Berlin is investigating whether US immigration policy has changed, after a German national who is a permanent US resident was detained and “violently interrogated” by US border officials.
Fabian Schmidt, 34, is being held at a detention centre in Rhode Island after attempting to return to his home in New Hampshire after a trip to Luxembourg.
His mother, Astrid Senior, told the Boston-headquartered public broadcaster WGBH news that her son had been “violently interrogated” at Boston’s Logan airport for hours, stripped naked and put in a cold shower by two officials.
A German government spokesperson told Euronews it was aware of the case and those of two other German citizens who were detained when attempting to enter the US and who have subsequently returned to Germany.
“We have recently become aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the USA and were detained for deportation when they entered the country,” the spokesperson, Sebastian Fischer, said.
Two of the three cases had been resolved, Fischer said, adding that the German government was “monitoring the situation” and liaising with other EU countries to assess if these were isolated cases or representative of “a change in American immigration policy”.
Senior told the US broadcaster that immigration agents had put pressure on her son to give up his green card. He had been placed on a mat in a bright room at the airport with little food or water, and denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression.
Schmidt, an electrical engineer, had been returning to the US on 7 March. His mother did not hear from him until 11 March, when he was transferred to hospital after collapsing.
She told NBC news she had no idea why her son had been detained, saying: “I feel helpless, absolutely helpless.”
Schmidt and his mother moved to the US from Germany in 2007 and got permanent resident cards the following year. He renewed his legal permanent residence status last year and has no active legal issues, his mother said, although she added that he had faced misdemeanour charges about 10 years ago.
The US Customs and Border Protection service tol
9 Comments
gnabgib
Related (one of the three) Germany tightens travel advice to US after three citizens detained (182 points, 5 days ago, 168 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43433071
madhacker
So much for "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." We have installed a despotic ruler and his cronies.
jmyeet
If anyone is unfortunate enough to find themselves in a situation where they have legal status and are likewise detained upon re-entering the US, CBP cannot strip you of your green card. Only an immigration judge can do that. CBP may try and pressure you into self-deporting. This article mentions that. You do not have to sign that form and you have an absolutely right to go before an immigration judge.
That being said, the rule of law means increasingly less where the government is now defying court orders with absolutely no repercussions [1].
This is the US in its 1933+ Germany arc.
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-removes-hundreds-alleged…
iLoveOncall
The article mentions a lot of cases, but I'm really wondering if all of this is new following Trump's changes in policies or if it's just business as usual.
All the situations from the article seem like they had a legitimate reason for the person being detained and / or prevented from entering the country, and we also only hear a one-sided story.
I actually travelled to the US yesterday for business meetings and I was a bit worried after all those fear-mongering articles from the past few weeks, but immigration took me literally 3 minutes, and was as easy as when I came 6 months ago.
Manjunath_dn
Is this outrage primarily because of his German nationality? Because this happens regularly to other country citizens..
decimalenough
His mom: "he had faced misdemeanour charges about 10 years ago."
CBP: “When an individual is found with drug-related charges and tries to reenter the country, officers will take proper action.”
Assuming they're both referring to the same incident, the conclusion is that CBP is now turning back Green Card holders who have ever faced any drug-related charges. (It's not clear from the article, but the careful wording "has no active legal issues" suggests that he was convicted.)
rahimnathwani
Although I'm not fully versed in every detail of the case, the article’s phrasing raises serious concerns about its accuracy and intent. For example, this sentence
> And a British woman was detained in “horrendous conditions” for three weeks, her family said, after a *visa mix-up*. [emphasis mine]
implies a simple administrative error. However, as detailed later in the article and supported by well-known facts, the situation was more complex. In reality:
– The woman had been working in the US in exchange for accommodation — an arrangement explicitly prohibited under a tourist visa.
– She then attempted to replicate this arrangement in Canada, only to be turned away.
– By the time she was redirected, US authorities had already identified that she had violated visa regulations by working.
A straightforward search for “work in return for accommodation USA visa” clearly confirms that tourist visas do not permit any form of employment, whether paid in cash or in kind.
It’s understandable that enforcement measures must serve as a deterrent, and not just return the situation to what it should have been. But even if he severity of detention might be debatable in this case, the core issue here is the article’s misleading characterization.
Using the term "visa mix-up" not only downplays the deliberate actions taken by the individual but also appears intended to cast doubt as to whether the fault lies with the individual or with the US government.
eesmith
"No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones."
– Nelson Mandela
the_70x
White privilege is over, welcome to third world treatment