Some German tourists, fearing harassment or detention, are avoiding U.S.

Los Angeles Times

17-05-2025

BERLIN — Jessica Lia Brösche is a Berlin tattoo artist who was escaping the frigid German winter in the sunshine of northern Mexico. She planned to add a short trip across the border to visit a friend in Los Angeles. But she never made it.
Brösche was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she tried to enter the United States near San Diego on Jan. 26 — six days after President Trump's inauguration. The 29-year-old German national was held at the Otay Mesa detention center for six weeks before she was allowed to fly home.
'They treat you at the border like you're a criminal,' Brösche told The Times after returning to Berlin. 'I only wanted to visit a friend in L.A. for a few days.'
The German consulate did not comment on the case. In an email to the Associated Press, ICE did not discuss Brösche's case in detail but said that 'if statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal.'
Brösche's detention made headlines across Europe.
'Berlin woman endures 'horror story' in U.S. detention center while facing deportation,' wrote one German newspaper. 'Is the USA cracking down on German tourists entering the country?' wrote another.
Brösche's experience — and media reports of other Germans or Europeans being detained by immigration authorities — may have contributed to a chill in travel to the United States, which is normally one of the most popular overseas destinations for Germans, with more than 2 million visitors each year.
There was an appreciable drop in visitors to the United States from Europe in March, after the Trump administration introduced an aggressive crackdown on immigration. The number of German visitors fell most precipitously — 28% fewer in March compared to the previous March, according to data from the International Trade Administration, a German government agency.
There were also far fewer Germans arriving in California in March, down 26% to 20,847 from March 2024, the agency said.
Visit California, a nonprofit organization for tourism, recently lowered its forecast for 2025 spending by all visitors in the state by $6 billion to $160 billion after seeing the first quarter decline.
Reflecting diminished demand to visit California, airfares from Germany have fallen too. Seats on mid-summer round-trip flights from Berlin to Los Angeles can now be found for as little as $500, or about half as expensive as a year ago.
The trend has raised alarm because visitors from abroad have an important impact on the U.S. economy — especially in California, one of the leading destinations for German tourists.
Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, told The Times that his independent organization had lowered its forecast for tourism to the U.S. from a gain of 9% in 2025 to a drop of 9% because of the turbulence caused since Trump took office.
'Simply put, international leisure travelers have complete discretion on when and where they travel, and negative perceptions are reducing interest in visiting the U.S.,' Sacks wrote in an email.
Germans, who receive six weeks of paid vacation each year, are among the world's most hearty travelers and their absence this summer would likely be felt at California hot spots such as Universal Studios, Disneyland, beaches and Death Valley. Germans spent $112 billion on foreign travel in 2023, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, trailing only Chinese visitors ($197 billion) and Americans ($150 billion).
Residents of other countries have sworn off U.S. travel to protest Trump's policies on immigration, foreign affairs or tariffs. Many Canadians have been staying away, most notably from Palm Springs, which usually hosts a large contingent of Canadians.
The decline in German tourists, however, reflects not politics, but fear.
Brösche was widely quoted in the German press as saying that she was held in a small cell for nine days. 'Being in solitary confinement was hard,' she told The Times. 'I had headaches and started getting panic attacks. I was on the verge of losing it.' The company that owns the detention center, CoreCivic, has denied she was held in such confinement.
'I love traveling to the States but I don't think I'm going to risk it this year,' said Karolina Pieper, a 39-year-old civil servant from Mainz who usually vacations in the United States three times each year. 'I don't want to take a chance of ending up stopped at the airport and then taken to a prison in El Salvador, with my hair shaved off and forced to kneel in line with prisoners.'
Germans with business dealings in the U.S. also report growing anxiety. Martin Moszkowicz, an executive at Constantin Film, said that some German actors and writers, who in the past had posted criticism of Trump on social media, were leery about traveling to the United States for fear of being detained.
'This is all creating a lot of uncertainty, and that is never good for business,' Moszkowicz said.
News reports of Germans undergoing special scrutiny when trying to enter the U.S. continue to circulate.
A German electrical engineer named Fabian Schmidt, 34, has had a green card since 2008. But he was detained at Boston's Logan Airport when returning from a visit to Germany on March 7 and held for two months.
His mother, Astrid Senior, was quoted in German media reports saying he had been deprived of sleep, food and water when he was held for three weeks in detention in Rhode Island. She said the authorities would not let him have his anxiety medication and that his condition deteriorated to the point that he had to be taken to a hospital.
'I would have a real problem with all the stress going to the United States now,' said Udo Grelzik, 64, a solar power entrepreneur from a Berlin suburb. 'All these stories of Germans getting arrested at the border just for trying to visit on vacation. I couldn't handle the interrogation. My English isn't very good and I'd be scared of saying something wrong. And then end up in jail just because I misunderstood something. No thanks.'
Grelzik said he will instead spend a few weeks this year in Canada.
Brösche said she was at first told by authorities that they suspected she was attempting to work illegally in the U.S. because she was traveling with her tattoo equipment, then told her that she had stayed longer than the 90 days allowed on her visa during a trip to Chicago two years ago. She said immigration authorities later told her that she had been caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
Brösche said all those statements were untrue. She did have her tattooing equipment, she said, but was planning to ink a fellow tattoo artist, not to work professionally.
Others have reported being strip-searched, handcuffed and locked up, often without explanation.
'It was really humiliating,' Maria Lepere, a 19-year-old German from Rostock who was detained along with her friend Charlotte Pohl, also 19, at the Honolulu airport for 24 hours in March.
Lepere insisted she and Pohl had valid visas, but a Customs and Border Protection official quoted in the New York Post said the pair had attempted to enter the United States 'under false pretenses,' with the goal of working, not visiting as tourists.
Lepere said she was told authorities were suspicious about their planned three-week stay in Hawaii because they had booked a hotel only for the first part of their visit. The pair, who had been traveling the world, had their mug shots taken, were denied entry and flew back to Tokyo.
They found the mug shot episode so absurd, Lepere said, that they they were pictured smiling and almost laughing when they were photographed.
'It was just insane,' Lepere said. 'We couldn't comprehend it. They put us through metal detectors and our whole bodies were scanned. We had to stand naked in front of the police women and let them check us out.'
The German government on March 18 issued a travel advisory about the United States, warning on its website that U.S. border control agents have the final decision on entry even if travelers are holding valid visas, and added that even the slightest irregularity or infraction could result in detention.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called the treatment of German tourists at border controls 'unacceptable' and said he would lodge protests with U.S. authorities.
As for Brösche, she said that as loath as she is to visit the United States again, she would not completely rule out the possibility of one day coming to Los Angeles.
'I can't forget about what happened but I can forgive — and if I could get to L.A. without any hassles at the border, I'd love to see L.A.,' she said.
Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.