“Border Patrol always had the right to grill people trying to enter the US, right,” Guardian US reporter Adam Gabbatt tells Michael Safi. “But from what we can tell now, Border Patrol agents are now much more likely to basically get into people’s business, so to search people’s devices, particularly mobile phones, and there seems to have been a real spike in the number of people being questioned and now detained. We’ve seen that with tourists, but also people on green cards and working visas.”
One of those people was Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur who had travelled to the US on a work visa many times.
When Jasmine travelled to the US in March, an officer questioned her on her previous issues getting a visa granted and she was told she would need to reapply for a visa through the consulate.
“She goes: You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re not in trouble. You are not a criminal. And she was being so nice at this point, and it was so odd but now, when I look back, I’m like: Oh, she knew it was about to happen to me.”
When the officer told Jasmine she would be sent back to Canada, Jasmine assumed she would just need to book herself a flight home. Instead, she was detained and sent to an Ice detention centre for two weeks.
“This guard took me,” Jasmine tells Michael. “Hands me this little mat and this aluminum foil thing that I’ve never seen before. And she goes, this is your blanket. And I’m like: What do you mean? That’s my blanket? And then they open like, it’s jail. It is a jail cell exactly like you see on the movies. This tiny little cement cell with an open toilet. There were five other girls in there.”
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