TACOMA, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A 28-year-old British backpacker’s journey through North America has unexpectedly led her to the ICE detention center in Tacoma.
Rebecca Burke’s father, Paul Burke, posted an urgent appeal for help after his daughter was detained after trying to cross from Washington into Canada. He says on a GoFundMe page that Burke stayed with host families that she found on a cultural exchange website and had done odd jobs for them in exchange for lodging.
That led Canadian authorities to determine that she required a work visa when she tried to cross the border on Feb. 26, and they ordered her to return to the U.S. ICE agents designated her as an illegal alien when she tried to re-enter the U.S. and took her to a detention center in Tacoma.
ICE told the BBC that “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest” and removal from the country “regardless of nationality.”
Burke’s family created the GoFundMe to help with food and essentials in the detention center, legal fees, and a flight back to the UK.
