An American woman who has been married to her British husband for 12 years has been deported to the US due to problems with her UK visa.
Samantha Price, who had undergone treatment for breast cancer while living in Birmingham with husbands David, was sent to the Yarl’s Wood detention centre after overstaying her UK visitors’ visa. Mrs Price said she was woken at the centre and only had time for a brief phone call to her husband before she was put on a plane for Texas.
Mr Price told Metro: “I got a phone call at 5am from her. She told me ‘They are taking me now. I love you. I don’t know when I will see you again.’
“Then the phone was taken off her. I don’t know why Sam or I weren’t told about her imminent removal. It’s a disgusting way to operate. She is the wife of a British citizen. We are in love and have been married for 12 years yet she has been ripped away from me like this.”
The couple married in Texas in 2004 and lived there until Mr Price was told her had to leave because he had overstayed his visa. Because of this, he cannot join his wife in the US.
Mrs Price had a mastectomy for breast cancer in 2013 and said that she was expecting further test results when she was removed from the UK.
The Home Office said that Mrs Price’s deportation had been delayed to allow her to be treated for cancer. It said she had been in the UK illegally for five years after the end of her six month visitors’ visa.
A spokesman said: “Mrs Price did not regularise her stay in the UK, and declined the option of returning to the USA voluntarily on several occasions. For this reason, and after her cancer treatment, we made arrangements for her removal from the UK.”