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Irish tourist jailed by ICE for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
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Daily reminder (especially to my Canadian homies) for the love of fuck do NOT travel to the US. They have made it clear they dont want visitors and it isnt safe for us to go there.
Do not risk it. Find any other safe country to visit and go there instead. Or stay home and see your own country.
Or if you want to visit North America, may I suggest Canada? Its nice here and we have cool things to see too. Also you wont be detained for no reason and live for months in a cage.
And may I suggest Mexico? It’s a beautiful country full of wonderful food, music, and people. North America is a shit sandwich, but the bread on both ends is quite magnificent.
This is beautifully written. 🤌🤌
Yeah, never mind that the murder rate per 100k in Mexico is quadruple what it is in the "backwater" US (25.2 vs 6.3). It's flawless and beautiful, and the US is just horrible and worse in every way than there and everywhere else, "shit", as you said.
Wonder why so many people are trying to immigrate there, then, hm. Also, Mexico's got more people trying to get out than get in, how strange.
Ah, what do all those people know, anyway? They're just making the decision to completely uproot their lives and go to another country for fun, not because they're desperate for a better life!
Please see my other comment about how the statistics can be misleading.
I am in no way saying that Mexico is utopia, they have their problems just like all countries do. Wealth inequality is a big problem. That doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t travel there though. If you are a traveler from outside of North America, no Mexican version of ICE is going to put you in Alligator Auschwitz.
Also, it is worth noting that many of the immigrants coming through Mexico are from South America, where there are even larger problems with poverty than in Mexico. Sure, plenty of Mexicans are coming too, but not all brown people are running from the same problem.
I hear the cartels are doing a great job on running things.
Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I live on the border, am in Mexico several times per week, and have traveled the country pretty extensively. Most areas of Mexico are as safe as any city in the rest of the western world as long as you’re not intentionally fucking around and finding out.
And I’ll say this—you’re way less likely to get a mass shooting at a Walmart in Mexico than you are to get one in America.
Hell pretty sure we have more masked armed men shoving people into vans in the us now as well
Seconding this, I’ve had the great fortune to spend almost 18 months of my life in Mexico, visiting over 20 states. I’ve yet to feel unsafe in all that time. It’s an incredibly beautiful country with an extremely welcoming culture, stunning architecture and natural beauty, and unmatched cuisine. Mexico is a bucket list destination for sure.
You're literally 4 times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US, according to both countries' own statistics.
Edit: lol, imagine downvoting a plain fact.
Those statistics can be misleading. I spend a huge amount of time in Ciudad Juarez, a city known for violence. What the base murder rate doesn’t tell you is that over 90% of the murders are by cartel members to other cartel members, which means that only 10% or less of the murders are happing to a random bystander.
Furthermore, Mexico has extremely strict weapons laws which means it is very unlikely for bystanders to get caught in the crossfire of a “good guy with a gun”.
That’s what I mean by you’re relatively safe if you aren’t fucking around and finding out—just like how New York City was a lot safer back in the day if you weren’t interacting with the mob.
I’ve been all over Juarez at literally every time of the day and night walking alone, and I’ve never been threatened by anyone. Just last night, I walked several miles totally alone at 2 AM. I’m not saying that nobody ever gets in hot water there, but it is far from a guaranteed danger. By contrast, I experienced many more threatening situations both day and night in NYC while spending about an equal amount of time there. I know these experiences are anecdotal, but they are also first hand accounts from someone who has actually been there rather than just reading the news.
And if you’re a tourist visiting a popular place like Roma Norte in Mexico City, you will not only be very safe, but you’d be hard pressed to not have an amazing time.
Fun fact: Mexico only has two legal stores in the whole country.
Wanna take a random guess at where the cartels get all their guns?
spoiler
About 70% of guns recovered by Mexican law enforcement officials from 2011 to 2016 were originally purchased from legal gun dealers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Article
And what makes you think the type of murder breakdown isn't similar in the US? Most of the murders there are gang violence etc. as well.
The fact that Mexico's raw number of annual murders is higher than the US's, despite being a much, much less populated country, is not something that can just be handwaved away.
There is a reason Mexico's net migration rate is negative.
Fine, I’ll concede and move passed the murder rate.
We are talking about the risk to travelers. America currently has a government sponsored effort to detain people who are visiting here, sometimes even when they are here legally. Mexico is not doing that. The risk to travelers is pretty damn clear right now.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don’t think that the gang violence rate breaks down differently for the US—before this latest ICE takeover, I would have said it is safe for travelers here too.
Where the travelers are traveling to, and away from, generally tells you all you need to know about where the overall quality of life is better.
Again, Mexico's net migration is literally negative. If two bordering nations have one nation that has a net loss of population to emigration, and the other has a large net positive from immigration from the bordering nation, saying that the former is "bread" and the other is "shit", sounds pretty ridiculous on its face.
Not to mention that it comes with it the heavy implication that you know better than the majority of those who actually undertook the endeavor of leaving their home country behind in search of better surroundings.
I see now, you’re offended about my opinion of America being the shit in the shit sandwich.
Ok, I’m willing to flex a little on that. It is currently shitty for some travelers, specifically ones who are not white or wealthy, in ways that it has not been previously. Overall, it has some opportunities for residents that may be better than other countries.
