Two
German
Teenagers were apparently held by federal authorities.
customs
officials when trying to access
Hawaii
By airplane, they were expelled from the United States following officials deeming their journey as “questionable.” This incident marks another entry in a series of cases concerning German travelers.
Two German nationals, Charlotte Pohl, aged 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, landed in Hawaii on March 18. They had intended to embark on a five-week journey across the U.S., marking their recent completion of high school.
according to
The German publication Ostsee Zeitung caught their attention. Following this, they planned to explore California prior to making their way southward towards Costa Rica in Central America.
Even though they had obtained an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which permits specific non-citizens to enter the U.S. for brief visits without needing a visa, both women underwent extensive questioning from U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents upon arriving at the Honolulu airport. It’s important to remember that possessing an ESTA does not ensure entry into the country.
“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl told the outlet,
according to
a translation provided by the New York Post.
Before transferring Pohl and Lepere to an external detention facility, officers carried out strip searches and complete body scans. At this new location, they were housed on narrow mattresses and provided with meals that they said had passed their expiration dates.
The teenagers learned the next day that they wouldn’t be allowed entry into the U.S. and would instead be sent back to their homeland. They asked to be taken to Japan.
The German Embassy did not promptly reply to requests for commentary.
The German government
told
The Washington Examiner reported last month that they were looking into whether U.S. immigration policies have changed recently following three distinct cases where individuals with valid documentation were refused entry at border checkpoints and held.
A representative from the German administration informed the Washington Examiner that they were maintaining “frequent communication” with the U.S. government regarding the occurrences.
“The respective Consulates General of the Federal Republic of Germany are informed about these instances and have maintained continuous communication with both the pertinent U.S. agencies and the relatives of those involved,” stated the German official in an emailed message.
The three prior cases under investigation by German authorities entail two visitors and a permanent resident who were detained while trying to gain entry into the U.S. over the last couple of months.
Once, legal permanent U.S. resident Fabian Schmidt was apprehended upon his arrival in Boston and subsequently moved to a federal immigration detention center in Rhode Island earlier this month. Schmidt’s mother, Astrid Senior,
told
WGBH that her 34-year-old son was strip-searched and given a cold shower by customs officials at the airport.
When held up at the airport, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital prior to being moved to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
On January 25th, 29-year-old tattoo artist Jessica Brösche was arrested when she tried to drive her American citizen friend from Tijuana in northern Mexico into San Diego, California.
Broesche was in the U.S. through the ESTA Visa Waiver Program, as stated on a GoFundMe page.
page
arranged by a friend on her behalf. The customs officials informed Brösche that she would face detention for multiple days; however, she was instead sent to and kept at the ICE Otay Mesa Detention Center for about six weeks prior to being let go and returning to Germany.
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Lucas Sielaff, who is 25 years old, came into the U.S. using a tourist visa and went to Tijuana through the same border crossing point where Brösche got arrested. When he tried to come back to the U.S. on February 18th, Sielaff was taken into custody and held for about three weeks, as he mentioned in his account.
interview
alongside the Swiss news source Tages-Anzeiger.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the government body responsible for inspecting individuals entering the country, did not respond to our request for comment.