Teenage German tourists deported from Hawaii over ‘suspicious’ hotel booking
‘We had already noticed a little bit of what was going on in the U.S. But at the time, we didn't think it was happening to Germans,’ Maria Lepère says
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They did not send them to El Salvador btw, they're back in Germany now.
But the description of how they were treated is still harrowing:
Pohl and Lepère were interrogated in Honolulu International Airport for hours and allegedly subjected to body scans and strip searches before, finally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents denied them entry to the country and said they would be deported, according to the outlet.
Officials became suspicious of potential illegal work intentions after learning the teens had not booked accommodation for their entire five-week stay in Hawaii
So everytime I travel I'm a potential terrorist? That's what (many) backpackers do you dumbasses.
The women said they were placed in a holding cell beside some other detainees who were accused of serious crimes. The teens alleged they spent the night on moldy mattresses in a freezing double cell.
On March 19, the young travelers were allegedly taken back to Honolulu International Airport in handcuffs, where they requested to be sent to Tokyo, Japan.
Now imagine how much worse it is for all those so-called "illegals", and still how much worse when they get to El Salvador.
It's not entirely unwarranted, they WERE planning to work on a tourist-visa, which specifically and clearly not allowed in pretty much any country.
The horrible treatment is, of course, completely unwarranted, but denying entry isn't.
It’s not entirely unwarranted, they WERE planning to work on a tourist-visa
[citation needed]
They said they wanted to travel spontaneously. That is, they had their first hotel booked, then would've booked another hotel, or left the states early.
Maybe Americans just don't understand travel that's not an organised five-day trip.
Where did you get that information? Because all it said in the article was:
Officials became suspicious of potential illegal work intentions after learning the teens had not booked accommodation for their entire five-week stay in Hawaii,
How not booking hotels for their entire trip equates to "potential work intentions" escapes me. If you were planning on working for five weeks, wouldn't you book a hotel near where you were planning to work? Was there a job lined up? Are we supposed to believe that in the middle of a round-the-world graduation trip, these girls wanted to spend 5 weeks working?
Alternate explanations:
Frankly, the real story is probably a combination of all three.
Yeah, with you on this. I know in the past these arrangements have been very lenient but the recent political developments just show this isn't the case anymore. It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already.. Guess this is a thing of the past now.
The treatment however is definitely over the line.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already… Guess this is a thing of the past now.
Huh? You base "was always sketchy" on your personal feelings doing that yourself 15 years ago?
I really don't see what's sketchy about not booking four weeks ahead.
I'm more of a planner, but my grandparents get in their car and drive through and around Italy without a single stay pre-planned.
I don't see how that's suspicious or sketchy at all.
I am saying that from the view of border control. What I read back then as advice was very mixed and seemed to depend on you having luck that the person in front of you didn't care. Already back then without the political climate we have now.
I used to teach a unique culinary technique, and had clients visit me from all around the world for training, including several Muslim countries. Only one client had a serious problem at the border, a young Muslim guy from India. His dad was a major Bollywood director, and was fairly wealthy.
He had gone to college in America, so he was using this trip to both visit me for a few days for his training, then going on to Miami to meet up with his American college friends.
His visa said he was here on a pleasure trip, but for some reason he was pulled aside for grilling. They demanded his phone, and looked through his texts, where they found messages between him and I, making arrangements for his training.
That lit them up, and they started claiming he was coming here for work, not pleasure. He explained that he wasnt being paid, he was paying me, and it wasn't work. It was educational, if anything. It was really just an expensive experiential vacation adventure for a rich kid, which was something I'd experienced before. Some clients really wanted to learn this technique to expand their culinary portfolio, while others just wanted to try it out for fun, and had the time and money to do it. If you came to America to learn to scuba dive, or surf, would it be considered work, or even educational?
The fact that he was here for education or work wasn't the point, the point was that the visa was for pleasure, so they were claiming it was a violation, even though most of the trip was with his friends (3 days with me, 2 weeks with his buddies).
Then they focused on his money. He was carrying about $2600, and they acted like that was an outrageous amount of cash for a rich young man to carry on an international trip. They demanded he tell them exactly how much cash was in his wallet, which they were holding, and had searched. He told them the exact amount, because he had counted his money on the plane, after they had landed. They told him he was lucky he knew the exact amount, or they would have kept his money and sent him home.
Eventually, they grudgingly allowed him to leave, and he got his training, and visited his friends, but he went home with a very negative view of the US government.
This all happened during the first MAGA administration.
a young Muslim guy from India
Well there's your problem. The rest is just an excuse
I get it. Frankly, i was surprised that ALL my Muslim clients, who also came from India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa, and other countries, didn't have problems of their own. I also had people from many other countries luke Vietnam, Phillipines, Russia, Serbia, England, etc. None got hassled at all. This one guy just won the Border Patrol Lottery. Yay!
The closest I saw was when one got pulled over by a local cop, who kept asking him over and over "Who else is in the car?", when it was easy to see that the guy was all alone in the vehicle. The only thing i could think of was that in order to get from my shop to his hotel, he had to travel through a small zone that is known for prostitution, and a lone brown guy in a car tickled that cop's lizard brain. That area is also a MAJOR tourist/ convention zone, so its not the only reason to be there. 99.99% of the people going through are there for perfectly legitimate reasons, including just getting from here to there. My client didn't even know about the prostitution angle, and was horrified when i told him.
It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
Where did they admit that?
It's not in this article, there were plenty of others posted where it was mentioned.
Could you perhaps share one?
