For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation
Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.
He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.
From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.
Irish are non-white again. We’re going back to the 1800s, baby.
Look up the unjust hangings of Dominic Daley and James Halligan in 1806. There was no evidence whatsoever that they committed the murder they were accused of other than maybe being in the area at the time and even that was based on shaky grounds. The defense even had their closing statement saying that the prosecution had no evidence other than ‘aww come on! They’re Irish! You know how they’re like! Besides, someone has to hang for that murder!’