Comments

1. RE: AA FF

   Was this reported to the in-flight crew at the time? What did they say? How does anyone know that the person taking the picture didn’t simply spill water on purpose, photograph it, and is trying to get a refund from the airline as part of a scam?

2. Hey! Don’t kink-shame! Some folks pay extra for that! /s

3. On the far-more serious topic of immigration enforcement, that lady is fortunate that she is of Irish decent, because if she weren’t ‘white’ and weren’t a woman, I doubt that she’d even get her day in court (May 7, according to the article). Ah, at least she gets some ‘due process.’

   If this were Latino man with a mere tattoo, no actual conviction of any crime, I suspect he’d be wrongly renditioned to an El Salvadorian gulag, as others have been recently, like Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and Andry José Hernández Romero, and many others, as I am sure we will learn about in the coming weeks, months, and years, if we do not stop this horror.

   Fellas, stuff like this isn’t making us ‘great again’ at all. This ain’t building ‘a wall’ or prosecuting anyone for ‘her emails’ or reducing ‘the cost of eggs.’ This also isn’t good jobs, affordable housing, quality healthcare, hope of a retirement, or actually encouraging folks to raise families, either.

   Nope. It’s just cruelty. It’s scapegoating. It’s vilification of innocents. And if they can do this to kids with cancer who are U.S. Citizens (as recently reported), or to punish a judge in Milwaukee over this, too, then this regime can do it to any of us, without due process, regardless of your perceived ‘status’ as a supporter of the regime or not. This is why we aren’t supposed to have kings here. It often doesn’t go well for anyone who isn’t the king.

4. It is probably a water on the seat scam.

5. Ward has been in the USA for a long time as a guest. She should have followed the rules and became a citizen. She was in her 20s when she came and made adult decisions. Instead she had problems with drugs and theft (per another source). After that, the expunging of her record at the state level probably did not matter on the federal level as it possibly stopped her from getting citizenship. When I travel to other countries for extended stays I am acutely aware that my guest relationship with the country does not allow me a free pass to violate their laws. I see nothing inconsistent with kicking her out, only it took a long time for the wheels of justice to turn. Actions have consequences.

6. @jns — It’s far more fundamental than the oversimplified ‘but they’re criminals’ quips I’ve been reading from folks such as yourself. If this were you or a family member, you would not want this treatment.

   Empathy is not weakness. Order can be achieved without such randomness and cruelty. In fact, one of the G.O.A.T.s, #40, President Reagan, you know, ‘tear down that wall’ (defeated communism), and ‘a shining city on a hill’ (aspirations for an even greater country and people), also signed a law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the IRCA, which granted amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants in the 1980s. How ‘woke’ of him. Folks who have been here for 3 decades, contributing to the society, paying taxes, and often not receiving benefits, or having any suffrage (they can’t vote, even if your propaganda pretends that they do).

   Yes, our immigration system is not working and needs reform. There is a better way than renditioning human beings in violation of our Constitution, the rule of law, and human rights, generally. This isn’t about ‘Ward’ it’s about us, our character as a people, and how we want to live. If we’re willing to do this to her and others, we’re going to eat ourselves alive with such cruel and unusual punishments.

7. @1990 very well-stated position.

   The gaslighting over immigration in this country would be laughable were the consequences of what we’re doing not so devastating to people, families and entire communities. While I agree with @jns in principle, it’s honestly a double-standard being used to usher certain groups out of our country while others are left alone entirely.

8. Fabric seats are NASTY. If you think it’s just urine in that fabric you’re mistaken. Guarantee quite a bit of other nasty has seeped into that fabric. Dried or not fabric seats are GROSS.

9. @Parker — Thank you for your nuanced addition to this discussion. The movement of people is a big deal, especially since it’s inherently relevant to the travel industry and our society. How we decide to organize it makes a real difference on lives and livelihoods. It is power. It can be wealth. It’s often indicative of our values, too.

   Even though we happen to somewhat agree here, I appreciate whenever folks on here (and elsewhere) can actually engage on substance, rather than immediately resorting to ad hominems, like some of those unwilling to actually articulate their own thoughts.

   That said, I do enjoy banter, and getting called ‘silly names’ on occasion does make my day in a small way. Like, if the best someone’s got is to call their opponent a ‘fool’ without touching the underlying topic, I’d say that’s a surrender. Or, to some degree, I suppose it shows that they cared enough to actually read whatever we had to say. See, they DO care! Bah!