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[flagged] German tourist held indefinitely in San Diego area immigrant detention facility (kpbs.org)
122 points by axiologist 3 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 135 comments



While I don't agree with the response and long detention. This is the artists current Instagram bio. I understand it is likely hard to get a visa for a week that allows you to work, and it is a would be a lot more convenient to serve US fans with a brief trip rather than ask them all to individually fly to Germany. But it does appear she had a public declaration of her intent to work.

https://www.instagram.com/jessica.lia.tt/?hl=en Jessica Lia Blood Bank

Mexico - 06.12 -25.01

Los Angeles - 26.01 - 16.01

Berlin - 24.02 -20.04

DM

Edited to add back locations, she has used fun UTF8 characters for stylized letters that got stripped out by hacker news.


The government should have just denied her entry if they believed she would violate her visa. I don’t understand the cause for detaining and putting her on the path to deportation.


The administration has set an arrest quota for ICE, and ICE is far below where the administration wants them: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/01/nx-s1-5313059/immigration-ice...

> The most recent DHS data released this week shows that fewer than 600 people per day have been booked into ICE detention facilities across the country during the first three weeks of February — well below the pace of 1,200 to 1,500 arrests a day that administration officials have said they want.


You can simply search her name to find out what’s actually going on instead of trusting a rage-bait article with no details. She was detained because this wasn’t her first time doing this. They are accusing her of working the last time she was in the U.S. under the VWP. As a result, she is likely being held for prosecution and will be barred from returning.

A quick search shows that in the past, she had posted on social media about being in the U.S. and working. It’s likely that her equipment raised a red flag, and during additional screening, they found those posts. It’s unfortunate for her, but ultimately, it was her own doing.

I know plenty of digital nomads who work in the U.S. without proper visas, but the difference is they keep a low profile. Visa laws aren’t unique to the U.S., and most countries take violations seriously. In fact, the U.S. isn’t even among the strictest.

There’s plenty to be outraged about in the world without making things up.

edit: I'm not going to justify this reddit post with any sources. It's obviously bait and 20 seconds of googling confirms it.


Guilt does not justify how she was treated.


This is all a deflection from the inhumane treatment she has received. But I can’t tell: are you deflecting because it’s an uncomfortable topic, or because you genuinely don’t care that human beings are being treated this way?


How was she treated that's inhumane? What specifically do you take issue with?

If you'd like to go through the article and provide actual examples I'll help you with being a critical reader. When it says something "amounts" to solitary confinment, that isn't the same as saying she was held in solitary confinment. That's shifty reporting trying to spin the facts without the legal repercussions of directly lying. When you get to the part about her having violent outbursts and punching walls until there is "blood everywhere" you might then ask yourself "could this person be a risk to themselves or a cell mate" or maybe "what are the international consequences if she were to harm herself or someone else while in custody?" The world is never black and white and there are plenty of these points in the article where you should be asking questions and maybe looking to other sources for answers.

The article is using her friend/girlfriend as the primary source, even though she is clearly biased and has no actual information, which she has no right to given she isn't a family member, her lawyer, or the German consulate. It's almost like they are purposely ignoring the actual facts and are trying to manufacture an emotional response to get this to go viral and somehow receive a more favorable outcome. Seriously, find an article that isn't tabloid quality. Even better, do a search of reputable German news sources like der Spiegel. If she were actually being hidden away and mistreated they would be reporting on it in Germany.

From the few facts that are available, it sounds like she would have been released and sent back to Germany had she just admitted she fucked up and plead guilty. My guess, mostly just based on the fact that she was punching walls in jail, she lacks some degree of emotional intelligence, doesn't like the idea of being barred from the US, and thinks she can fight it and win. Now she has to remain in custody until she is tried, which will likely be fairly soon, or a deal is worked out. These are processes that were agreed on (and as the last couple sentences of the article mentions is actively being handled) between the respective governments. Anyone caught doing the same in Germany would face similar consequences.

I think what a lot of commenters here don't realize is that most western countries, including the US and Germany, have artist visas for this specific scenario. These are relatively easy to get and would have allowed her to do what she was doing. Instead she chose to commit a federal offense and is paying the price for that choice. I'm not mentioning this to deflect, I'm directly responding to the article which tries to make it sound like she was "doing everything right" and is being unjustly held.

