Photo: Collected
Three German citizens have recently been denied entry to the United States and placed in detention, leading Berlin to question if there has been a possible "change in American immigration policy". Tourists from several Western countries have reportedly been detained by US immigration authorities in the past few weeks, apparently caught up in President Donald Trump's tough crackdown on immigration.
"We have recently become aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the United States and were taken into custody," foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said. Two of the cases had been resolved, Fischer said, but Germany remained "in contact with the local authorities" regarding the third case. Germany was "monitoring the situation" and liaising with other EU countries to assess "whether this represents a change in American immigration policy... or whether these are isolated cases", he said.
"Once we have a clear picture, we will then, if necessary, adjust our travel and security advice," he said. Germany's Der Spiegel magazine has named the German man still in detention as Fabian Schmidt, an electrical engineer who has been living in the United States since 2007.
Schmidt was arrested at Logan Airport in Boston on March 14, according to US media, and was being held in the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island. His green card had just been renewed and there were no ongoing legal proceedings against him, according to his family.
Lucas Sielaff, a 25-year-old German, was detained on February 18 as he and his US fiancee were crossing the border from Mexico, according to Der Spiegel. Jessica Broesche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, was also taken into custody at the Mexican border as she tried to cross with a US friend in late January, the magazine said.
Messenger/JRTarek
