Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Becky Burke, R.E. Burke

After Three Weeks Of US Detention, R.E. Burke Is Flown Back To Britain

After three weeks of detention in the USA, British tourist and comic book creator R.E. Burke - or Becky Burke - is being flown back home

The news is just breaking that Welsh comic book creator R.E. Burke, also known as Becky Burke or Rebecca Burke, is on her way back to Britain. This comes after she was detained for three weeks by the USA over a visa issue.

Rebecca Burke, 28, was denied entry into Washington State from Canada, after spending months in the USA on holiday, after American immigration officials decided that she had been travelling on the wrong visa. She was sent to a detention centre in Tacoma, Washington, for the last three weeks. The news is now breaking in the UK that she is now on her way home. Her family say they received a call late last night to say that R.E. Burke had left the detention centre, and they believe she is now in the air on her way home.

Over a week ago, Bleeding Cool first reported the story of British cartoonist R.E Burke, or Becky Burke, who had been detained by ICE when crossing the US/Canada border over what was revealed as a trivial visa issue. She had been held for twenty days at a detention centre in Tacoma, Washington, in orange prison uniform, sleeping in a dormitory with more than 100 people. She received a lot more press attention the week after the initial reports and a GoFundMe to raise money for a flight home, which was successful and has been closed, but there has been no sign of her release or deportation. She told the BBC, "They keep saying in all their booklets that this is not a prison. It's hard to distinguish from my conception of a prison… They wake us up at 6:30 am. There is never enough time to sleep. It's so cold. I wear the same jumper for a week. They're short or out of stuff, like blankets and extra clothes. I have one towel… Everyone is actually really shocked when I explain my situation. I came to the US for the first time two years ago… I had a great time, that's why I wanted to come back again. I love nature and hiking. Now I see no nature in here at all."

She told her friend Lauren Hudgins "I am planning lots of comics for afterwards and drawing often (including portraits of the other women, which make them very happy—the least I can do when they are in very much worse predicament than me). I keep thinking about when I will be on that plane. I will be smiling the entire journey home."

Those running R.E. Burke's social media account reported that, "Becky has frequent 30-second coughing fits that leave her diaphragm sore. It's terrible to be sick away from home, much less in a prison. She does have access to a doctor to make sure she isn't dying or anything, and she can buy lozenges.  She had been wearing the same sweatshirt for two weeks and spent a frigid night without it to have it washed. She thinks that might have contributed to her getting sick on top of the stress of imprisonment. She has been tested once for COVID. Negative.  Well-meaning strangers are coming to visit her at the detention center and she really appreciates it but she is too exhausted and sick to want to see anyone she doesn't know. She isn't lonely because she is getting to know the women she is detained with. Becky now has the number for Northwest Immigrant Rights Group that she can give to other detainees and get them some help, too. She knows how lucky she is to have a local-ish support system. When she's feeling well enough to goes out to shoot baskets with a daily goal of 10. She is doing her best to maintain her mental health, but she is depleted with illness. She has sketched 78 pages of comics while in detention and is considering a book to tell her story and the stories of other detainees."

R.E. Burke will have quite the stand at Thought Bubble this year, I am sure…

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