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Posted

Held in solitary confinement for nine days.

German Tourists Detained for Weeks, Then Deported From U.S.
Amid President Trump’s border crackdown, German news media have closely followed the treatment of two tourists who say they tried to enter the United States legally.

Chained, detained for weeks and eventually deported, two German tourists trying to enter the United States were recently tangled in a system responding to President Trump’s push to sharply restrict entry and deport people en masse.

The cases of Jessica Brösche, held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, held for 16, and accounts of their rough handling by immigration officers, have grabbed headlines in Germany as a sign of what being caught on the wrong side of the White House’s immigration policy could mean for European travelers.

Tourists from most European countries, including Germany, generally enjoy visa-free travel to the United States for up to 90 days. But Mr. Sielaff and Ms. Brösche were stopped, separately, at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, told that they were being denied entry and sent to a crowded detention center, according to their own accounts and those of their friends.

Mr. Sielaff said he was denied a translator and had trouble understanding what was happening to him. Ms. Brösche’s friends said she was kept in solitary confinement for nine days. By their accounts, both were flown back to Germany without a clear understanding of why they were detained in the first place.

“Sometimes I just wake up because I have nightmares of this situation and what happened,” Mr. Sielaff, 25, said in an interview. “And I just try to go for walks and calm down.”

The family of a tourist from Britain, Becky Burke, 28, says she has been held for more than two weeks in Washington State, similarly caught up in the system but unsure why.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, did not respond on Thursday to requests for comment on their cases.

Cont'd: https://archive.is/MDDcs

 

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Posted

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

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Posted
12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

I'd been planning to travel abroad this summer. Not now.

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Posted

If this keeps up, and I have no reason to think it won’t, we’re going to see a dramatic drop in international travel to the US. It would not shock me in the least if second tier airports, like AUS, lose their transatlantic flights or, at the least, see a big drawdown in frequency. 

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Posted

Yet another German citizen, in addition to the other two from the story above:

US resident ‘violently interrogated’ on way home from Luxembourg
Fabian Schmidt, a permanent resident in the US since 2008, was detained after returning from the Grand Duchy, his mother has said

A green card holder living in the US for almost two decades was detained by American immigration authorities and “violently interrogated” after returning from Luxembourg, his mother has said.

Fabian Schmidt, a German citizen and green card holder living in New Hampshire, was detained at Logan International Airport in Boston over a week ago on his return from Luxembourg, Newsweek reported on Saturday.

The 34-year-old electrical engineer has been living in the USA since 2007 and has held a permanent residence permit since 2008.

On his return to the USA, Schmidt was told by officials from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that his green card had been “flagged”.

He was reportedly questioned intensively for several hours without being told why. His mother told Newsweek that her son was “violently interrogated” by two officers, stripped naked, placed under a cold shower and pressured to surrender his green card.

Schmidt was deprived of sleep, food and water - as well as his prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, according to the news report. He eventually collapsed and was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with the flu.

The US CBP denied the allegations, with assistant commissioner of public affairs Hilton Beckham telling Newsweek: “These claims are blatantly false with respect to CBP.”

Schmidt was later transferred to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) regional headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and then to the Donald W. Wyatt prison in Rhode Island, where he remains at the time of writing.

His family, including his partner and their eight-year-old daughter, both US citizens, have reportedly not received an explanation. They state that Schmidt’s green card was recently renewed and that he has no outstanding legal issues. His partner is working with a lawyer and the German consulate to secure his release on bail.

Schmidt has a minor criminal record, with one charge of marijuana possession of less than 30 grams, dropped in 2015, and one charge of drink-driving dating back more than ten years ago, which has since been settled.

According to legal experts, green card holders can be deported for certain offences, even if they are minor or time-barred. However, Schmidt's case appears to be extreme and raises questions about the treatment of legal residents in the US.

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Posted
10 hours ago, bolverk said:

image.png.ccef39b662623f4f25e5f2b78b9b181e.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/us/brown-university-rasha-alawieh-professor-deported.html

A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

Customs and Border Protection did not respond on Sunday to questions from The New York Times about why Dr. Alawieh had been detained and deported. Lebanon is not included on a draft list of nations from which the Trump administration is considering banning entry to the United States.

A hearing in Dr. Alawieh’s case is scheduled for Monday.

Court documents related to the case were provided to The New York Times by Clare Saunders, a member of the legal team representing Ms. Chehab, who filed petitions to prevent her cousin’s deportation, and then to request that her cousin be allowed to return to the United States.

Ms. Chehab’s petitions name several members of the Trump administration as defendants, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Peter Flores.

Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.

According to Ms. Chehab’s complaint, when Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

Ms. Saunders, the lawyer, said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off.

Dr. Alawieh graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2015. Three years later, she came to the United States, where she held medical fellowships at the Ohio State University and the University of Washington, and then worked as a resident at Yale.

Before the new visa was issued, she held a J-1 visa, a type commonly used by foreign students.

There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh’s area of specialty, transplant nephrology. Foreign-born physicians play an important role in the field, according to experts.

