Border Agents Use More Aggressive Tactics to Question Visa Holders, Tourists
Category: News & Politics
Via: hallux • one week ago • 21 commentsBy: Tarini Parti and Michelle Hackman - WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON—Immigration officers are employing more aggressive questioning tactics with immigrants and tourists trying to enter the country, scrutinizing their visas and more frequently detaining them in a sharp break from past practice, lawyers and former immigration officials said.
In a string of recent cases, border authorities have detained U.S. tourist and work visa holders for lengthy periods after seemingly minor issues with their cases . Among them: a German national with a U.S. green card, who needed to be transported to the hospital after his mother said he was strip-searched during questioning. Another, a tourist who was shackled and chained, was detained after a routine stop driving into the U.S. from Mexico.
Immigrants with visa issues more often had been required to come back with additional paperwork to resolve their cases, or else put into deportation proceedings. Generally, it is rare that border authorities detain people with visa issues long-term, especially those with relatively minor violations, the lawyers and former immigration officials said.
“I can’t remember anything quite that extreme,” said Gil Kerlikowske, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under former President Barack Obama.
The moves come after an executive order, which President Trump issued on his first day in office, called on immigration officials to apply “extreme vetting” measures to visa and green card applicants, including immigrants re-entering the country. Lawyers say the directive appears to have put pressure on them to find more violators, with the goal of tightening restrictions on who is allowed into the country .
Trump has cited national security reasons for his administration’s efforts to enhance screening of those entering the country.
“The Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws—something the previous administration failed to do,” said Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained, and removed as required.”
Lucas Sielaff, a 25-year-old plumber from Germany, was driving to the U.S. from Mexico with his fiancée, a U.S. citizen, when immigration officers put him in shackles at a border checkpoint.
Sielaff said immigration officers chained him to a bench, and denied him a translator and a lawyer. They also accused him of living in the U.S. instead of visiting as a tourist. He told them he planned to return to his home country before the 90 days allowed to German tourists were up. Sielaff was sent to a detention center in San Diego, where he was told he couldn’t voluntarily leave the country. After 16 days in detention, the officers allowed him to book a flight home.
“I’m shocked at how fast this all changed,” Sielaff said. “And that they put innocent people in prison for nothing.”
Hilton Beckham, spokeswoman for CBP, said she couldn’t disclose details about specific cases because of privacy regulations, but added broadly of cases like Sielaff’s: “If statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal.”
These instances have made U.S. visa-holders uneasy about future travel plans, lawyers say, with major universities and companies that employ foreign nationals now also seeking guidance on how to advise their workers and students on travel. Brown University warned international students and staff members not to travel outside the country after one of its professors with a work visa was deported after a trip to Lebanon.
Officials are also now requiring most immigration applicants to submit their social-media handles with applications, and have been increasing searches of people’s cellphone contents at airports.
“I think the chance of this happening to somebody is still low, but I’m definitely advising people to be very careful about what’s on their social media and their devices,” said Dan Berger, a lawyer in Boston who advises universities and hospitals on immigration matters.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration lawyer for Dickinson Wright, described the moves as “an extremely difficult conundrum to figure out what sort of travel should I allow” for her clients.
Two other cases involving German nationals have drawn scrutiny. The German government is looking into the cases, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said this week.
One of the German nationals was Fabian Schmidt, who has a U.S. green card but was stopped at Logan Airport in Boston earlier this month and aggressively questioned, according to his lawyer, David Keller. “There were unnecessary interrogation tactics imposed…it broke him to the point where, medically speaking, he needed to be transported to the hospital,” Keller told reporters on Tuesday, outside the detention facility in Rhode Island where Schmidt is being held.
Astrid Senior, Schmidt’s mother, confirmed that Schmidt had a previous marijuana possession charge that had been dismissed. She said her son had been strip-searched and put in a cold shower by immigration officers at the airport. Keller said after nearly two weeks of detention, the government has yet to file charges against Schmidt.
“These claims are blatantly false with respect to CBP,” Beckham said. “When an individual is found with drug-related charges and tries to re-enter the country, officers will take proper action.”
Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian actress, was denied entry in the U.S. after she tried to apply for a new work visa, which Canadians have been allowed to do at a border port of entry. Before the actress, who has appeared in movies such as “American Pie Presents: The Book of Love,” could return to Canada, an officer approached her to start processing her for detention. She was moved to two different detention centers over 12 days, she told The Wall Street Journal.
“I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family, and even politicians advocating for me,” Mooney wrote. “Now imagine what this system is like for every other person in there—people who don’t have my privilege.”
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One or two things to add:
In the month of February there were 500,000 fewer trips by Canadians into the US who spend on average $980 each per trip. In all of 2024 that amounted to $20.5 billion.
In 2023 Tourism from all countries to the US racked in $2.36 trillion.
Common sense has left the building.
Meh, I stopped going to Canada years ago because of their abusive border patrol practices. But I’m an American white male so I guess abuse is to expected eh?
Soory aboot dat …..
You mean like those when Canadian border agents rescue people fleeing the US in the dead of winter and keep them from freezing to death?
No, more like those incarcerated thousands of people, including those with disabilities, on immigration-related grounds every year in often abusive conditions. Or like hassling folks just trying to visit for a camping, fishing or hunting trip.
Scary American activities ……
Abusive? I have crossed the border many times and do not find the Canadian border patrol to be anything other than professional. What kind of abuse did they inflict on you?
And I have been hassled many times. Fishing, hunting and camping gear gone through item by item. Held for hours waiting for a supervisor to show up and inspect the same the gear two or three Barney fifes have already pawed through.
I would opine from the determining the tone and attitude of your comments on NT that perhaps the Canadian border officials have reacted in kind. As well, I would expect border officials to be more concerned about persons entering Canada with guns, as you said you went on hunting trips.
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[deleted] [✘] Do fishing poles make all Canadians nervous? How about travel to see a broadway show? Does that requires taking a truck apart to insure that Canadians are secure from us “psycho fishing gear” killers?
What you fail to realize is up to the last few years I traveled there we had no major issues with Canadian border security. We treated them with respect and they reciprocated. Literally dozens of fishing and hunting trips with no issues. Probably at least many trips just so see shows, visit museums etc. Easy peasy …. until it wasn’t.
Can’t really isolate when it changed but it did. Canadian border security turned into hit & miss pricks. A problem we never had for decades of travel.
So you can “opine” all you want but so far, you aren’t even close.
I think a shit-ton of Americans don't realize how much the world perception of the US now has changed, and it won't be coming back anytime soon. We have thrown out our closest relationships to suck up to our enemies, making us weaker and Russia stronger. My daughter in law is Chinese, here legally and documented. We are now nervous of them travelling out of the country. Our friends around the world are pissed. We've already lost our place in the world order.
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Until recently I had been keeping in touch via the internet with my son who lives with his family in Wisconsin. Because the American government is now outdoing 1984s 'Big Brother is Watching You' I am no longer doing so, but relaying messages through my daughter in Toronto. I would not put it past America's new GESTAPO to consider his correspondence with someone in a country identified as an adversary to be endangering the 'National Security' in its extremely broad interpretation, so I do not wish to endanger his life in the USA.
The US drew 66.5 million tourists in 2023.
Wanna bet that number will crash?
No worries. Less crowded for us. Time to visit that busy National Park I’ve been meaning to see.
Good thing DOGE is keeping them all neat for ya!
Just took a hike this weekend at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park just down the road.
Immaculate. Guess it remains so because of less Canadians.
For Canadians there are LOTS of warm-in-winter alternatives to the USA unless someone is afraid to fly or cruise. I've had wonderful times in Bermuda, The Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, but never did get to Mexico.
My wife and I have been coming to Arizona for fifteen years. A big portion of Yuma‘s snowbirds have been Canadians. I doubt they'll be back. That's thousands of long-term visitors every year.
At least you live HALF the year elsewhere. But who knows what will be 4 years from now?
We're not making any firm plans...
Wise decision.