Even if you travel legally to the US, it is no longer certain that you will be allowed into the country. In recent weeks, several cases of Germans with regular residence permits being detained in America have become known.
Citizens of most EU countries are entitled to travel to the US for 90 days without a visa, after filling out an electronic form and passing the necessary checks. So why were four German citizens held for weeks by US immigration authorities?
With a green card and no charges, but held for weeks
"I feel helpless", Astrid Senior told local media in the US city of Boston after her son Fabian Schmidt was detained at the airport on March 7. Senior and Schmidt are not tourists - they have been in the US legally on green cards since 2007.
Schmidt was questioned for hours, his mother said. The 34-year-old was returning from a visit to Germany. At the border, he was told his green card had been "marked for inspection." Senior said her son was left without food, water and sleep, and his anxiety medication was taken away. His condition deteriorated to the point that he had to be taken to a nearby hospital. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Schmidt was taken to the hospital, but said they could not provide any details. Schmidt's attorney, David Keller, said neither he nor his client had been told why he was being held.
John Guion of the U.S. Immigration Lawyers Association explains that there is no legal limit to how long an arrest can be made under ICE's jurisdiction without stating the reason for the arrest. "In the past, ICE had a policy of providing a reason within 72 hours. "It seems like that's not the practice anymore," says Gion.
Schmidt's mother says her son has had trouble with law enforcement in the past, but they were minor offenses — driving under the influence and possession of marijuana — that were dropped after the laws on the matter changed. In 2022, Schmidt failed to appear in court after a summons was not forwarded to his new address in New Hampshire. "Fabian told me he was scared," Senior said of his son, an electrical engineer with an 8-year-old daughter. The man was worried he would be forced to give up his green card.
Schmidt remains in custody in Rhode Island, where activists are already gathering to protest his detention. The German Foreign Ministry announced that the consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Boston is assisting the German citizen and his family.
Tourists in detention for weeks
25-year-old Lukas Zilaff told "Spiegel" that he went through a similar thing earlier this month. He was released after two weeks and deported to Germany. "I was angry, sad and scared," Zilaff told the German media. The man was traveling to meet his fiancée, who lives in the US state of Nevada. The couple decided to go to Mexico to take their sick dog to the vet - it is easier to get appointments there. Zilaff is being questioned upon his return to the United States - the man suspects that immigration authorities have decided that he is living in the United States illegally and has been trying to circumvent the 90-day rule by leaving the country briefly and returning.
Zilaff says he was shackled at the waist and legs and taken to an immigration detention center in California. There, he was put in a cell with 128 other men. After two weeks of being held without being given any information about his case, he was put on a plane to Munich.
Jessica Brösche, a tattoo artist from Berlin, had a similar story, spending several weeks in an IMS detention center earlier this year. Broche was crossing the border between Mexico and the United States on January 15 when border police found her tattoo equipment in her luggage and decided she was trying to bring it in to work illegally in the United States.
Celine Flood is another German woman who has run into trouble with US immigration authorities while trying to go on holiday to New York and Miami. The 22-year-old student told Der Spiegel that although she had valid documents and permission to enter the United States, she was told there was a "problem" with her passport. She was detained for 24 hours and repeatedly asked why she wanted to enter the United States. Flood also said that her phone was taken away at the border and immigration officials looked at her photos. The young woman showed them hotel reservations in New York and Miami and her plane ticket to Cancun, Mexico, where she was supposed to go after the United States. However, she was told that she was being sent back to Germany as soon as possible without being told why.
Warning for travel to the US
These four Germans are certainly not the only tourists or legal residents in the US who have found themselves in a similar situation with immigration authorities since Donald Trump took office. The US president even tried to use an 18th century law to throw even more immigrants in prison, but the decision was blocked by the courts.
Travelers from other countries that have a visa-free regime with the US, such as Canada and France, have reported similar incidents with their citizens. It has even reached the point where the German Foreign Ministry has issued a warning for citizens traveling to the US. The statement emphasizes that the fact that you have a visa or residence permit does not necessarily mean that you will be allowed into the country. The ministry told DW that it "takes these incidents very seriously".