International travelers are speaking out about shocking experiences with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claiming they were detained and treated like dangerous criminals over minor immigration infractions or visa issues. The accounts, which include tourists, researchers, actors, and athletes, raise new concerns about how America’s immigration system is treating foreign visitors under policies expanded during the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
These individuals, many of them professionals and students, say they were handcuffed, held without access to legal counsel, and placed in prison-like detention centers for days or even weeks. Their alleged offenses ranged from minor paperwork discrepancies to routine customs misunderstandings. While immigration violations are civil matters, not criminal offenses, critics say ICE facilities are functioning more like jails—harsh, chaotic, and devoid of due process.
One such visitor, Australian MMA coach Renato Subotic, was detained in early April after customs officials at a U.S. airport flagged an issue with his visa. Rather than being denied entry and sent back to Australia, Subotic was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to a detention center. He was released after 24 hours but described the ordeal as deeply traumatizing. “It’s insane how easily someone can take away your freedom, lock you in a federal prison, without a clear reason,” Subotic said in a viral Instagram post. “Just like that, you’re treated like the worst criminal.”
Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney had a longer ordeal. After attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, as she had done on prior visits, she was detained for 12 days in ICE custody. Mooney said her work visa had been approved months earlier, but officials took her into custody without providing a clear explanation or allowing her to speak to a lawyer. In an essay published by The Guardian, she said her experience felt like a “kidnapping,” recalling how she was transferred between facilities, kept in cold rooms, and denied access to basic information about her case. Legally, immigration agents couldn’t send her back to Mexico because she’s a Canadian citizen, but instead of being directed to an airport and escorted home, she was held in legal limbo alongside more than 100 women in a detention facility.
The stories of Mooney and Subotic are not isolated. Harvard Medical School researcher Kseniia Petrova, a Russian citizen, has been held in ICE custody for more than seven weeks. She was returning from a research trip to Paris with biological samples for her lab when she was stopped by customs officials at Boston Logan International Airport. Although she was in the U.S. legally under a J1 work-study visa, officials accused her of failing to properly declare her specimens. Her visa was confiscated, and she was sent to a privately run detention facility in Louisiana. Colleagues at Harvard and 17 U.S. Senators have since appealed for her release. Petrova, who is outspoken in her pro-Ukrainian views, says she fears returning to Russia but has not been allowed to return to Europe either.
Despite ICE’s guidelines stating that civil detention should be non-punitive, detainees describe experiences that feel very much like incarceration. Mooney described being one of 140 women in a dormitory where many had overstayed their visas but had no criminal backgrounds. These women, she said, were not angry about accountability—they were angry about being stuck in a system with no clear path forward.
Rebecca Burke, a British tourist, found herself in a similar situation after staying with an American host family. She had previously entered the U.S. under the same conditions, but this time, ICE claimed she should have applied for a work visa since she helped her host family with chores. Burke was detained for 19 days, shackled, and held in a room with nearly 100 other women. To make matters worse, the ICE agent assigned to her case went on vacation, leaving her in limbo.
Legal experts say the structure of the immigration court system allows for long delays without any guarantees of a timely hearing. Unlike criminal defendants, immigration detainees are not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which ensures a right to a speedy trial. This means individuals can remain in detention for extended periods while awaiting proceedings that may be delayed for weeks or months due to backlogs.
Former ICE official Deb Fleischaker, who served under both the Trump and Biden administrations, confirmed that while civil detention is the legal definition, the treatment often mirrors that of criminal incarceration. She noted that ICE facilities frequently become overcrowded, particularly when the number of detainees exceeds the federally funded cap of 41,500. In early April, ICE was holding nearly 48,000 individuals. Fleischaker also criticized the Trump administration for dismantling internal oversight mechanisms like the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman—offices that once helped monitor abuses and poor conditions in detention centers.
Attorney Len Saunders, who practices immigration law near the U.S.-Canada border in Washington state, says the treatment of international visitors has drastically changed. He helped advise Mooney and has represented others caught in similar situations. “It’s like immigration enforcement on steroids,” Saunders said. “These types of cases happened in the past, but not to the degree we’re seeing now.”
Saunders believes the Trump administration’s policies encouraged a “scorched-earth” approach to immigration, removing the discretion that officers previously had to resolve minor issues without detaining people. In the past, he said, border agents might have allowed travelers with imperfect paperwork to correct mistakes or return home voluntarily. Now, that leniency is gone.
ICE has remained silent on the increasing detentions of foreign nationals over minor or civil violations. When asked by USA TODAY whether tourists and international students should expect to be detained for immigration or customs infractions, the agency did not respond.
What remains clear is that the U.S. immigration system, as it currently operates, is blurring the line between civil and criminal enforcement. Tourists, researchers, and other legal visitors find themselves swept into a system with few protections and even fewer answers. With thousands of international travelers passing through U.S. borders each day, the risk of detention for minor violations raises serious questions about fairness, transparency, and due process in America’s approach to immigration.
