Steve was quoted by Salon in “The New Normal”: As Trump Pursues Mass Deportations, Tourists Land in ICE Detention. He noted that a recent spate of tourists being detained is “pretty unusual.” He said that if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement suspects an issue with a tourist’s visa, the agency typically will turn people away if they are attempting to enter through a U.S. border or send them on the next flight back to their home country. “The unusual part of this is that they’ve been detained so long,” he said, noting that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has “been much more vigilant reviewing everyone’s credentials and reasons for coming to the United States” since President Trump took office. “Our immigration detention system is often a black hole where individuals have a hard time contacting lawyers or family friends to be able to help them, and there’s no clear procedures other than bringing a federal court action to try to get them released—or until CBP determines that they need to be deported and then sends them out,” he said.
