ecuadorean jail or in the Panamanian hungle. The days of thinking one is exempt from this hate, are OVER. All of this said, Yes ICE is rounding up people left, right and center. They are going after mostly Back and Brown people and Asians. This is the racist tRump and his Neo Nazi followers dreams. Next up are the Haitians, after that it’s the Ukraanians who were here on protected status, as were the Haitians. The Haitians, he is going after because they are Black- he has a lifetime of racist statements and actions. It also pleases his Christian Nationalist crowd who mainstreamed the once fringe, ‘great replacemenr’ theory. This should surprise NO ONE, as disgusting as it is. He is going after the Ukranians to appease Putin, plain and simple. Also as a further dig to Zelensky who had the nerve to assert his country’s sovereignty and independence, in front of the Cameras in the Oval Office. I would not be surprised if he declares Trudeau a war criminal. This syphylitic dementied grievance ridden,racist lunatic is a traitor to the U.S. and a large percentage of Americans think he and his policies and behavior, are fantastic. They were all holding up signs that said, ‘Mass Deportation, NOW!’ at the Republican convention. Do you not understand that the YUS. is a fascist state, now? As shocking as this young woman’s arrest and detention are, this should surprise No ONE.