Jail isn't great but it's not actual torture. It's mostly just uncomfortable and extremely boring. It's not anymore cruel or tortuous than it has to be given the circumstances.


> Lofving said Brösche told her about her time in custody — and a particularly difficult nine-day period in what amounted to solitary confinement in a CBP holding cell.

> “She says it was like a horror movie,” Lofving said. “There were people screaming from the rooms all around. They are feeding her through a little mailbox hole. She didn’t have a blanket, she didn’t have a pillow. It’s basically a yoga mat on the ground and a toilet on the corner.”

> Spending that many days in one of CBP’s short-term detention facilities appears to be a violation of the agency's own internal detention standards, which, “generally limit detention in these facilities to 72 hours,” according to a 2023 report from the Office of Inspector General.

> Inspectors conducted unannounced inspections of four short-term facilities in San Diego and El Centro. They found that of the 447 migrants detained in all four stations, 42% of them exceeded the 72-hour standard, with some being there for more than 20 days.

If nothing else, I think it's obvious that most people can't sleep under circumstances like that. After 9+ days of those conditions, you find it at all surprising that she broke?

I find those conditions to be morally repugnant. And frankly, I find attempts at justifying them equally repugnant.


So you're just going to stick to this article?

Okay, let's put on our critical reading hat again. What order are these events taking place in? Why isn't the author just using a simple chronological telling of her ordeal? What does it mean to "generally limit" it to 72 hours? That doesn't sound very concrete; what does it mean to be a standard vs a policy, law, or rule? So most detainees are out before 72 hours, does that sound like they are folowing the "general" standard? What is the median amount of time someone is in there? What is the average? How long are the other 42% in there? When does processing take place? Do they process on Saturday? Sunday? What portion were in there for 4-5 days? How many is "some" when it comes to the 20 days? Is one? If the majority are out in 3 days, why do some take longer? How do they ID a foreign national? How do they know who to call or where to send someone who isn't being cooperative with there identity?

You see, things can be a bit more complicated than how a single ragebait article makes it sound?

I had a fun weekend in college that lead to me spending 6 consecutive days in a county jail, so I'll concede that I might have a better understanding of the setting than you do. The being fed through a "mailbox hole" literally means there is a big slot in the middle of the door that they slide a balanced meal through on a cafeteria tray three times a day at standard times, so everyone can just enjoy their meal in relative peace and safety. How would you propose they do that differently? What do the logistics look like for having dozens of short term inmates, that you might know their identity but really have no idea of their personalities, together in a cafeteria? How would you prefer to eat in this situation? Again, pay attention to the wording of the article. "Basically" a yoga mat is not the same as saying she only had a yoga mat. From my experience it was about 1.5" thick and was more similar to a thick backpacking sleeping pad. I did have a springless, elevated, flat metal platform to put my pad on, but I was in the upper Midwest where it's too cold half the year to sleep directly on the floor so they welded this platform to the wall. The toilet is likely a stainless steel, flushing toilet with a sink built into the back. Personally, I'd prefer having a private toilet but I got to have the fun of sharing mine with my methhead cellmate who didn't have a solid shit the three days he was in the cell with me. How would you do her sleeping situation differently? Remember, this isn't a prison, it's a short term facility where you have no idea of who the inmates are. As for what "amounted" to solitary confinement, what does that mean? Well I imagine it's similar to a county jail. You are in your cell most of the day. You get out in small groups to shower and wash up and you may get an hour of physical time where you might have a basketball or more likely you just walk the perimeter of a tiny gym. It isn't torture, it's just really, really boring. Yeah, there were people in there with real emotional issues that would yell and talk loudly to themselves in their cells, but it is a concrete building with heavy doors and it's annoying but not deafening. It's also not 24-7. Try and yell for an hour. Now imagining doing that all day or night? Or maybe you'd relate more if you think about how your voice is the next day after going to a concert or a loud bar with your friends. Also, the guards are just people too. Talk to a local sheriff deputy who works the county jail. They don't want to be there anymore than the inmates. They are doing a job that is all the worst parts of law enforcement, customer service, and day care, all rolled into one. They don't want to listen to yelling all day and night either and do a fairly decent job of going around and quieting people down and distracting the problem people. As for sleep, that is basically all people do in there. It's the best way to pass time.

