Latest news with #Brösche
Los Angeles Times
17-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Some German tourists, fearing harassment or detention, are avoiding U.S.
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.
Euronews
19-03-2025
- Euronews
Commission warns Alphabet and Apple they're breaking EU digital rules
The German foreign ministry has updated its travel advice for Germans travelling to the US after three German nationals were denied entry and detained as they tried to enter. "A criminal conviction in the United States, false information regarding the purpose of stay, or even a slight overstay of the visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation upon entry or exit," information on the ministry's website now explicitly says. Advice for travellers now also warns that possessing an electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA) document – the automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the US under the visa waiver programme – does not automatically guarantee entry into the US. "The final decision on whether a person can enter the United States rests with the American border authorities. But this is no surprise; it is the same in Germany," a ministry spokesperson told German daily Der Spiegel. The foreign ministry was also keen to point out that the updated guidance doesn't constitute a travel warning to the US. The updated travel advice comes after the foreign ministry said on Monday it was probing the case of three of its citizens who had been denied entry and placed in detention as they tried to enter the US. "The Federal Foreign Office is aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the United States and were placed in deportation detention upon entry," a foreign ministry spokesperson said. Among those detained was Fabian Schmidt, 34, a legal permanent US resident. According to US outlet WGBH, he was detained at an airport in Boston before being transferred to a detention facility in Rhode Island. Schmidt's mother, Astrid Senior, claimed in an interview that her son was "violently interrogated" at the airport before being stripped naked and forced into a cold shower by two officials. The two other nationals affected were Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, and Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Saxony-Anhalt. Both have since been sent back to Germany. Brösche had attempted to enter the US from Tijuana in Mexico while travelling with her friend, a US citizen. According to the online fundraiser set up to fund her return, authorities originally told her she would be detained for several days, but that what ensued instead was an "alarming sequence of events" with Brösche transferred and kept at the Otay Mesa Detention centre for more than six weeks. Brösche's friends alleged she was put in solitary confinement for nine days during her ordeal. According to ABC 10News, San Diego CoreCivic, the company that owns the detention centre where Brösche was held, denied those claims. Sielaff returned to Germany in early March after two weeks in detention his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, told Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and visited Mexico for a short trip. Germans who have a valid tourist visa to the US are generally allowed to travel visa-free for up to 90 days, according to the US embassy website in Germany. Green card holders are generally allowed to travel abroad and re-enter the US after stays lasting less than six consecutive months, according to the US government. Wednesday's decisions by the European Commission in a number of cases involving compliance of US big tech with the European digital legislation are unlikely to improve relations between the US and the EU. A year after launching an investigation, the Commission has concluded that Alphabet's failure to let developers steer consumers outside its app stores to other offers means it does not comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA). According to the Commission, the US giant does not allow any form of communication between developers and consumers and dissuades consumers from leaving Alphabet's environment with a warning message. In a separate investigation the EU executive found that Google was self-preferencing its services such as shopping, hotels and travel, giving its own offers prominence in the search results over third parties' services, which is forbidden by the DMA. If Alphabet does not abide by the Commission's findings by offering a compliance solution, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover. In a separate decision on Wednesday the Commission gave Apple two years to enable the operability of devices from other brands with its iPhones to comply with the DMA. Apple was accused in June of breaching the DMA for preventing developers from steering consumers outside its ecosystem. If the tech giant has not offered solutions to ensure its devices work with third-party smartwatches, headphones, and virtual reality headsets within two more years, non-compliance action could ensue. Apple is also under a non-compliance investigation launched a year ago under the DMA whose conclusion should be presented by the EU enforcer in the coming weeks. In this case, the Commission should decide whether Apple's measures prevent users from freely choosing browsers outside Apple's ecosystem. A last investigation targets the tech giant's new contractual terms for developers to access alternative app stores and the possibility to offer an app via an alternative distribution channel. The result of the investigation should be known by June. EU probes into US tech giants have irked US President Donald Trump and US Congressional lawmakers. In February, two members of the US House of representatives sent a letter to Commission Vice-presidents Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera arguing that the DMA was directed against US companies and that the fines incurred were equivalent to taxes. Online users are claiming the European Union has banned Romania's ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu from competing in the country's presidential elections. In one post on X, a German far-right political activist blamed the ban on 'EU-dictatocracy'. Another user alleged Europe was forbidding candidates from running in elections. Multiple accounts also claim to show Romanians protesting against alleged EU corruption. But while hundreds of protesters took to the streets after Georgescu was disqualified from the presidential race, the crowds did not come close to near the hundreds or hundreds of thousands displayed in online videos. In fact, a Euroverify reverse image search revealed the images come from anti-corruption protests in Serbia, not Romania. Although Georgescu won the first round of Romania's presidential elections in November, the results were annulled by the country's constitutional court. Declassified intelligence reports revealed a Russian-backed campaign to influence voters on social media, with a strong focus on TikTok. This led Georgescu, who is a fierce NATO and EU critic, to be dubbed the "TikTok Messiah". This wave of online disinformation comes after a ruling was issued in March by Romania's Constitutional Court — and not by the EU. Romania's highest court upheld the decision to reject Georgescu's candidacy in the election rerun scheduled for May. Prior to this, Romania's Central Electoral Commission had suspended Georgescu's candidacy application. This body has the power to reject candidates who do not meet the required legal conditions to hold presidential office. Candidacies are assessed on a case-by-case basis, meaning that Georgescu could try his luck at a future election. In mid-March, the body also suspended MEP Diana Sosoaca, the leader of the ultra-nationalist S.O.S Romania party known for her pro-Russia views, from participating in the presidential race. In a Facebook live streamed during the ruling, Sosoaca told her followers that "this proves the Americans, Jews and the European Union have plotted to rig the Romanian election before it has begun". The European Commission has taken measures to tackle foreign interference in the Romanian elections, but it has not banned candidates. In December, the commission announced the launch of legal proceedings against TikTok, due to a 'suspected breach' of the Digital Services Act. The platform is accused of failing to mitigate risks which threatened the integrity of Romania's November elections.
