> What the fuck? She did everything right. She had a passport, an entry visa, and a return ticket?
None of that is guarantee of entry into the US, which is completely at the discretion of the CBP officer. And the protocol on denial of entry for much longer than this administration has been around is to detain you until you can be put on a flight back to your country of origin. The saga also goes on your record, and you will have to mention & explain it in the DS-160 form for any future visa applications.
Those of us from certain countries who've had cause to visit the US have been well aware of this for decades, with the corresponding game you have to play with the CBP officer (Everything is designed to trip you up. Have every possible document on hand, even if not explicitly mentioned as a requirement. Never use certain trigger words (like work) even if travelling on company time, instead say that it's a business trip. And so on).
It's not even unique to the US either, though US border (and embassy) officials IMO tend to have a pretty big chip on their shoulders. The only place I've had a more hostile experience is the Maldives (the manager of my hotel very kindly vouched that I would leave the country on my return ticket date even though we hadn't spoken at all before my rather frantic call to him, which was the only thing that swayed them enough to let me leave the airport).
Because there is strictly speaking no time limit on how long US customs is allowed to detain non-citizens.
IIRC the only limits are 2 days for you to be taken to a facility (so you're not just being held in an interrogation room in an airport or wherever), and 90 days for you to be removed once there is an order for your deportation. The actual detention in between is limitless. Of course there's incentive to keep people moving through (and most people have a home country/embassy that they can eventually appeal to to expedite things), so in practice it isn't literally a de facto life sentence.
These are things that have been happening at your borders (and, in different forms, at other borders around the world) for years - you're just less likely to see it if you have one of the strongest passports in the world. But to be fair, whenever you wake up is your own morning.
None of that is guarantee of entry into the US, which is completely at the discretion of the CBP officer. And the protocol on denial of entry for much longer than this administration has been around is to detain you until you can be put on a flight back to your country of origin. The saga also goes on your record, and you will have to mention & explain it in the DS-160 form for any future visa applications.
Those of us from certain countries who've had cause to visit the US have been well aware of this for decades, with the corresponding game you have to play with the CBP officer (Everything is designed to trip you up. Have every possible document on hand, even if not explicitly mentioned as a requirement. Never use certain trigger words (like work) even if travelling on company time, instead say that it's a business trip. And so on).
It's not even unique to the US either, though US border (and embassy) officials IMO tend to have a pretty big chip on their shoulders. The only place I've had a more hostile experience is the Maldives (the manager of my hotel very kindly vouched that I would leave the country on my return ticket date even though we hadn't spoken at all before my rather frantic call to him, which was the only thing that swayed them enough to let me leave the airport).