A day is waking up at 6am for breakfast, sleep, bodyweight workout in cell, shower, sleep, eat lunch, do problems in your head/day dream, sleep, more thinking, dinner at 5pm, think some more, sleep. It's amazing how much you can force yourself to sleep when that is all you have left to do after a couple days of your brain going a mile a minute from the boredom.

It's not a horror film. The other inmates aren't monsters, they are people too. Though I'm sure to her entitled ass, all those unkempt poors might have seemed pretty scary. They are in the same (possibly worse) situation she is. Everyone just wants to get through it and move on. Which brings up a good point, who are the other inmates? While you are worried about the woman who will soon be back in her wealthy and safe country, with arguably one of the best qualities of life in the world, where do they go? While you defend the lady who was free to come and go from the US as she pleased and willfully broke the law knowing she could have filled out a couple forms and paid a fee to be here legally, there are people in those facilities whose only crime is being born in a shitty country. Those people would do anything to be in her position. They would do anything just for the chance to have a fraction of the privilege she has. They packed up their families and migrated thousands of miles, sometimes by foot, just for the chance of asylum. No simple form. No guarantee. Just a chance at a better life. What happens to those people? Do you think they are sitting around crying about how horrible jail was? After they get shipped to another third-world country (which may or may not be the country they are from) with no money or way to support themselves, do you think they'll jump on tik-tok and make countless videos about how poorly they were mistreated? You think they'll capitalize on the outrage?

So go ahead and call me repugnant for not being instantly outraged and daring to think critically about the article. Personally, I find what she did, and the narrative her friend is pushing, to be extremely ignorant and orders of magnitude more repugnant. If the system is so awful and the facility is so crowded that they are having trouble moving people out of it in a timely matter, do you think her being their helped it any? Do you think the resources they are using to deal with her emotionally stunted tantrums are well spent? Do you think the resources they are spending as she tries to weasel out of the consequences are well spent? To be that out of touch and entitled is just gross and you are equally gross and entitled for defending it.


I'm sorry, but I don't find any of this to reflect critical thinking. And the fact that you exploded into a 6,611-character wall of text makes me think you must be aware that there is something deeper going on here. Anyway, I don't want to pursue this topic further. I think we've each made it clear where we stand.


Yeah, I'm sorry. I have ADHD and it's late enough my medication has wore off. You may know this already, but ADHD is not just a lack of attention. A common symptom is getting hyper-focused on things I shouldn't. For me that is usually just compulsively editing texts, but I guess it's also writing manifestos.


I think the key is "private contractor".

The more detainees they have, and the longer they have them, the more they get paid.


Wouldn’t it be in the interest of the detention facility to have detainees?


Surely the detention facility wasn't responsible for sending her to a detention facility.


The "agents" rounding people up are refusing to identify themselves.


[flagged]


You started a hellish flamewar with this, and perpetuated it badly downthread. That's seriously not ok and we ban accounts that do it, so please don't do it again.

It's not what this site is for, it destroys what it is for, and it evokes worse from others. Not cool.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

p.s. Also, you posted this twice. Please don't do that. (The other one was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43229712 and I've marked it as a dupe and merged the replies here now.)


Fair enough, no argument from me there! I appreciate your moderation effort Dang! I was way out of line and not in a great mental headspace, and deserved to be flagged to oblivion.

Thank you for moderating this board!


You don't make examples of people.

You treat them equally by the law.

You do not put people in solitary confinement for nine days - or twenty days - and without giving them any idea of what is happening, or notifying anyone where they are. This is cruel and unusual punishment.


[flagged]


I grew up with an even worse passport than you, so I know first hand how people are treated.

Still, the goal should be to treat everyone better, not make things equal by treating everyone like shit.


You would think that being the subject of such awful treatment would have instilled some empathy in you. Instead, it seems to have turned you into an awful, vindictive human being. Please seek professional help to deal with your trauma.


Please don't cross into personal attack, no matter how bad another comment is or you feel it is. That only makes everything worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


Because EU nations aren't going to change their attitude, and would continue to treat non-western passport holders in the same way as her.

Maybe now Germans know how it feels for a Turkish or Moroccan national who is working on a visit or family visa and looking behind their shoulder.


We have known a long time already. This was under the Biden administration:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/08/australian-t...