Likewise, Mexico has some problems for poor residents that sometimes make them choose to seek a better life elsewhere. As a travel destination though, I stand by my opinion that it is a good place to visit.
Happy?
Not offended, just pointing out the objective absurdity of the comparison, on the axis of overall average danger.
Don't project your emotional response onto me.
On that point we will simply have to disagree. It is much more dangerous legally for someone to visit America on a visa than it is to visit Mexico on one right now.
I don’t mean to project anything, I’m just trying to understand the undercurrent of hostility that I have felt from your replies, amigo.
The "undercurrent of hostility" exists only in your imagination. I just stated some facts that contradict the assertion, which I think is fair to say is much more hostile in nature than anything I wrote, ironically.
I certainly never compared Mexico or anything in it to feces, anyway.
One of the nice things about being American is that we still have the right to call our own country feces, just like you have the right to disagree with me.
That said, I feel like we’ve both expressed ourselves here, so I’m just going to move on. Hope you have a good week, dude.
Does this include school children?
I see what you're implying. However:
Quote:
But in Figure 1 here, it shows the rate among US children to be about 1.5 per 100,000, in the same year, 2022.
Children are, likewise re the general population, four times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US.
Also worth pointing out that in 2022, the rate for only Mexican children (6.5) is greater than the rate for all ages in the US (6.3). That fact should speak volumes all on its own.
Edit: Never stops being funny to see a simple, plainly-laid-out debunking of an assertion, with cited evidence, downvoted by ideologues who apparently just can't handle having their narratives challenged.
Right, the US isn't going to murder you, they'll just deport you to some other country you've never been to and that country will torture and murder you!
How many people has that happened to? Surely you can show that it's happened a statistically-significant number of times, to talk about that as if it's a normal/typical course of action.
Or has alarmist media made you assume it's a common event, when it isn't?
Fascist countries are well known for their spotless record keeping easily accessible to the public.
You admit, within your sarcasm, that you're guessing at the rate of incidence.
That was the entirety of my point, really.
How many tourists to Mexico are having problems with cartels vs how many tourists to America are having problems with ICE?
Maybe they wouldn't have so much power if the yanks weren't busy buying them coke
I know several people with dual citizenship Canadian/U.S. who have moved from the U.S. to Canada in the past several months.
I just figured out a path for me to gain Mexican permanent resident and eventually Mexican citizenship if needed. It will take some time but with how this country is going, My wife and I need an escape route.
My partner and I made the decision to leave the day after inauguration. We're comfortably in Canada now.
I hope that's far enough. As a Canadian, I'm not so sure.
It was really our only choice. I have friends who went to Mexico and are also worried
If you have an escape route available, I suggest getting it prepared now. Hopefully you won't need it, but it's better to be prepared than not.
If only the dumbfucks with the stupid slogans like "love it or leave it" knew just how difficult and costly it is to legally move to another country. Unless you have money, work in a high demand job or have family connections it's fucking difficult or close to impossible to do.
Most of the dumbfucks have no way to legally move to any other country legally.
Fam has researched the same things, but have worried that Mexcico might not be far enough.
Also some worry that the locals might take it out on expats if it becomes a war.
Learn Spanish, and hope they focus on the gringos that only speak 'Murican
Working on that for about a year I still suck
Tell people you're Canadian
It's aboot time someone came up with a good solution for that thanks!
That’s an unusual situation. Normally, Mexicans are trying to get a US citizenship, not the other way around. In any case, I wonder how long does it take for US citizens to apply for political asylum elsewhere.
mexican born , are tyring to flee to the usa, but american citizens to mexico, probably more common than you think. i have met college students who stayed in mexico permanantly after thier semester was over in the us, this was a long time ago though. its quite common apparently. hard to justify staying in HCOL country.
Mexican immigration rules from what I am seeing are very reasonable with clear processes and do not require a lawyer for most people. So you rarely hear about immigrants having issues. The entire process is relatively inexpensive as well.
To legally immigrate to the U.S. almost always requires a lawyer, the process is deliberately convoluted, and costs thousands of dollars in fees.
Applying for political asylum outside of the U.S., good luck. The burden of proof is quite high and costly. Most people will not qualify, yet...
https://www.relocate.world/articles/us-citizens-seeking-asylum
Come to Japan but avoid the big cities. Check out our smaller prefectures instead. It's not as glitzy as Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto, but there will be less crowds and beautiful nature.
No, sir, you may not. I'm currently in Canada travelling with a group of people. Several times we heard strangers passing by were mumbling "f**king tourists". We tried to ask the last one what did he just say, he avoided to answer, we told him to shut the f**k up, and after that he attacked us.
You can say fuck in the internet, it's okay.. the Canadian can't hurt you here.
True, sir. They can hurt me only in Canada.
Uh huh.
Let me guess. You disarmed them with your martial arts skills and everyone clapped, saluted, and sang God Bless America.
No. A guy from the group managed to de-escalate the situation. As for the "God Bless America" song why do we need to sing it? We are a mixed group from Germany, France and China, half of the group doesn't speak English and the other doesn't know the words.