

So leaving a town to you is equivalent to the travel it takes to leave the country?
Other than distance traveled, the time afforded to travel said distance, and providing the requisite documents needed to cross a border(which she had), yes. The article doesn’t mention how often she traveled to Ireland. Maybe she went every other year to celebrate Christmas with her family.
Especially when you say “I never equated hometown and country. I merely used it as a metaphor” I never did… but did. Your two sentences directly contradict.
No, using a metaphorical comparison does not literally equate the two things being compared. A metaphor suggests that one thing is like another in some figurative or symbolic way, not that they are literally the same.
She thought her stuff was expunged. Which clearly it wasn’t since apparently they pulled it up. If it’s still in the records somewhere…
It says in the article that she presented them with documentation of the expungement of her charges. So if she was able to provide them with documentation, it clearly took place. It shouldn’t take a law degree to figure out that having your criminal records expunged doesn’t wipe any trace of them from government databases. It only removes them from the public eye and prevents them from coming up during background checks for things like housing or employment. The government would still have a record of her prior convictions.
What are you not getting about this situation? She traveled with no issue for 2 decades before this. Why would you need to travel with expungement documents in the first place. That doesn’t apply to travel at all, which is why she was released to get them. Being detained by ICE indefinitely isn’t a “that sucks…but that’s just how it goes sometimes” situation. And that’s why there’s an article about it. But if you want keep licking boots, you might just get to the center. I won’t stop you.