Euronews
19-03-2025
- Euronews
Germany tightens travel advice to US after three citizens detained
The German foreign ministry has updated its travel advice for Germans travelling to the US after three German nationals were denied entry and detained as they tried to enter. "A criminal conviction in the United States, false information regarding the purpose of stay, or even a slight overstay of the visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation upon entry or exit," information on the ministry's website now explicitly says. Advice for travellers now also warns that possessing an electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA) document – the automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the US under the visa waiver programme – does not automatically guarantee entry into the US. "The final decision on whether a person can enter the United States rests with the American border authorities. But this is no surprise; it is the same in Germany," a ministry spokesperson told German daily Der Spiegel. The foreign ministry was also keen to point out that the updated guidance doesn't constitute a travel warning to the US. The updated travel advice comes after the foreign ministry said on Monday it was probing the case of three of its citizens who had been denied entry and placed in detention as they tried to enter the US. "The Federal Foreign Office is aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the United States and were placed in deportation detention upon entry," a foreign ministry spokesperson said. Among those detained was Fabian Schmidt, 34, a legal permanent US resident. According to US outlet WGBH, he was detained at an airport in Boston before being transferred to a detention facility in Rhode Island. Schmidt's mother, Astrid Senior, claimed in an interview that her son was "violently interrogated" at the airport before being stripped naked and forced into a cold shower by two officials. The two other nationals affected were Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, and Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Saxony-Anhalt. Both have since been sent back to Germany. Brösche had attempted to enter the US from Tijuana in Mexico while travelling with her friend, a US citizen. According to the online fundraiser set up to fund her return, authorities originally told her she would be detained for several days, but that what ensued instead was an "alarming sequence of events" with Brösche transferred and kept at the Otay Mesa Detention centre for more than six weeks. Brösche's friends alleged she was put in solitary confinement for nine days during her ordeal. According to ABC 10News, San Diego CoreCivic, the company that owns the detention centre where Brösche was held, denied those claims. Sielaff returned to Germany in early March after two weeks in detention his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, told Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and visited Mexico for a short trip. Germans who have a valid tourist visa to the US are generally allowed to travel visa-free for up to 90 days, according to the US embassy website in Germany. Green card holders are generally allowed to travel abroad and re-enter the US after stays lasting less than six consecutive months, according to the US government. Wednesday's decisions by the European Commission in a number of cases involving compliance of US big tech with the European digital legislation are unlikely to improve relations between the US and the EU. A year after launching an investigation, the Commission has concluded that Alphabet's failure to let developers steer consumers outside its app stores to other offers means it does not comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA). According to the Commission, the US giant does not allow any form of communication between developers and consumers and dissuades consumers from leaving Alphabet's environment with a warning message. In a separate investigation the EU executive found that Google was self-preferencing its services such as shopping, hotels and travel, giving its own offers prominence in the search results over third parties' services, which is forbidden by the DMA. If Alphabet does not abide by the Commission's findings by offering a compliance solution, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover. In a separate decision on Wednesday the Commission gave Apple two years to enable the operability of devices from other brands with its iPhones to comply with the DMA. Apple was accused in June of breaching the DMA for preventing developers from steering consumers outside its ecosystem. If the tech giant has not offered solutions to ensure its devices work with third-party smartwatches, headphones, and virtual reality headsets within two more years, non-compliance action could ensue. Apple is also under a non-compliance investigation launched a year ago under the DMA whose conclusion should be presented by the EU enforcer in the coming weeks. In this case, the Commission should decide whether Apple's measures prevent users from freely choosing browsers outside Apple's ecosystem. A last investigation targets the tech giant's new contractual terms for developers to access alternative app stores and the possibility to offer an app via an alternative distribution channel. The result of the investigation should be known by June. EU probes into US tech giants have irked US President Donald Trump and US Congressional lawmakers. In February, two members of the US House of representatives sent a letter to Commission Vice-presidents Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera arguing that the DMA was directed against US companies and that the fines incurred were equivalent to taxes.
