Nashua German-American returns home after being detained for two months by ICE, family says
Fabian Schmidt, the German-American man who was detained by immigration officials in March and held at a Rhode Island jail, has returned to his home in Nashua, his family said on social media.
'FABIAN IS FREE and HOME!!!!' his partner, Bhavani Hodgkins, wrote on Facebook Thursday. 'We ask for your patience and privacy as we navigate through this.'
In the post, Hodgkins said she'd be providing updates and a video at a later date.
Schmidt was born in Germany but has lived in the U.S. since he was a teenager. He is a legal permanent resident with a green card. On March 7, Schmidt, who currently lives in New Hampshire, was returning from Luxembourg when immigration officials detained him at Boston Logan International Airport and took him to the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, according to his attorney.
His family told reporters and attorneys that upon being detained, Schmidt was stripped naked, placed in a cold shower, violently interrogated, denied his medication for anxiety and depression, and given little food or water. They said officials asked him to relinquish his green card, and they didn't know why he was being detained.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied the allegations.
'These claims are blatantly false with respect to CBP,' Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner of public affairs for Customs and Border Protection previously said in a statement to the Bulletin. 'When an individual is found with drug-related charges and tries to reenter the country, officers will take proper action.'
The officials did not publicly provide justification for his detention.
Schmidt is not the subject of any active criminal proceedings. However, according to court records in California, he faced misdemeanor charges for possession of a controlled substance and driving under the influence in 2015 and 2016, respectively, among other minor charges. His family said those cases had been resolved.
GBH News was the first to report the news of Schmidt's release.
His detention came amid the Trump administration's high-profile immigration agenda. That agenda has included a slew of deportations and immigration actions, including sending hundreds of men to a famously brutal prison in El Salvador. Among them is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration has acknowledged was mistakenly deported. International students who protested on their college campuses against Israeli military strikes on Palestinian civilians have also been detained.
Additionally, other Germans have faced issues at U.S. borders. The New York Times reported that two German tourists — Jessica Brösche, who was held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, who was held for 16 — were detained at the border trying to enter the country for vacation. Tourists from Germany are typically allowed visa-free travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days, but they were held in detention centers for weeks and then deported.
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