I would imagine that most people at the SDMB would say that Homeland Security agents over-reacted. What I’m wondering is, what legal recourse should the two British people have? They must have lost some money and vacation time due to their deportation.
Their tweets:
3 January 2012 “3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!”
16 January 2012 “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America.”
Their explanation of the tweets: “They asked why we wanted to destroy America and we tried to explain it meant to get trashed and party. … I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh’s lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe. I couldn’t believe it because it was a quote from the comedy Family Guy which is an American show.”
The two were question on arrival, spent the night in jail and were deported the next day.
The Huffington Post UK says “teenagers” but the Register gives their ages as “Leigh Van Bryan, 26, and pal Emily Bunting, 24”.
I think that these tweets are obviously jokes and that the two deserve compensation. Even if the Homeland Security agents did not recognize the quote from the TV show Family Guy (assuming it really is a quote from the show), they had insufficient evidence to put the two tourists in jail and deport them. Of course I realize we are only hearing one side of the story.
I think Homeland security should look into the tweets of every single person in the United States. Based on their criteria of what constitutes a threat (combined with their total ignorance of what youth culture is about), I’m confident that they will be able to lock up every single person between the ages of 15 and 30.
Has any actual terrorist anywhere every prefaced an attack by announcing on Twitter that he was going to destroy whatever country he was targeting? I’ve admittedly never been to Terrorism School, but I’d think that would be kind of poor planning.
The proposed debate is: should they get financial compensation from the US government? I say yes.
(The factual question would be: how would they go about getting financial compensation? Would they have standing to bring a claim against anybody?)
As to what legal recourse the tourists have - not much at all. Our country, our rules about who gets in. Tourists with a DUI on their record from long ago who try to visit Canada are reminded of this phenomenon all of the time.
On the other hand, I don’t think anyone has the right to compensation because of something as minor as being deported.
Then again, I think it’d be in the US’s interest to compensate them with a few thousand bucks, enough to come back for a longer trip. Tourist dollars spend real well. It’d probably be worth some private group like the National Association of Travel Agents or someone putting together a package for them as a way of saying, “I’m sorry DHS were such humorless douchebags.”
Homeland security overreacted, of course. Even if their plan really was to dig up Marilyn Monroe. At this point they are just thought police, and not very good ones.
On the other hand, I support the deportation based on Leigh’s suspiciously girly name and unfortunate hairstyle. Perhaps homeland security has ventured out of policing thought and into fashion police territory.
So someone at Homeland Security saw a tweet about… Marilyn Monroe, who told their boss, who presumably told several other departments. Someone had to trace the twitter accounts, each to real names, attach the real names to a day and a flight from a destination in the UK, tie it in with the landing and organise a welcoming committee, and… why was someone at Homeland Secuity interested enough in Marilyn Monroe to watch tweets about her?
Yeah, I can’t really see how they have any legal recourse. I also can’t see DHS compensating them - that’d open the door to lots of other compensation claims, and, like you say, they do have the right to refuse them entry.
Hopefully they’ll make up the significant sums of money (well, several hundred at least, significant to most people) they probably lost by getting money from the press.
First of all, they weren’t deported. They were refused entry. Second of all, no one has a right to enter the U.S. except USCITs, so they weren’t even wronged by the federal government. So why should get compensation?
That’s like coming to my door to sell me a vaccuum cleaner, and when I refuse, you sue me for the gas money you spent driving over to my house.
shrug Not his fault American soccer moms decided that a British name that had been applied to men for centuries would be the perfect name for their little girl.