A tourist from the United Kingdom to the United States is sounding the alarm and warning others after her nightmare ICE experience.
The Guardian heading into the weekend reported on the story of Karen Newton, who found herself in ICE custody for six weeks despite being a legal visitor.
In an article called, “‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks,” the outlet reports Newton “was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’.”
The Guardian reported, “When 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.’”
But her time turned terrifying when they tried to leave the US.
“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,” according to the report. “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.”
Thing escalated quickly from there, the report states.
“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.”
According to her, there was a sinister motive behind it all.
“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.”
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