Retired UK Grandmother Shackled, Stripped of Luggage and Held 42 Days by ICE Sounds Alarm Ahead of 2026 World Cup

Karen Newton just wanted some sun. After eight years without a holiday abroad, the 65-year-old grandmother from Hertfordshire packed her bags in July 2025 for a two-month road trip across America with her husband Bill. She had a valid British passport, a valid tourist visa, and no criminal record—not even a parking ticket, as she later put it. None of it mattered.

What followed was 42 days of shackles, a concrete floor, confiscated belongings, and no meaningful help from British authorities. Newton came home to dead houseplants, a damaged credit score, unpaid bills, and a suitcase she will never see again. Speaking publicly for the first time, she has a clear message for anyone considering a trip to the US: 'Don't go—not with Trump in charge.'

How It Unravelled

The trip itself was everything Newton had hoped for. Yellowstone moved her—a bison beside the car, a wolf passing at close range. It was at the US-Canada border in late September that everything fell apart. Canadian officials turned the couple back over a paperwork issue with their hire car. When they crossed back to the American side, border agents flagged that Bill's US visa had expired. Karen's had not.

She expected a brief delay, perhaps an escort to an airport. Instead, both were made to wait in a border office from mid-morning until dark before agents arrived with chains. The couple were shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles, driven through the night to a Montana border station, and held there for three days on floor mats under foil blankets. When Newton asked why she specifically was being detained, she was told only that a supervisor had ordered it.

Interviewed without a lawyer, despite being told she was entitled to one because she was being detained rather than arrested, Newton says she was informed she was 'guilty by association' for having helped her husband pack. Officials then suggested she sign up for Project Homecoming, the Trump administration's voluntary self-removal scheme, which promised a swift return home. She agreed, not realising she had signed away her right to see a judge and accepted a potential 10-year US ban. She had no idea she still had six weeks ahead of her.

Inside Tacoma

The couple were transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, where Newton was separated from Bill and taken to the women's unit. When she said she could not climb to a top bunk, she was offered the floor. That is where she slept for a month — on a thin mattress, in a windowless room where the lights never went out. On one occasion she woke, made herself tea, and assumed it was morning. The clock read 2330. She had been asleep for three hours.

She did not call her son Scott for weeks. 'It was humiliating,' she said. 'I was ashamed to be locked up.' The British consulate, when she eventually reached someone, said it could not interfere and never followed up. Weekly ICE updates offered the same two words: 'two weeks.' On 6 November, without warning, a guard opened her cell door. She was going home — still shackled for the drive to Seattle-Tacoma airport.

A Warning for World Cup Fans

Newton's story lands at a moment of particular tension for international travel to the US. The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on 11 June, with 78 matches spread across 11 American host cities through to the final on 19 July in New Jersey. Tourism Economics projects the tournament will bring approximately 1.2 million international visitors to the US — fans from football-mad nations across Europe, South America, and beyond, many of whom will be navigating American borders for the first time under the current administration.

Newton does not think they fully understand what they could be walking into. 'I worry about young people going out there for the World Cup — I really do,' she said. 'I imagine a group of young guys getting drunk at a game, getting arrested. I could see them easily ending up in the same place as I did.' Her concern is not abstract. The American Immigration Council reported that ICE detention numbers rose by nearly 75% in 2025, reaching record levels, driven largely by arrests of people with no criminal record. Newton is direct about the motive. 'I think it's Trump insisting they generate figures,' she said. 'ICE just do it because they can.'

The numbers already tell a story. The US recorded 4.5 million fewer international visitors in 2025, with UK arrivals down 15%. The World Travel and Tourism Council put the cost to America at $12.5 billion (£9.9 billion) in lost revenue. Newton spent 42 days inside that system with every document she needed to be there legally. 'If it can happen to me,' she said, 'it can happen to anybody.' As millions of football fans prepare to book flights to American host cities this summer, that question has yet to receive a convincing answer from either tournament organisers or travel authorities.