Fear over immigration status could “harm the pipeline even more,” said Dr. George Bayliss, who works in the Brown Medicine kidney transplant program with Dr. Alawieh.

Her patients included individuals awaiting transplants and those dealing with the complex conditions that can occur after a transplant, Dr. Bayliss said. He called Dr. Alawieh “a very talented, very thoughtful physician.”

“We are all outraged,” he added, “and none of us know why this happened.”

In a Sunday letter to members of the university community, Brown’s administration advised foreign students, ahead of spring break, to “consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the U.S. Department of State.”

This one is frankly quite different.  She was on a non-immigrant visa and was found ineligible for admission when she presented herself for admission at a port of entry. 
 

Reporting on this stuff is notoriously bad with muddled and confused terms.  Under U.S. law, arriving at an airport is the same as arrival via a land crossing or boat.  She was not deported, she was denied entry.  A non-immigrant visa is explicitly NOT a right to entry, is is a right to present yourself for admission to an immigration officer.  

That’s not a comment on the substance of the denial or the timeline as laid out.  Just a statement of fact that there are very different rights and due process involved when removing someone from the United States (even if that person entered illegally) versus denying someone entry to the United States. 

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Posted

Also relevant on this and the deportation language: When a person is denied entry at an airport, it’s the airline (not the government) that is on the hook to take the person back on the next available flight to the departure origin. Airlines can also be fined, although that usually doesn’t happen if the person had a valid, checked visa. They will levy a fine if someone shows up with an expired visa or passport or something. 
 

 

Posted
57 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This one is frankly quite different.  She was on a non-immigrant visa and was found ineligible for admission when she presented herself for admission at a port of entry. 
 

Reporting on this stuff is notoriously bad with muddled and confused terms.  Under U.S. law, arriving at an airport is the same as arrival via a land crossing or boat.  She was not deported, she was denied entry.  A non-immigrant visa is explicitly NOT a right to entry, is is a right to present yourself for admission to an immigration officer.  

That’s not a comment on the substance of the denial or the timeline as laid out.  Just a statement of fact that there are very different rights and due process involved when removing someone from the United States (even if that person entered illegally) versus denying someone entry to the United States. 

Turns out she had also attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah while she was in Lebanon. She also had photos of him and Iran’s supreme leader on her phone. These are not smart things for her to have done.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/us/brown-university-doctor-deported-hnk/index.html

 

Posted
8 hours ago, royiv said:

Turns out she had also attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah while she was in Lebanon. She also had photos of him and Iran’s supreme leader on her phone. These are not smart things for her to have done.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/us/brown-university-doctor-deported-hnk/index.html

 

Up top, let me say that CBP under DJT and Noem appear to have gone completely buck-wild and cruel.  On this case, things are much less on the side of the traveler, and any CBP under any admin likely would have bounced her. 

This CBS article is better reported and explains what actually happened.

Quote

According to now-sealed court filings, a Brown University doctor from Lebanon was denied entry into the United Statesafter Customs and Border Protection found images of Hezbollah fighters on her phone. 

Dr. Rasha Alawieh was granted an HB1 or work visa on March 11. On March 13, she flew into Boston's Logan Airport where CBP officials searched her phone and conducted an interview with her, court documents state. 

During that interview, a Customs and Border Protection official asked Alawieh why she had photos of Hezbollah on her phone, including photos of the designated terror group's assassinated leader, Hassan Nasrallah. She allegedly told the official that some of the photos came from family and friends from a WhatsApp group and that Nasrallah, "Is a religious and spiritual person."

Allegedly attended Hezbollah rally  

According to the court documents, Alawieh also admitted to attending a Hezbollah rally. 

"I attended the commemoration of the death of Nasrallah during this trip while I was waiting for my visa," she allegedly told the official. 

After the interview, the government stated it denied Alawieh's admission into the U.S. and revoked her visa. She was put on a flight back to Paris and is now in Lebanon.

In a separate article, it’s being reported that her lawyers all quit after doing more due diligence. Not a great vote of confidence. 
 

https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/hearing-new-england-doctor-deported-lebanon-canceled-after-attorneys-withdraw-case/RYRF2XCVO5BTNOURS72F6RQGH4/?outputType=amp

Quote

BOSTON — A hearing scheduled for Mondayconcerning the deportation of a New England-based professor and doctor was canceled after most of the attorneys associated with the plaintiff withdrew from the case.

An order from Boston federal court Judge Leo Sorokin said the request from the attorneys representing 34-year-old Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Brown University Medical School in Rhode Island, came “as a result of further diligence.”

A couple of thoughts: 

1. The only real legal question I see is if CBP ignored a court order they received before she was on a plane back. CBP engages in a lot of ratfuckery, so that could have happened.

2. It is super, super unusual for a federal judge to get involved of questions of entry or order a denial of entry be reviewed/delayed. There is no legal right for a non-immigrant to enter the United States. This is very different from a deportation.  I suspect there were some inaccuracies of the facts in the filing (which likely led to the lawyers withdrawing).

