Tourist interrogated for two days for overstaying visa 10 years ago

[Vermouth]

"The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, 33, was arrested Sunday when she arrived at JFK airport in New York because she had overstayed a U.S. visa more than 10 years earlier.

Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most humiliating experience of her life.

She contended she was interrogated at JFK airport for two days, during which she was not allowed to call relatives. She said she was denied food and drink for part of the time, and was photographed and fingerprinted.

On Monday, Lillendahl claimed, her hands and feet were chained and she was moved to a prison in New Jersey, where she was kept in a cell, interrogated further and denied access to a phone.

She was deported Tuesday, she told reporters and wrote on her Internet blog."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22263392

[tmbtc]

I suspect there is more to the story that we are not privy to.

Regardless, if you break the law, you deserve to face the consequences. This wouldn't have happened if the subject in question did not over stay her legal right to be in this country. If everyone were to follow her lead and ignore the stipulations of a visa then there would be absolutely no point in maintaining the process.

[Vermouth]

Do the consequences fit the crime? She can be deported, fined, whatever, but shackled and interrogated for 2 days without being able to make a phone call?

[Gunit Hussein Sangh]

I don't believe this is an isolated incident. In the other blogs I visit on a regular basis, there have been stories where the same thing has occurred to other fureigners. So I think it's dumb-headed policy that will continue to drive tourism away from the country ... not a freak incident that leaves us scratching our head.
 

[Vermouth]

I don't believe this is an isolated incident. In the other blogs I visit on a regular basis, there have been stories where the same thing has occurred to other fureigners. So I think it's dumb-headed policy that will continue to drive tourism away from the country ... not a freak incident that leaves us scratching our head.

Okay, so if you're headed on vacation to the US, and you're not heard from for a couple of days, no worries, it's just the Homeland Security interrogation.

That's too bad what with the dollar being so low, we could be getting lots of tourist business even if we can't afford to go to Europe anymore. 

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

and the moral of the story children?  don't over stay your visa, when its time to go its time to go.

[SDML]

That's one side of the equation.

The other side is that maybe the US needs to seriously re-examine it's policy with regard to non-citizens coming across the borders. We have a wretched batch of policies.