You will be happy to know that the detained person was a White Australian. By the way, whenever I see pictures of US border patrol officers, many of them are not White.


> You will be happy to know that the detained person was a White Australian

Absolutely, now Bogan Barry knows how it feels on Nauru or Christmas Island.

I'm a Brown American, but after this election and others across western nations, I've come to realize you Firangis won't come to help us. You only speak out when it's one of you guys facing this kind of dehumanization, not us.


I'm sure you have legitimate reasons to be frustrated, and have been describing things that really happen and double standards that really exist.

At the same time, perpetuating race war on HN, which is what your comments in this thread are doing, is not ok. It only makes things worse, so please stop and please don't do it again.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

p.s. The people breaking the site guidelines in response to you ought not to have been doing that either, of course. I've responded to those now, or at least most of them.


It is astonishing that your response to people facing injustice is that more people should face injustice.


No, he's just pointing out the double standards, and I agree with this sentiment. It's very difficult to visit the US (or really any Western country) with my passport, and always has been. You have to put in a lot of money and collect many pieces of paper for even a tourist visit (forget about working there or — god forbid — trying to legally immigrate), and there's a large chance you will be denied regardless. Nobody gives a flying fuck about this.


The outrage here is that she was detained. One thing is to be denied entry even when you did everything right, another is to be detained for an indefinite period of time.


Yep. Becuase I'm tired of this holier than thou crap.

It's very easy to follow visa laws as a German national to the US. You don't face any of the same amounts of hurdles that non-Western nationals face.

And your countries would treat us the same if we didn't have a US passport (I remember those experiences in Frankfurt Airport before and after I got the American passport)


As an immigrant myself, I think it is cruel and inhumane to hold someone in detention indefinitely for unspecified accusations.

I think it is cruel to wish this upon others like you have done.


if you think that holding someone in solitary confinement plus another month in jail is a valid response for her case, i think you are a bad person.

i’m sorry that german border control treated you badly, but that woman did nothing wrong to you.


The thing is, in Europe, precisely in European Union, people can travel and work freely with minimum formalities across all 28 EU countries and in Norway. It's easy for European citizen (and the person in question was from Germany which is an EU member) to forget that some countries are still that deeply not civilized.

Notwithstanding that, the person should just be deported immediately, but instead was detained for multiple weeks. Is it how it supposed to be dealing with visitors?

Is America great again already?


"still that deeply not civilized."

All countries, including EU countries put restrictions on foreigners coming for work and require specific visas. And rightly so.

Not sure how to interpret your quip...


[flagged]


Because the EU does not treat US citizens in this way and on average it is far more unlikely that a German wants to be an illegal immigrant in the US. It is not hard to understand.

You know how Germany treats refugees? They let them stab 2 year old children and hide their identity in the press so as not to offend them.


I'm not sure I understand. What do you feel she did wrong?


[flagged]


[flagged]


"Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


Apologies.


And AfD now has 152 seats in the Bundestag, and as a result the CDU/CSU will have to become equally anti-immigrant.

This is the only way Germans will learn, just like the only way us Americans will learn about the dangers of populism is getting burnt and abused by DOGE.


> Before I got my US passport, the German immigration staff would always treat me like shit, but with the US passport, I'd make sure to flaunt it so I'm not treated like yet another South Asian or Middle Eastern national.

Given the behavior of the current administration, I fear soon you will be back to be treated the old way even with US passport.


> I fear soon you will be back to be treated the old way

And if it comes to that I'll leave for my ancestral country or for a Gulf State at a G42 or ADIA type organization.


Oh? My understanding so far was that she claims to have wanted to visit a friend in the USA, and is only accused of wanting to work. Can you please pinpoint to me where you got the information?


This is her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessica.lia.tt/?hl=de

She lists LA like a tour date in her bio. I'm not sure if that already qualifies as intent to work in the eyes of border patrol though. But it might.


> CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said


Yes. Accused. That article does not mention anything else.

I personally believe that just an accusation is NOT enough to justify that treatment. In fact I don't believe that even if she did intend to work the correct thing would have been to send her back. But an accusation?!


When transiting an international border in the US, visa status information is available to CBP along with a quick perusal of the person's social media (EU states do the same if not in a VWP program).

