Darren Mitchell and his wife Linda had been planning a family holiday to the United States with their three kids for months. Instead of a once-in-a-lifetime trip taking in the sights and sounds of Orlando and Disney, Darren’s trip ended before it began, with him in handcuffs in a Federal Penitentiary. He came on Liveline to tell Philip Boucher-Hayes his story.
Darren explained that he was issued a holiday visa for the US in 1996, which he overstayed by “not more than two weeks” and that this was the reason given to him for his detention. Since revealing their plans to the kids on Christmas eve as a surprise, the trip has been the subject of excited planning for months.
“All we could talk about among ourselves was, you know, about this amazing trip that was going to happen.”
After reaching Orlando and arriving at Immigration Control where “everything seemed fine”, Darren recalled that the Customs Agent he was talking to seemed to change his manner.
“Suddenly, his attitude and his line of questioning changed and all the attention was focused on me. And he asked me, ‘When was the last time you were in the United States?’ and I kind of fumbled my lines because of a long flight.”
Darren was detained for further questioning before getting the news.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen here’, she said. ‘You’re not entering the United States today. That’s it‘.”
After “secondary” questioning, Darren was handcuffed and taken to prison, where he spent the night.
“They made me feel like a criminal…I just wanted to curl up and zone out as much as possible.“
Listen back to Darren’s story in full here.