Baxter Reid, a 26-year-old native of Canberra, was traveling to the US-Canada border with his American girlfriend, Heather Kansco. Reid's visa was to expire at midnight, April 24, but he and Kansco arrived at the border at 10:00 p.m. on April 23. They had meant to arrive sooner, but according to Kansco car troubles delayed them.
While crossing the US-Canada border is typically a painless process, Canadian authorities held Reid for three and a half hours. According to Kansco, "the people working border patrol started giving us a bit of a hard time. They spent hours asking us remedial questions and giving us the run around, with hours of dead time in between."
By then, midnight had come and gone, the carriage had turned back into a pumpkin, and Reid was in the US illegally — causing the American border police to arrest him. "The US border patrol ended up taking Baxter away, because after waiting for hours with the Canadians, he technically violated his Visa requirements and was illegally in the US for a SINGLE HOUR," wrote Kansco.
"This is a man who has no prior incidents with the law, not in the US or his native Australia. Now, because of beuarucacy [sic] and an unwillingness to listen to him he is being charged as felon under random immigration laws — imagine going out of your way to comply with the law, and having the people who are meant to uphold it sabotage you and turn you into the criminal."
Reid is being held at Buffalo Federal Detention Center, where as many as six months could pass before his case comes before a judge.
His father, Tom, has called the experience surreal and frustrating, but also said his son "seems to be in good spirits… He's a kid with a sense of adventure; traveling overseas and living life so he doesn't deserve this."
According to Kansco, Reid's five-year visa required him to leave and re-enter the country every six months. She claims that he remained calm as he was arrested, but she, "held it together until they put the handcuffs on him. I kind of haven't been able to stop crying. It just makes no sense to me."
Kansco has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her boyfriend's legal fees. In three days, the fundraiser reached and broke its $8,000 goal. "This has been the longest we've been apart," she said. "I'm more than willing to go back to [Australia] as soon as he gets out."