3.  Reports say that the doctor’s cousin filed a lawsuit on behalf of her.  This would likely get tossed because there is no right denied or actual harm done to you if your cousin isn’t allowed to enter the United States. The sponsor of the visa was Brown, not the cousin.  It is longstanding precedent to toss lawsuits filed by Americans who demand that their relatives have a right to come visit; and in this case the woman’s stated reason to travel was to work for an employer so her cousin has fuck-all to do with it.  

4. When an immigration officer is interviewing you as a non-immigrant for admission, it’s not a legal proceeding where you get due process. Basic human rights are due to you but you don’t have Constitutional rights as a foreign citizen who has not yet entered the U.S.

5.  Hard to say why she got yanked for additional screening.  Oftentimes CBP gets tips. They 100 percent have the right to search your shit including phones, you can choose to refuse ans not to answer questions and take the next plane back.  Entry into the U.S. is basically the only chance the government has to do a full and hard screening with no warrant or order, and they will do it if they suspect you of shadiness

I don’t think she herself is a terrorist, but at the same time I can also say that there’s very few CBP officers who are going to let you in if you tell them you were back in Lebanon and went to the funeral of the leader of a transnational terror celebrity because you dig his spirituality.  That’s been true for decades. My suspicion is that the family decided to try to use the justified anger over current behavior to try and exploit public opinion. 

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Posted
7 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

My suspicion is that the family decided to try to use the justified anger over current behavior to try and exploit public opinion. 

Yep, and to the media’s credit, upon further review, they didn’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe, and this is now backfiring in her family’s face, big-time. Her reputation is now ruined in the West. 

Posted
On 3/17/2025 at 9:30 AM, Brisketexan said:

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

Yeah, wife and I have a trip to Spain (via Mexico City) in September.  Really hope things don't go off the rails even more by then but I'm sure they will.

Posted

If you're brown and a citizen, watch out. ICE may black bag your ass anyways

https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/03/13/chicago-attorneys-accuse-federal-agents-of-violating-immigrants-rights-and-take-legal-action

The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.

“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Captainant said:

If you're brown and a citizen, watch out. ICE may black bag your ass anyways

https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/03/13/chicago-attorneys-accuse-federal-agents-of-violating-immigrants-rights-and-take-legal-action

The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.

“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”

If only there was some way we could have seen this coming. 

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Posted (edited)

 ICE is disappearing people in New Mexico

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/new-mexico-ice-arrests-aclu-complaint-b2717442.html

Civil rights attorneys are sounding the alarm after 48 New Mexico residents “disappeared” after their arrests by federal immigration enforcement agents this month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not indicated where any of them are being detained, whether they have access to counsel, in what conditions they are being held, or even which agency is holding them,” according to a federal complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

They have been “effectively forcibly disappeared from our communities,” attorneys wrote.

At least 48 people ICE described as “illegal aliens” were arrested in a week-long series of operations in Albuquerque, Roswell, and Santa Fe earlier this month, according to the agency. But only 21 people had final orders of removal from the country.

“This is not just a procedural issue — it’s a serious human rights violation,” according to Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at ACLU of New Mexico.

“When the government takes people into custody and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it places these individuals outside the protection of the law,” she said in a statement. “Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights standards.”

Edited by Captainant
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Posted
6 hours ago, Captainant said:

 ICE is disappearing people in New Mexico

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/new-mexico-ice-arrests-aclu-complaint-b2717442.html

Civil rights attorneys are sounding the alarm after 48 New Mexico residents “disappeared” after their arrests by federal immigration enforcement agents this month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not indicated where any of them are being detained, whether they have access to counsel, in what conditions they are being held, or even which agency is holding them,” according to a federal complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

They have been “effectively forcibly disappeared from our communities,” attorneys wrote.

At least 48 people ICE described as “illegal aliens” were arrested in a week-long series of operations in Albuquerque, Roswell, and Santa Fe earlier this month, according to the agency. But only 21 people had final orders of removal from the country.

“This is not just a procedural issue — it’s a serious human rights violation,” according to Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at ACLU of New Mexico.

“When the government takes people into custody and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it places these individuals outside the protection of the law,” she said in a statement. “Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights standards.”

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

The same people who believe the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” also believe that their government is trustworthy enough to deport people and incarcerate them indefinitely in foreign prisons. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

A day or two ago, NPR interviewed the mother of one of the Venezuelans, and she said her son agreed to sign a deportation form (I don't know exactly what that is, but you probably do), thinking they would send him back to Venezuela with the understanding that "surely, the United States would respect human rights." She claimed he had no criminal record and had never been a member of any gang. Sure, that could very well be a "he's a good kid" kind of thing, but the reporter indicated that the regime had admitted many of them did not have criminal records.

All of the above might not be new news since I haven't followed this particular story closely other than what I've read here on Surly.

Posted

Detained Canadian shares her story. I have no idea how we got here. I do but am amazed at the insanity of it all.

Like with all this bullshit. Someone is making a shitton of money from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

 

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.

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Posted
51 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Detained Canadian shares her story. I have no idea how we got here. I do but am amazed at the insanity of it all.

Like with all this bullshit. Someone is making a shitton of money from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

 

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.

 

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