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
German Tourists Detained for Weeks, Then Deported From U.S.
Chained, detained for weeks and eventually deported, two German tourists trying to enter the United States were recently tangled in a system responding to President Trump 's push to sharply restrict entry and deport people en masse. The cases of Jessica Brösche, held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, held for 16, and accounts of their rough handling by immigration officers, have grabbed headlines in Germany as a sign of what being caught on the wrong side of the White House's immigration policy could mean for European travelers. Tourists from most European countries, including Germany, generally enjoy visa-free travel to the United States for up to 90 days. But Mr. Sielaff and Ms. Brösche were stopped, separately, at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, told that they were being denied entry and sent to a crowded detention center, according to their own accounts and those of their friends. Mr. Sielaff said he was denied a translator and had trouble understanding what was happening to him. Ms. Brösche's friends said she was kept in solitary confinement for nine days. By their accounts, both were flown back to Germany without a clear understanding of why they were detained in the first place. 'Sometimes I just wake up because I have nightmares of this situation and what happened,' Mr. Sielaff, 25, said in an interview. 'And I just try to go for walks and calm down.' The family of a tourist from Britain, Becky Burke, 28, says she has been held for more than two weeks in Washington State, similarly caught up in the system but unsure why. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, did not respond on Thursday to requests for comment on their cases. Ms. Brösche was detained at the border on Jan. 25, according to an online fund-raising campaign that friends set up to lobby for her release. She was traveling on the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, available to tourists from countries who do not need a need a visa to travel to the United States but are still required to declare the purpose of their visit. She told the German newspaper Bild that she had completed the authorization and planned to enter the United States after spending a week in Tijuana. At the border, officials flagged issues with her documentation, according to the online petition. Ms. Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist, could not be reached for an interview. But Nikita Lofving, a friend who has spoken with her, said in an interview that she thought officials saw the tattooing equipment in Ms. Brösche's luggage and might have concluded that she planned to work in the United States, violating the terms of visa-free entry. She was sent the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. The authorities told her she would be detained for 'a couple of days,' according to the online fund-raiser, but 'what followed was an alarming sequence of events: after being denied entry, Brösche was placed in solitary confinement for nine days.' She remained at the center for more than six weeks, friends said, her case apparently lost in a border enforcement backlog. 'Just the sheer fact of not knowing what's going on drove her insane,' Ms. Lofving said. 'She could barely sleep the whole time she was in there. She was up at night crying.' Ms. Brösche arrived back in Germany on Wednesday. 'She will need a few days to recover but she wants to speak out when she's been fed and slept and probably cried a bit in her mom's arms,' Ms. Lofving said. Mr. Sielaff said he had traveled to the United States on Jan. 27 to see his partner, Lennon Tyler, an American psychologist who lives in Las Vegas. Three weeks later they drove to Tijuana for medical treatment for Dr. Tyler's dog, but when they attempted to return on Feb. 18, they didn't get past the border checkpoint. He said he struggled to hear the border control officer questioning him, and gave a muddled answer. He and Dr. Tyler said the officers asked about his place of residence, suggesting that he had been illegally living in the United States, not just visiting, and then taken for questioning. After Mr. Sielaff was bundled off to an interrogation room, he said, his repeated requests for a German translator were denied. He said the written report of his interrogation did not accurately reflect what he had said, or even the questions he had been asked. 'I said, I don't live here, and I have to go back to Germany before the 90 days, and they didn't even listen to me,' Mr. Sielaff said. After more than an hour of questioning, he was denied re-entry to the U.S. and was chained to a bench along with other travelers. Outside, Dr. Tyler said in an interview that she was also trying to get answers from officials. In response, she said, they searched her car, and when she raised objections, two bulky ICE officers detained her and took her to a separate room, where she was subjected to a humiliating body search. 'For the first time in my life, I'm in handcuffs,' she said. 'As they're walking me into a building, they're twisting my arms.' After the body search, she, too, was chained to a bench for a time before being released, she said, and repeatedly asked, 'Why am I being detained? Is this legal? Can you do this to a United States citizen?' She caught a glimpse of Mr. Sielaff as he was being led to the bathroom, and it was the last time she saw him in person. Dr. Tyler has now started a civil claim over her detention, her lawyer said. 'I threw my arms around him, and we both had tears in our eyes,' Dr. Tyler said in an interview. 'And I said, I'm going to get a lawyer. I'm going to get you out, I promise you.' Mr. Sielaff was held at the border post for two more days, sleeping on a bench under a Mylar blanket, and then transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. For two weeks there, he said, he shared a cell with eight other people, and waited in long lines to heat his food in the one microwave oven shared by more than 120 people. He said the only way he was given to communicate with the ICE agents assigned to his case was through a tablet computer shared among inmates — but he didn't know who those agents were. 'I asked so many people if they know who my ICE officer is,' he said in an interview. 'I don't even know who it was in the end.' Dr. Tyler called the immigration authorities daily, she hired lawyers who also called them, she gave news media interviews and she reached out repeatedly to a German Consulate. Eventually, last week, Mr. Sielaff was allowed voluntary deportation, on a flight that cost him $2,744. 'My lawyer said bother them until they let him go,' Dr. Tyler said. 'And that's what Lucas and I did. We just made ourselves a nuisance.'