Her social media has shown she was working as a tattoo artist on tour in LA with dates - direct violation of the VWP because it's an employment role.


This makes no sense. What law do you think she violated? And you're certainly painting Latin immigrants with a wide brush, there are a TON of us who came in illegally.


On the VWP, you cannot work - it's a visit visa.

If my parents broke the terms of their visas when they immigrated or my wife when she came on her F1 we all would face similar experiences.

Same in Germany as well.


They could have just denied entry though.


It's a visa violation, so the rules require a formal deportation as a deterrent. A country like Germany or France does the same as well.

Hopefully European nations will reform their immigration system based on this, but based on the German election results, there's no hope.


Expedited removal is part of their existing authority to deal with fraud and misrepresentation with visa entry requirements. It only requires a few hours to process and results in a five year ban from the United States as a deterrent. Detaining someone indefinitely under these specific circumstances is not something that happens in France and Germany. And until now wasn’t something that was happening in the United States.

https://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Fact...


Formal deportation does not require imprisonment for weeks, I personally know someone deported on arrival from Spain and they were sent back to their home country a few hours later. There's no reason to do it, it costs more for the country deporting someone, it doesn't improve the deterrence since the deported will be banned from entry for a while.

> but based on the German election results, there's no hope.

I don't understand what you mean by this.


I think in a perfect and just universe, the most fitting end for this post would be for it to be perfectly preserved, with your actual name, in perpetuity, in the worlds most popular and enduring history textbook. Imagine your children's grandchildren reading this sublime example of the casual banal brutality of our time, even among regular everyday people.

I sincerely hope for that future for you, and for all of us.


I agree that a month was far too long and she should have been sent back much sooner. But, she 100% intended to violate her visa and I simply can't imagine calling a criminal being imprisoned for 1 month before being sent home, "brutality".


Absolutely.

I would yell this from the rooftops loud and proud if I was running for office in the Bay Area as a D (because I worked with them early in my career and am a party member).

Most 1st and 1.5gen Asian and Latiné Americans would agree with this statement I gave.


> The point is to make an example so no one else tries these shenanigans.

This is complete bollocks. She did not try these shenanigans.

> The fact that a German thinks she can use the VWP like that absolutely ticks me off.

How dares she enter the country with a valid passport, having done all the paperwork correctly, a good reason and a return ticket? Seriously, what the actual fuck are you on about? You’re ok with a tourist being punished for no reason whatsoever because somehow you have a beef with some immigrants?


Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


> This is complete bollocks. She did not try these shenanigans.

VWP is NOT a work visa. It's a visit visa.


Not even that. It is not a visa. It is a bit of virtual paper that says you don’t need one. Where did I imply it was a work visa?


Reading this, I'm looking forward to people like you being deported soon. You get what you deserve.


You can't attack another user like this here. If you do it again, we will ban you, so please don't do it again.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.


> Why are American taxpayers spending thousands of dollars detaining tourists who are perfectly willing to leave,” she said

Elementary, Watson. "Private contractors" make their money billing the government. She is a source of income.


> CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said.

This seems to be key point - but sounds awfully subjective if you can just be accused. Did she bring her tattoo equipment or something? I mean a person could type or code on a laptop too for work...

Edit: yes, apparently:

> According to Lofving, Brösche had equipment on her that she used for tattooing, and this may have been part of the reason for her detention.

https://www.tag24.com/lifestyle/tattoos/vacationing-tattoo-a...

Still seems a dumb criteria.


The article I read a few days ago said that the tattoo artist posted on Instagram advertising their arrival to the US and taking clients. They had done the same with the previous destination on their tour.

If it's true, it seems pretty open and shut, so I'm not really sure why this is popping up on HN now.


It doesn’t seem open and shut at all, why not just deny her entry if they’re so sure at the border? It’s popping up on HN because apparently she’s been detained for over a month… well after her scheduled return flight. why would this ever be necessary?


I don’t know why this is on HN either but even if it is true, why detain for her so long? Why let her in at all? If it’s “open and shut” why hasn’t it been shut? Why is she still here?


Thanks for the info. I agree but as others said not sure why then the policy is to detain and deport if she's at the border. Just deny entry.


Yes, it seems like she did bring her tattoo equipment.


It’s possible to give tattoos for free, if it’s your passion and art.


