So allegedly a German tourist with a valid visa was nicked by ICE on the US border and hasn’t been seen for 17 days. I find it bizarre that this hasn’t made it onto German media and there hasn’t been any kind of statement from the German authorities – I could understand if it was fresh but it apparently happened 17 days ago. She‘s had contact with the outside world and is ok from what I’ve read though it seems visiting the US could be potentially risky also for EU citizens now.

Have any of you heard about this?

Article translation by DeepL:

USA: German tattoo artist has been languishing in ICE prison for 17 days
byGaudenz Valentin LooserDaniel Graf
Published11. February 2025, 10:17

USAGerman tattoo artist has been stewing in ICE prison for 17 days

Jessica Brösche (29) travelled from Tijuana to the USA with a valid visa. She never returned from the security check at the border.

Tiktok women talk about the case of Jessica Brösche.

Tiktok
What it's all about

The German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche has been in detention in an ICE camp in the USA for 17 days.

She was arrested despite having a valid visa.

According to her friend, she is accused of planning to work in the USA.

Campaigners are now warning tourists against travelling to the USA: ICE could arrest anyone.

Jessica's American friend, fashion designer Nikita Lofving, is desperate: After holidaying together in Tijuana, Mexico, they planned to travel together to Los Angeles on 25 January, where they planned to spend two months together. German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche knows Nikita from her time in Berlin and has visited her in the USA several times. This time, too, everything was actually fine: Jessica had a visa that would be valid until May 2025. But everything went wrong at the border to the USA. "Suddenly they said Jessica had to go through security. I haven't seen her since," says Nikita. That was 17 days ago.

It's not clear why she was detained. According to Nikita, ICE may believe that Jessica intended to work in the USA. This was based on an entry on Jessica's Instagram profile, which the ICE officers had checked.

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Friends of the German tattoo artist have launched a social media campaign for her release.

Screenshot Instagram
Family in contact with the Federal Foreign Office

Jessica's mother Birgit Brösche, who lives in Germany, confirmed to 20 Minuten what Nikita had described: she has not yet been able to speak to her daughter. However, the family is in contact with the German Consulate General and a lawyer has now also been called in.

After agonisingly long days of uncertainty as to where her daughter had ended up, at least they now know where she is and that she is being held in a detention camp run by the American immigration authorities ICE. She is being held in a room with four other women, says Birgit Brösche. According to the ICE website, Jessica is currently being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Centre in San Diego.

According to her mother, Jessica does not have any health problems. "But she is naturally very thin. If she doesn't get enough to eat, it can quickly become problematic for her," says her mother.

Meanwhile, Nikita Lofving and other friends have launched a social media campaign for Jessica's release. They are explicitly warning foreign tourists not to travel to the USA. "It's not safe here anymore. Anyone can be arrested by ICE," says an American Tiktoker. The German Tiktoker Jen_dylan is also campaigning for Jessica's release.

When asked by 20 Minuten, the German Foreign Office said: "Our colleagues at the Consulate General Los Angeles are in constant contact with the US authorities and family members regarding the case and are endeavouring to find a solution. We ask for your understanding that we cannot comment on further details of the consular assistance in order to protect the personal rights of the persons concerned."

The American immigration authority ICE has not yet responded to enquiries from 20 Minuten.

Would you still travel to the USA after this story?

Yes, I have no reservations.no, I would think twice.maybe, but I would be more cautious.I have no plans to travel to the USA anyway.

Translated with DeepL (https://www.deepl.com/app/?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=share-translation)

https://www.20min.ch/story/usa-deutsche-tattoo-kuenstlerin-schmort-seit-17-tagen-im-ice-knast-103278430

by nickdc101987

41 comments

  1. Visiting Y’all Qaeda these days has a similar risk to visiting the Taliban in Afghanistan it seems.

  2. She is trans. ICE have read Trump’s EOs. I will not be going to any scientific conferences in the US from now on.

  3. i will not set a foot in this shithole country ever again not even as a tourist

  4. American here. Just heard about this on TikTok. Her name only came up on 2 results here. This thread being one of them.

    Hopefully they find her. Ya, this country is pretty fucked.

  5. What is the backstory that made her ineligible for ESTA and required her to obtain a visa?

    Lots of information missing here

  6. I recently read an interview with a gay (male) OF creator – he was detained at the US border (at the airport) and sent back because of his OF account and was accused of wanting to prostitute himself in the US (he was just on vacation, visiting friends). I had no idea until then that that was a thing. He had Swiss and German dual nationality if I recall correctly.

  7. This is not the first time a german tourist is denied entry into the US, because of accusations that they intend to work. I remember cases that go way back before Trump. The baseline is that the US is incredibly pedantic when it comes to what counts as “work”. And you definitely should not admit to anything on social media or in the interview. Even if you count doing “some childcare for friends and family” or “performing on stage for food” not as work, the border agent in the US may see this differently.

  8. > Would you still travel to the USA after this story?

    Nobody should visit the Failing States of America for the same reason nobody should visit Venezuela, North Korea, or Russia. Or any other authoritarian state.

    Unless you want the douchebags-in-power to cause you harm, then, by all means, go.

  9. TikTok brain rot.

    ICE is not even present at points of entry, that’s border patrol (CBP)

    You do not get “detained by ICE” if the customs officer at the point of entry determine you want to work illegally in the US. You’re simply turned around and told to take a hike.

