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An Australian man was detained by border police for overstaying his American visa for 90 minutes.
According to Canberra Times, 26-year-old Baxter Reid and his American girlfriend Heather Kancso arrived at the Canadian border聽around 10 p.m. on April 23, a couple of hours before his visa would聽expire. However, they聽were interrogated for hours before they were denied entry and sent back to the US border at around 1:30 a.m., or one and a half聽hours after聽his visa lapsed.
Canadian officials had feared that Reid鈥檚 bid for a聽visa renewal would be聽rejected by the US and that he would become Canada鈥檚 鈥減roblem,鈥� the report said. Although Reid is a holder of a five-year visa, he is required to exit聽the US every six months.
鈥淔or some reason, the Canadians kept them until 1:30 a.m. and then they refused them entry,鈥� Reid鈥檚 father, Tom, said. 鈥淭hey returned them to the United States and by then they were an hour and a half over the visa, and [he] got locked up.鈥�
Kancso also admitted to the site that their car broke down several times, turning the usual seven-hour drive to the border to 15 hours.
Because of the incident, Reid,聽now held at the聽Buffalo Federal Detention Center in New York, is scheduled to appear in court next week and could be granted bail, Sydney Morning Herald reported. While waiting for Reid鈥檚 hearing, Kancso created a to raise funds for Reid鈥檚 legal expenses.
鈥淭his is going to make a criminal out of an innocent man,鈥� Kancso wrote on the page. 鈥淭his is a man who has no prior incidents with the law, not in the US or his native Australia.鈥� 聽Gianna Francesca Catolico /ra