The opposite is just as possible, if not more, and I doubt CBP will err on the side of the immigrant.


Shit, I'll think twice to travel to US with a laptop.


At this point, you'd be crazy to visit the USA at all.


Foreign persons have RIGHT to contact their embassy, wtf. How come noone knew where she disappeared? What Taliban country is this? And why did they just not turn her away?



Just curious how is this working out if I am working for an American company in Europe and I come to us for a meeting let's say? I will be there for a few days and actually working at the local branch.


The moral of this story is, if you chose to say otherwise at the border, make sure that enforcement can't access contrary statements like this one.


Where is DOGE when it really could save tax payers money?


> CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said.

I wonder what made them arrive at that assumption. My best guess: she was carrying work equipment (for working as a tattoo artist) in her luggage?!


Another comment posted the artists Instagram[0]. I think it is pretty clear that she did intend to work during those dates.

I don't get why she was detained instead of just refusing entry though.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43229866


Exactly, they even had the authority to do an expedited removal which would bar her from the US for 5 years. This would have spared her the detention while still having a deterrence effect. The detention is just pure cruelty and a waste of taxpayer dollars. While also adding to the immigration courts backlog.


I agree with this interpretation. But this still does not explain why this specific course of action was taken by the authorities, i.e., why detain this woman instead of denying her entry?


Perfect strategy boosting the US tourism industry.

https://archive.is/EUYi7


1) This is horrifying and shouldn't happen to anybody.

2) You have to be an idiot to visit currently. The rule of law is now nothing more than guidelines and Trump and his ilk have publicly stated they alone can decide what's right or wrong.

Edit: Somebody fucking explain. She tried to cross the border on the 25th, 5 days after Trump's presidency started and after he started rounding up and deporting people.


3) Read the article


Be specific. I did read the article. She's stuck with ICE and nobody in charge gives a shit. Did you read the article? Tell me the part of the article that changes the fact that going to the US today is moronic. You realize she tried to cross the border on the 25th? 5 days after Trump's presidency started and 4 days after Trump started rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants. Or is that too difficult for you to understand?


What the fuck? She did everything right. She had a passport, an entry visa, and a return ticket?

Don’t visit the US. Don’t come here and spend your money. Don’t send your kids to our universities. Don’t vacation here. Stay away for the next 4 or so years. It’s clear this administration is brain dead and can’t govern.

From the article: “Brösche had her German passport, confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country, along with a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin, Lofving said. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent pulled Brösche aside for a secondary inspection.

“I look at her and go, ‘I’m going to wait right outside for you,’” Lofving recalled.

She didn’t know it then, but it would be 25 days before Lofving would see her friend again. Brösche would spend that time in federal detention, where she remains, waiting for a deportation flight back to Berlin.”


In fairness, VWP travel to the US in circumstances that mean you might be considered to be working there has not been a good idea under any administration. If you're a professional tattoo artist and you arrive for a month with tattoo equipment and the stated intent of "making art" during that time, it's pretty clear what you're going to be doing.

What is concerning here, as an occasional bona fide business visitor to the US, is that it was always my expectation that if I were refused for some reason then I would just find myself turned around and placed on the next flight back. Seeing someone held in a private, for-profit, detention centre for an extended time period is not the behaviour I had previously expected from the US. It is a worry.


I have a sibling who was deported from the US (long, stupid story). There was a 6 month gap from when we'd been told he'd been deported, to when he was actually deported. And this was 15-20 years ago, it's not a recent change.

It is absolutely a system that's designed to disappear people. It's just headcount for income, no-one cares who those heads belong to.


She tried to enter the USA from Tijuana. From what I read, they are extra strict at the land border to Mexico. General advice to tourists that I read is to not to enter the USA from there. Environments always determine how law enforcement treats you. If you are in a place where there is many poor people, you will get a different treatment compared to one for rich people.


I guess you might call that deterrence


It's wildly disproportionate however.


Also from the article:”CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said.”

Though the article doesn’t say when they determined that, how they could have known, and anything from the woman detained.


They ask questions during the customs process, the typical “business or pleasure” thing. And if the agent senses any deception, you are sent with another officer that will interrogate you. What I don’t understand is why she was detained, immigration officer are allowed to deny entry to tourists. This whole ordeal could have been avoided if she was allowed to go back to Mexico and rearrange travel to Germany.