  10. Kinda funny how in the last months, there are billboards everywhere in Germany talking about how we should visit the US. A kind fuck off.

  11. TLDR: she’s held under suspicion for violating visa conditions due to indenting to perform work under a tourist visa, as evidenced on her insta profile apparently.

    Not sure why is this news? It’s the same in most of the countries in the world, you go tell Dutch immigration officers that you gonna go tattoo some clients on a tourist visa and then see how fast you get deported on the spot.

  12. Germans get detained by ICE’s frequently in our own country also.

  13. I am worried about what the US government might do during the World Cup with millions of tourists, will they have the same arbitrary restrictions???

  14. >According to Nikita, ICE may believe that Jessica intended to work in the USA. This was based on an entry on Jessica’s profile, which the ICE officers had checked

    Uh… any other information about this?? Of course you get arrested for Visa / entry fraud?

    This isn’t a US specific thing. We have TV shows that just show border patrol interactions in other countries and I’ve absolutely seen people get detained for trying to stay for work and not having the proper authorization

    Barring the ridiculous slow process, I’m going to reserve judgement until I know what that post said

  15. I make it a thing to not visit any countries that are dictatorships. I don’t want to spend my money in such countries just so that the man in charge can go all “look, business is just fine with me in charge”.

    That now includes the US.

  16. That’s fair. I don’t even want to know how many Americans involuntarily get stuck on ICEs in Germany.

  17. System working as intended, no notes from me. Would have happened the same way under any previous administration. How can you be so stupid to try to work on a tourist visa and leave evidence of your intentions in your Insta story?
    Contrary to popular belief the US never took that lightly. “It’s just one meeting.” “It’s just changing one part.” “It’s just a trade show.” “It’s just one client.” People get busted, detained, sent back and can’t go the US for a couple years.

  18. It is more likely related to the wrong visa for the wrong task. The same as people coming in europe to visit family or for holiday and are shocked when they dont have access to any administration or cant work.

  19. > According to her friend, she is accused of planning to work in the USA.

    And was she? 

  20. Well, with all those story’s, guess that was international tourism …

  22. It mentions she is a tattoo artist.

    If she was found to be travelling with a tattoo gun, even if it was bought in Mexico, that violates the terms of her visitor visa as it shows intent to work in the US and she would be detained until she can be deported.

    Although 17 days is an unusually long time to detain someone, especially if they had enough evidence to conclude she was entering the country to work.

    Still, I wouldn’t go. The last time Trump was in office, a French woman was running a trail in BC near the border (Peach Arches, where you can cross the border in the recreation area) and ICE was roaming the border, arrested her, ~~trafficked her~~ drove her 200km+ into the states and she was detained until she could produce her passport she obviously wasn’t running with. It was a mess. She was visiting family in Canada and finally managed to get to call her family to bring her passport to the detention centre.

  24. If you open her Instagram page you can clearly see that she was taking bookings for tattoing in US.

  25. She got detained because she violated her visa and broke the law. 

  26. Canada here. Absolutely not. The USA has become untrustworthy.

  27. This ain’t the whole story. Guaranteed. Also, Reddit is stupid. Guaranteed.

  28. You need a valid job to write down on immigration forms.

    So, if you are between jobs or a freelancer, your travel experience may be interesting in some countries. I never had more than one question at U.S. immigration.

    Don’t bring any kind of tools again. I was traveling with a serious film camera and was selected for questioning in a country that is supposedly at the top of the democracy beacon list—just because they thought I was a journalist trying to sneak in.

  29. Chick was not very bright posting she was intending to work in the US without proper paperwork. She FA and now she’s Finding Out.

  30. As someone whos only form of immigration expertise comes from watching immigration tv shows, if she had tattooing needles and appointments on her phone then it would make sense to detain and deport her if she only had a tourism visa.

    Every country does this, if you go somewhere with the intent to work and not pay taxes and the place you’re visiting has laws against that then thats just how it is.

  31. If the Consulate has been contact with ICE and they haven’t been released yet. It’s likely not a visa issue.

  33. Time for travel advisories for the US.

    I travelled over to visit my son a couple of years ago and made the mistake of saying that instead of “holiday”.

    I got grilled, with all sorts of trick questions and gotchas.

    It started off unexpectedly, after a 14 hour flight and at 6AM I get Mr Grumpy. Instead of the more neutral “hello, purpose of your visit?” I get growled at with “why are you here?”

  35. Better come to Canada, we are not idiocrats like the USA now is.

  37. I live ten minutes from the US border and will not cross the line… before or after reading this.

  38. I’m an American – I used to want people to come visit because we have some awesome sights. Now, because I worry about incidents like this, I would not recommend coming until/if we regain our national sanity. Being detained by ICE, even in error, seems to send one into a dark hole that is not subject to the normal individual protections that historically accompanied other forms of detention.

    Edit: It appears there might be more to this particular case. I would still recommend caution those who visit. Things are very unpredictable right now.

  39. Guys she was working illegally here….anywhere else professional services you will be sucked into it.

  40. She’s in the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego California. You can find people in ICE’s system if you have their name and country of birth. This is 100% real and she’s 100% in ice custody.

    Edit: Google “ICE detainee locator.” For what it’s worth she’s not the first person I’ve seen get in trouble with ice while on a valid visitor visa.

  41. “Intended” without proof and got arrested, versus Musk who DID work under his student visa…

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