I don't know what the exact procedure is for deportations when it comes to the US, but shouldn't those who are deported be allowed to take at least some personal belongings with them?
According to their website:
If ICE officials arrest you, there’s no going back — you may not have time to get your affairs in order, gather your belongings, or even say goodbye to the people you care about.
https://www.ice.gov/self-deportationSo most likely you can't retrieved your hardware wallet or anything related to crypto if you are arrested, unless you do self-deportation.
Correct - I couldnt articulate that myself - this is the crux of the issue, you could be picked up,
detained for a period of time without contact with friends/family and just deported. You may or may
not have your belongings [wallet/cash/smartphone/etc] with you when detained. Anyway as I posted in
the OP I was aiming for the discussion to be more about access to your Bitcoin in such events as opposed
to the case of any deportations. I similar event could be while you are an extended holiday in a
different country and are unable to return home due to whatever reasons. I know, I know you
could just "call a friend" and get money transferred to your account.
Outside of asking a family member/friend to retrieve your HW wallet and/or seed
What do you do in such a scenario?
The best and only viable option is to get out of the jurisdiction that may do these things to you (ie. reverse migration back home), specially now that the world is moving toward a larger scale armed conflict.
and a more violent, aggressive and hardline approach from right thinking populations on agendas
like immigration which often paints a lot of people with the one brush. More and more people
could find themselves in such a situation as per the thread theme.
So I didnt want to discuss the rights and wrongs of deportation specifically rather to discuss making
sure we put plans in place to make sure as best we can that we have access to our finances in
whatever situations arise.
Honestly this isn't the advice we should be sharing base on what OP shared, instead of saying that brainwallet or cloud backup isn't generally bad in this type of situation why can't we advice people to stay away from crime, any type of crime that can get you deported from a foreign country abstain from it.
OP labeled her, the old woman as ordinary, I refuse to believe it, it is nothing out of the ordinary that some people are doing everything they can to survive in today's world, these people can't be clean and still get deported, ordinary residents? They are not ordinary.
OP clearly ask how to keep having access to Bitcoin in such scenario, rather than preventing such scenario. I won't debate whether the deportation (along with asset confiscation) is justifiable or not.
correct ABC