While I think the detention was completely unnecessary and cruel. It appears that her Instagram still lists dates she was planning to be in LA, right after a date range of being in Mexico, with a request for DMs under it for scheduling an appointment. It seems like this phrasing in the article of "accused of maybe violating her visa" could have disclosed that she looks to have a public declaration of her intent to work.


Could be that in this case they were correct but then deport her after 72 hours not 25 days


I read an article in the German press about it a few weeks ago, she had her tattoo equipment with her and that was what aroused suspicion. According to her and her friend it was so she could tattoo her friend during her visit.


I read that part of the visa application does include social media accounts and a lot of other details, such as funds, medical insurance and history and more. So they can just check. If she stated as an occupation she's a tattoo artist then that does not even involve social media checking.


They check social media and might even demand access to your email. The latter happened to an acquaintance of mine who wanted to do a 1-month internship at a university for a project but was only able to get a tourist visa. At the airport in the US the border guards got suspicious, demanded access to her laptop and when they found an email about the internship, she was put on a flight back to the netherlands immediately.


> What the fuck? She did everything right. She had a passport, an entry visa, and a return ticket?

None of that is guarantee of entry into the US, which is completely at the discretion of the CBP officer. And the protocol on denial of entry for much longer than this administration has been around is to detain you until you can be put on a flight back to your country of origin. The saga also goes on your record, and you will have to mention & explain it in the DS-160 form for any future visa applications.

Those of us from certain countries who've had cause to visit the US have been well aware of this for decades, with the corresponding game you have to play with the CBP officer (Everything is designed to trip you up. Have every possible document on hand, even if not explicitly mentioned as a requirement. Never use certain trigger words (like work) even if travelling on company time, instead say that it's a business trip. And so on).

It's not even unique to the US either, though US border (and embassy) officials IMO tend to have a pretty big chip on their shoulders. The only place I've had a more hostile experience is the Maldives (the manager of my hotel very kindly vouched that I would leave the country on my return ticket date even though we hadn't spoken at all before my rather frantic call to him, which was the only thing that swayed them enough to let me leave the airport).


Fine then why was she kept for 25 days…


Because there is strictly speaking no time limit on how long US customs is allowed to detain non-citizens.

IIRC the only limits are 2 days for you to be taken to a facility (so you're not just being held in an interrogation room in an airport or wherever), and 90 days for you to be removed once there is an order for your deportation. The actual detention in between is limitless. Of course there's incentive to keep people moving through (and most people have a home country/embassy that they can eventually appeal to to expedite things), so in practice it isn't literally a de facto life sentence.

These are things that have been happening at your borders (and, in different forms, at other borders around the world) for years - you're just less likely to see it if you have one of the strongest passports in the world. But to be fair, whenever you wake up is your own morning.


Then if you screw up by volition or omission you can be held indefinitely and that’s just not cool. So don’t come to the US it’s. It worth it.


Unless The People do something, it's probably going to be much more than four years. I think the administration, whoever that is, is far from brain dead, even if their puppets may be.


> Stay away for the next 4 or so years. It’s clear this administration is brain dead and can’t govern.

That government was elected by the majority of Americans, and continue to be supported by them. Blaming this in the administration alone is too easy and hoping this American problem will just go away after Trump's legislation period is naive. If the majority of Americans don't receive a proper education and open their eyes to what their decisions do to your country, the following 4 years will be hust as awful.


> and continue to be supported by them.

debatable, poll numbers are cratering


Trump was not elected by a majority of voters. He received 49.7% of the popular vote.


So 0.4 % shy of having a majority. Your point is fair enough, but it doesn't really change the point of the argument.


If only the right combination of educational materials could be concocted to destroy illiberal thought...


I guess supporting a president that does not care about laws and is demanding the very democratic structures that allow you to vote in the first place falls under free speech. But an educated person would NEVER vote to have his rights removed. Maybe you should educate yourself instead of just angrily making accusations


The fact that a company operating detention facilities and profiting from it could be called CoreCivic is such a perfect metaphor. The unholy blend of techbro disruptivism (look, CamelCase!) and Orwellian doublespeak. Utterly disgusting.


I may be wrong, but the US detention/prison system seems to be there to punish people. This is bad in and of itself, but excruciatingly awful when the people involved are innocent.

