This is quite startling. Rick Giles, who sometimes comments here, has been arrested in the US and is being held in jail awaiting deportation. He was apparently working in Canada but visiting the US and asked a cop for directions.
Some of you may have noticed the absence of Rick Giles from this forum for the last month or so. He is not on vacation; he has not given up, or left in a huff. He is in jail, and has been since the 26th or 27th of September. He has been in prison, without arrest, without trial, without legal recourse or appeal, for almost a month. And why? What heinous crime, you might ask, warrants being thrown into jail with no rights, no information, and no idea how long he’ll be incarcerated? Well, the combined crimes of not being a US citizen and misreading the date on his tourist visa.
Rick was asking directions to the bus station, as pedestrians aren’t allowed to cross the border into Canada, on the 26th of last month. Instead of helping, the policeman took his ID, checked his visa, and found that instead of expiring on the 27th, as Rick believed, it expired on the 20th. He was taken into custody, and has been there ever since.
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7 comments:
Shit - I havent' seen rick since I was in Sydney last year.
Getting to word out to everyone I know.
He couldn't have been there for just a visit while working in Canada. A visa is good for 90 days. To overstay meant he was there 96 days -- which is hardly just a visit and not likely something he could do if he was actually working in Canada. The two claims don't seem to make sense. Was he actually working in the US under the table? A Canadian employer is unlikely to hire him if he was away from his job for 96 days in a row.
Anyone know the details?
Anon, rick is backpacking, and had a tourist visa. He hasn't been to canada yet. He was en route. Hes been travelling the US for thelast 96 days.
I wish I saved his US cell phone number after the last text I got from him a month or so ago.
The US is getting crazier by the day. Millions of illegal Mexican aliens come into the country and the authorities seem unable or unwilling to do anything to stop them, but one legitimate visitor overstays his visa a few days and he is thrown in jail.
Rick was in Canada for about a month and a half before coming to the US. He had originally obtained the tourist visa when he landed in LA from Fiji, but hitchhiked his way to Canada. He stayed in the US for about a month and a half, backpacking around and visiting a friend. He had a job lined up in Toronto, and was on his way there when he was arrested.
Thanks Melissa, Any update as I know you've been working really hard to find out what's going on and lend support.
It's true, I confused the detail of my Canadian entry date with my US entry date and those 6 days were REALLY held against me.
Screwed up the date early on and then repeated the mistake to everybody for weeks.
Still, I'm very unhappy about it. Nobody should be kept from reading this blog for so long on account of so little!!
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