Since in 2008 Fabian Schmidt obtained his residence legal In the United States when returning to the country, it possibly listened to more than one immigration agent and customs at the airport to receive him with a usual phrase for those who have the ‘Green Card’: “Welcome home.” Not March 7. That day this 34 -year -old electrical engineer resident in New Hampshire, with an American couple and an eight -year -old daughter, did not cross security at Boston airport when he returned from a trip to Luxembourg.
He was arrested and, according to his lawyer, subject to “Unnecessary interrogation tactics.” His mother has said that he was subjected to a cold shower and locked him with little food and water and without access to his medications and had to be transferred to a hospital. Carry two weeks in a detention center In Rhode Island, where Wait for deportation. No charges have been filed against him, And the only thing consisting of his history is an old position of possession of marijuana, which was dismissed, and not having come to a judicial event (according to his mother, because the citation did not reach the new direction when they moved as a state).
Schmidt’s case is only one of several who in recent days have come to light on arrests and deportations or expulsion attempts in the US of immigrants with permanent residence or with Legal visas of tourism or work. And confirm one climbing in the aggressiveness of tactics than the Border Agents are applying in this mandate of Donald Trumpwho has made the fight against immigration, not only of those who arrive without papers, one of the epicenters of his presidency.
Warnings for visitors and traffic
There are at least two other cases of German tourists which have been deported after being arrested at the border in California. One was Lucas Sielaff, a 25 -year -old plumber who has an American girlfriend who lives in Las Vegas and that when he returned with her from a trip to doctor was handcuffed and chained Before being transferred to a San Diego detention center, where it happened 16 days Before you can buy a flight back to Germany. He had not violated the terms of his tourist permission, which allow him to spend 90 days in the US, but was accused of living in the US.
The other was Jessica Brösche, a tattoo artist who carried her equipment when she crossed the border from Tijuana. Was accused of going to work illegally in the US and deported After passing arrested more than six weeks.
Cases have led to Germany has update its travel warnings to the US with a notice that now the country is stricter on the border, something that has also done the United Kingdom (A young Wales backpack that had been living in American houses in exchange for making small tasks was stopped at the border with Canada, arrested and deported accused of having worked). And that German warning adds to the one they had done before for their Transgender and non -binary citizensa step they have also taken Finland and Denmark Given Trump’s political changes, which has established that the US only recognizes two genres and forces to use biological sex by birth in official documentation.
Other cases
The known cases are more. Jasmine Mooneyan actress and entrepreneur Canadianwas arrested when trying to request a work visa in San Diego and passed 12 days in detention centers before deportation. Camila Muñozan immigrant from Peru married to an American (Trump voter), is in a center of ICE in Luisana after being arrested when she returned from her honeymoon in Puerto Rico, supposedly for having stayed more time than its original visa in 2020 (in the pandemic). And a 10 -year -old American girl with brain cancer When she and her parents, Mexicans, made one of her usual transfers for her treatment in Houston.
In the sound of the French researcher who was deported after they registered his mobile and his computer, the Department of National Security has denied that it was for having expressed in private conversations critical opinions with Donald Trump’s cuts to science and have assured that he had been made with confidential information of the National Laboratory of Los Alamos and had tried to hide it.
Executive order
Tricia McLaughlin, national security spokesman, has defended that they are only “Applying immigration laws“And he added that it is” something that the previous administration did not do. “And those laws have been added to the Executive order That Trump signed on his first day of this second presidency, in which he called to “identify all the resources that can be used to ensure that all foreigners seek to be admitted or are already in the US are investigated and evaluated at the highest possible level”.
Resources include asking for entry applicants for their Identifications in Social Networks and more searches for the content of mobile phones and computers In migratory controls at airports, where agents have total authority. These records in 2024 were made to less than 0.01% of those who entered the US.
That has made lawyers like Dan Berger, who works with Boston universities and hospitals in immigration matters, even considering that ” options that (that record) pass are still low”, He is already warning people“ who has Be very careful what you have on your social networks and your electronic devices“, As explained to the ‘The Wall Street Journal.”
The measures have been qualified as “extreme“For experts such as Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioned for the border patrol and customs in the Barack Obama government. And although Trump has already imposed her hard hand in her first mandate, Kerikowske has told ‘The New York Times’ that” they are taking this to another completely new level. It’s a Already seen in esteroides”.
Veto and political persecution
Anxiety grows as Trump prepares a veto, broader than he imposed in his first presidency to countries with Muslim majorities, which according to drafts known so far will affect to a different degree to 41 countries: 10 with full veto, five with partial suspensions of concession of visas and 26 with notice of these suspensions if in 60 days their governments do not correct “deficiencies.”
It also grows by arrests, deportations and attempts at expulsions such as that of Mahmud Khalil, a graduate from Columbia with permanent residence who had a role in the protests on the campus by the Gaza War, whose case extends a chill on the repression of free expression and dissent. Also stopped and waiting for deportation without charges is Badar Khan Surian academic of postdoctoral in Georgetown with a valid and married visa with the daughter of a former Hamas advisor. And she was already deported to Lebanon after spending 36 hours detained, although there was a court order against her expulsion, Russian-alawieha doctor and professor at Brown University originally from Lebanon and with valid visa.
The administration defends that permits and visas to be in the US are a “privilege”, Not a right, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, He has claimed his authority to revoke them if he considers that those who have it “put at risk” national security or foreign policy of the US. But what is happening has led to universities such as Brown, Yale and UCLA to recommend to international students and teachers who reconside their trips And also companies that employ foreigners seek guidelines on how to advise those employees.