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- The Guardian
German tourists' ordeal reportedly ending as they are returned from US detention
A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement. Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Brida in Saxony Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks. The families of the two tourists, who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had compared their ordeals to 'a horror film'. Both Germans were held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, a prison in San Diego, CA. Their cases, followed closely by German consulate staff in the US and the foreign ministry in Berlin, share similarities with the fate of British tourist Rebecca Burke, 28, a graphic artist from Monmouthshire who was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in Washington state more than eleven days ago while trying to cross into the US on the Canadian border, according to her family. All incidents are being described as evidence of the immigration crackdown in the US since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Not only has there a crackdown on entries into the US, but the increase in cases has reportedly meant a bureaucratic backlog leading to delays in decisions on cases of those who have been detained. Brösche's mother, Birgit, confirmed to German media on Tuesday reports that her daughter was on her way home. Brösche's friend Nikita Lofving, whom the Berliner had intended to visit in Los Angeles, confirmed to the LA Times she had spoken to her friend. Speaking to a journalist from ABC 10News San Diego in a phone interview on 1 March, Brösche said she had spent eight days in solitary confinement. She said: 'It was horrible. Like, it's really horrible. I just want to get home, you know? I'm really desperate.' Lofving, who had been in constant contact with her friend, said: '[Brösche] says it was like a horror movie. They were screaming in all different rooms. After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she's got blood on her knuckles.' The staff at the prison had called a psychologist who wanted to prescribe anti-psychotic medicine to calm her down, but Brösche had refused to take anything, Lofving said. Brösche's mother told the Berlin tabloid BZ: 'I will believe it [her release] only when I am able to take her in my arms.' Brösche had said: 'I just want to get home, you know? I'm really desperate.' CoreCivic, the company that owns the Otay Mesa Detention Center, denied Brösche's claims that she had been in solitary confinement, according to ABC 10News. Brösche and Lofving had attempted to enter the US from Tijuana in Mexico on 25 January. The two were traveling with tattoo equipment. Lofving said that Brösche was arrested and taken away by officers on the border. The US immigration authorities, Ice, assumed Brösche was intending to work illegally in the US, Lofving said. Her friend was in possession of an Esta travel permit. According to Brösche's Instagram profile, she had only intended to stay in LA until mid-February. Germany's foreign ministry confirmed it had worked together with its consulate general in LA to resolve the issue. Sielaff returned to Germany last week after spending two weeks in detention, after his entry permit was cancelled at the Mexican border, amid suspicions by the US authorities that he had remained in the US longer than he was allowed. He was arrested at the border point at San Ysidro on 18 February. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and had subsequently visited Mexico with his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, where they had taken her dog to the vet. According to Tyler, on their return to the US, Sielaff had incorrectly answered a question as to where he lived, due to his poor grasp of English. He had said Las Vegas, where he was staying with Tyler, his fiancee, when he should have said Germany, where he permanently resides, she said. After two weeks in detention, Sielaff was allowed to leave. His girlfriend said she booked him a flight from San Diego to Munich on 6 March. In an interview with the Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger, Tyler warned people against travelling to the US. 'Don't come here,' she said. 'Especially not if you're on a tourist visa, and especially not over the Mexican border.' US authorities have yet to issue a statement on the German cases. Rebecca Burke's father said on Monday that he was trying to get his daughter out of the detention centre, and had been in touch with the British consulate in San Francisco. He described the conditions in which she was being held as 'horrendous'. She had been travelling on a tourist visa, but was told she should have applied for a working visa as she planned to stay with a family receiving accommodation in exchange for carrying out domestic chores.