Other countries of course are worse - I hear very bad things about Japan, and in places like Syria and Russia prison is there for torture and death.

There was another recent story, about an inmate in a NYC jail being killed in what looks to be a routine beating by guards.


It's combined with failed justice system.

Legal aid for migrant children has now ended, leaving many to navigate courts alone https://apnews.com/article/trump-legal-aid-unaccompanied-chi... US Judges, liberal and conservative, just continue sit there day after day and don't find that "right to fair trial" is not violated.

More generally US plea bargaining system is just cruel. See US Bar Association Plea Bargain Task Force Report: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/cri... Prosecutors are effectively coercing people to take prison sentences.


If you get compared to Russia and Syria there certainly something wrong with you.


There is difference between legal evil and neutral evil. See my other comment for the evils.

Compared to Russia there is little corruption and lawfulness. The justice system reflects the conservative retaliation values most Americans have when it comes to justice system. People just want justice system to cause suffering. Nothing is more American comedy than men being raped in prison.


> Nothing is more American comedy than men being raped in prison.

Is this really true? Because it is my instinctual belief for staying on internet too much, but when i think about who i've met there, i don't think it's true (well, most of them were hippies and back-to-lander, the few who had a job worked in natural parks or as musicians, so maybe i did not meet the average USian)


Perhaps not as hyperbolic as they write but it’s definitely there. It might aid understanding to do an internet search for the phrase “don’t drop the soap”.

I suspect what OP means is that people outside America don’t make similar jokes, not that it’s quintessential American comedy. It’s just (mostly?) uniquely American comedy.


I was thinking exactly that as I was writing.


The US prison system is definitely designed to be punitive, not to release reformed individuals back into society.


This isn't even supposed to be the prison system though, the individual had committed no crime the US had only "suspicion" that they might violate visa terms by performing tattoo artistry.


Don't visit the US.


The USA are basically a hostile nation from now on. Maybe for russians it's safe.


Russian oligarchs are explicitly welcome under the planned new "Gold Card" program.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-end-eb-5-immigrant-in...


So it seems obvious that she had posted with her friend about working without a visa in the US, CBP found this, and she was rightfully deported. Note neither women featured in this little writeup actually denied it. These days they do check your social media for little secret plans.


If that was the case they seem to have known at the border and like every episode of border patrol they should just have denied entry. Instead they are wasting thousands of tax payer money. They also did not put her on the plane for which she already had a ticket.

What is the plan here? To send her to Guantanamo?


It seems obvious from what? Is there another source you have that supports this supposition? I'm not disagreeing. I'm just asking


Serious journalism gives the accused a chance to respond. Serious sympathy articles confront the subjects with the core accusations brought against them.

Needless to say, this doesn't clear the bar.

Neither of the women even deny the accusations..


Rightfully = Solitary detention for 9 days... without a set date for said deportation 20 days later, making it an indefinite detention?

Seems like the USA has very low standards for what's "right" these days.


Did I miss that in the article, or did you just make it up?


[flagged]


The idea that politics shouldn’t be in a place for “tech stuff” is like saying water should not be discussed in a place for “fish stuff”. Politics is already in tech and has large effects. It’s a part of the stuff.


Rich, coming from a green account...


Hello there, brand new account. Curious topic for your first post.


[flagged]


People traveling to conferences in the US might want to know. What if you post on your website that you are going to work on a feature with others from the US while at the conference?

You may be detained indefinitely.

The EU should make US citizens go through the same humiliating and euphemistically termed "visa waiver" program. Make US citizens tell their whole life history, whether they have firearms experience, whether they have psychological issues, whether the are members of a terrorist organization (!) and so forth. EU citizens have to fill out a humiliating four pages form in order to enter G_d's own country.


Respectfully, there’s a lot of justifiable political information that’s relevant, but does that mean it should be posted here?

In any case it does seem from the downvotes that this site is more like Reddit for now, that’s ok.


I think it’s interesting that this strikes you as “political”. I think anyone regardless of their politics should be horrified at the thought of a tourist with documentation being held like a rabid animal.


There are plenty of horrible things that happen that aren’t appropriate for HN.

In any case, I concede that this site is more like Reddit now, in which case let it flow.


Move to strike as nonresponsive.




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