European visitors to U.S. surprised by denial of entry, dayslong detentions

CBC

21-03-2025

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Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, there have been several high-profile incidents of tourists and visa holders being stopped at U.S. border crossings, or being held for weeks at American immigration detention facilities.
In recent weeks, Britain has revised its advice for citizens traveling to the U.S., to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Germany this week updated its travel advisory for the U.S. to emphasize that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry for its citizens after several Germans were detained at the border recently, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
An American woman and her German fiancé spoke to The Associated Press about their travel ordeal after driving back from Mexico in February.
U.S. border agents handcuffed Lennon Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day U.S. tourist permit, the couple said.
They had returned Feb. 18, just 22 days into Sielaff's 90-day tourist permit, and Tyler said her partner was questioned aggressively and struggled to answer in his second language. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention centre.
Sielaff said he was given a full-body search and ordered to hand over his cellphone and belongings. He was put in a holding cell, where he slept on a bench for two days, before being transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
Two weeks later, he was finally told to get a direct flight to Germany and submit a confirmation number. Following a frantic call from Sielaff, Tyler bought a ticket for $2,744. Her fiancé flew back March 5.
"What happened at the border was just blatant abuse of the Border Patrol's power," said Tyler, who plans to sue the U.S. government.
Nonprofit official surprised by detentions
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in an email to the AP that Sielaff and Jessica Brösche — another German, who was held for 45 days in a separate incident — "were deemed inadmissible" by Customs and Border Protection.
That agency said it cannot discuss specifics, but "if statutes or visa terms are violated, travellers may be subject to detention and removal." The agencies did not comment on other cases.
Both German tourists were allowed into the United States under a waiver program offered to a select group of countries, mostly in Europe and Asia, whose citizens are allowed to travel to the U.S. for business or leisure for up to 90 days without getting a visa in advance.
Even if they are authorized to travel under that system, they can still be barred from entering the country.
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But Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit that aids migrants, told The Associated Press in the 22 years he has worked on the border, he has never seen travellers from Western Europe and Canada, longtime U.S. allies, be locked up, as has happened in a number of incidents reported to the media.
"The only reason I see is there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere," Rios said.
French scientist denial disputed
A French scientist was also recently denied entry into the United States for a conference, under disputed circumstances.
"I learned with concern that a French researcher on assignment for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) who was travelling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled," Minister for Higher Education and Research Philippe Baptiste said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.
The measure was apparently taken because the scientist had expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy, he added, but did not elaborate.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said privacy restrictions barred the agency from discussing specific cases, but a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security vehemently denied the allegation.
Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on social media that "the French researcher in question was in possession of confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory — in violation of a non-disclosure agreement — something he admitted to taking without permission and attempted to conceal."
The French government has yet to respond to McLaughlin's statement.
Aggressive tactics, legal challenges
Trump so far in his second term is overseeing an even more aggressive approach to immigration issues than in his first presidency. There have been controversial incidents thus far involving the detention of a college campus protester, and the denial of entry to a Lebanese doctor who had been studying and working in the U.S. for several years, among others.
In another case, a former New York-based Columbia University student, Ranjani Srinivasan, is temporarily in Canada after her visa was revoked and she says she was sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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Days after Trump's 2017 inauguration, some U.S. airports saw scenes of chaos, as travellers from several Muslim-majority countries were barred entry following an executive move that even some government agencies and high-profile officials received no advance warning of.
The travel ban did not originally stand up to legal scrutiny of the courts and was later amended by his administration.
Trump also moved in his first term to rescind protections for young immigrants, sometimes called Dreamers, brought into the United States illegally as children, and acted against states and cities that protect illegal immigrants.
Early in this term, he moved to end birthright citizenship, which was immediately challenged in the courts.
While Trump has emphasized curbing illegal immigration, often using degrading and dehumanizing language, the record of his first administration was marked by a drop in legal immigration even before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020.