Breaking down report British grandmother on tourist visa was detained by ICE

In February 2026, a claim spread online that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained a British grandmother named Karen Newton for six weeks despite her valid tourist visa. 

Posts circulating on Facebook (screenshot), X and Bluesky shared Newton’s story as fact. Snopes readers also wrote in to ask if ICE detained a “British tourist” named Karen Newton for six weeks. 

This story originated with a Feb. 21, 2026, report (archived) from The Guardian, a reputable, progressive newspaper based in the United Kingdom. According to The Guardian, ICE detained Newton, a 65-year-old British tourist and grandmother, in September 2025. 

In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that federal immigration officers did, in fact, detain a woman named Karen Newton. ICE and DHS did not confirm Newton’s nationality, age, length of detention or whether she had grandchildren, but the agency also did not dispute these basic details as published by The Guardian. 

The Guardian reported that Newton had a valid tourist visa. DHS said former President Joe Biden’s administration issued her a tourist visa in 2023, but the agency did not explicitly address whether she was legally in the country at the time of her detention. The DHS statement said Newton and her husband both previously violated U.S. immigration law by overstaying, and that the couple’s history warranted “additional scrutiny and detention.” 

The Guardian did not immediately return a request for Newton’s contact information so Snopes could independently verify Newton’s story. As such, we have not rated this claim. 

Here’s what we know:

The Guardian report

According to The Guardian’s report — published with the headline “‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks” — Newton and her husband, Bill Newton, traveled to the United States for a “dream holiday” that took them through California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and then onto Canada for “over two months.” A typical tourist visa in the United States grants a stay of up to six months and is valid for up to 10 years, according to immigration law firms, although the immigration official at the port of entry ultimately determines the length of stay. 

The details of Newton’s subsequent detention as shared on social media largely aligned with The Guardian’s report. For example, The Guardian reported that Newton was a British national, a grandmother, had a valid tourist visa and that ICE detained her for six weeks (emphasis ours): 

Karen, 65, had a British passport and a tourist visa.

[…]

The dream holiday ended abruptly on Friday 26 September, as Karen and Bill were trying to leave the US. When they crossed the border, Canadian officials told them they didn’t have the correct paperwork to bring the car with them. They were turned back to Montana on the American side – and to US border control officials. Bill’s US visa had expired; Karen’s had not.

“I worried then,” she says. “I was worried for him. I thought, well, at least I am here to support him.”

She didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of an ordeal that would see Karen handcuffed, shackled and sleeping on the floor of a locked cell, before being driven for 12 hours through the night to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre. Karen was incarcerated for a total of six weeks – even though she had been travelling with a valid visa.

Karen has no criminal record. She is a grandmother who spent eight years working as an admin assistant at a primary school before her retirement. “I don’t even have parking tickets in the background anywhere,” she says. “I am not a dangerous criminal. I didn’t enter the country illegally and I had everything I needed to be there.”

According to The Guardian, Newton was held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. In an email, The GEO Group, a Florida-based private company that runs the Tacoma detention center on contract with ICE, directed any questions about specific detainees to ICE. 

DHS response

In an email, DHS sent a statement similar to one the agency shared on X. Neither the statement on X — which included a screenshot of The Guardian’s headline about Newton — nor the statement sent via email disputed that Newton was a 65-year-old British grandmother who ICE detained for six weeks.

Both statements also aligned with The Guardian’s reporting on the events leading up to the Newtons’ detentions: Canadian officials turned away the Newtons when they attempted to cross into Canada from the United States because they didn’t have the right paperwork for their vehicle. U.S. officials then detained the Newtons during their inspection on reentry into the United States. 

However, DHS also shared additional allegations that The Guardian did not: The agency claimed Newton’s husband previously overstayed an H1-B visa, a temporary worker visa that allows people to temporarily come to the United States to work in highly specialized occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher. DHS also said the U.S. government previously banned Newton from entering the country because she overstayed her “visa waiver admission,” which allows most noncitizens of certain countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days. 

Still, DHS’ statement did not state that Newton was in the country illegally at the time of her detention. 

Here’s the full statement shared via email: 

Here are the facts. William Newton broke the laws of our country and was in the country illegally for nearly 20 years overstaying an H1-B visa. Karen Newton has also violated the laws of this country, and overstayed her visa waiver admission for almost 4 years. She was banned from the US for 10 years. The Biden administration granted her a tourist visa after her ban ended in 2023 . In September of 2025 she and her husband—who has been unlawfully present in the U.S. for nearly 20 years—attempted to cross the Canadian border, they did not have proper paperwork for their vehicle and were denied entry into Canada.

During her inspection re-entering the United States , she was unable to provide clear details about her situation, including her husband’s legal status. Given her history of overstays, her previous ban, her husband’s unlawful presence, and the vehicle documentation issues, officers determined additional scrutiny and detention were warranted under the law and she was detained. 

In contrast, The Guardian reported that Newton believed ICE officers may have detained her because, allegedly, “ICE officers are paid a bonus every time they detain someone.” According to The Guardian, she repeatedly heard this allegation from guards at the ICE facility. 

ICE did not immediately return an inquiry as to whether ICE agents receive money per arrest. The Guardian reported that ICE denied the allegation.