Teenage German tourists handcuffed and 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
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/german-tourists-deported-hawaii-cbp-b2736655.html
by coolbern
29 comments
>The German Foreign Office … reminded travelers that ESTA approval does not guarantee entry to the U.S. — a decision left to border officials at the point of arrival.
>Germany updated its travel advisory to the U.S. last month, following some visitors’ turbulent experiences in the country amid Donald Trump’s border crackdown.
>It emphasized that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry to the country after several German nationals had recently been detained at the border.
INB4 the russian trolls come to misrepresent the situation:
The abnormal thing isn’t them not being let in. It’s them being put in prison uniforms and detained for several days in horrible conditions (moldy mattresses, expired food, etc). Not even authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia or russia will do that (at least not to Europeans).
Go to the US, be treated like a leper.
Funny thing is you can still find people here in germany telling you they go to the usa this summer for vacation because
„The flights and hotels are so cheap“
Yezz i wonder why…
In another article one of them mentioned that they said to those agents that they are freelancers. So being a freelancer is apparently another one of those “suspicious” things that immediately raises red flags with US border agents…
But good reminder that ESTA approval doesn’t guarantee entry to the US. So better not seek approval in the first place and take your money somewhere else.
“a little bit”?
Lol US – couple months ago I will think that’s some joke, now it like – good it wasn’t Salvador
You’re White. But you weren’t that white.
A reminder that if you’re worried about not being allowed into the USA you can use the US border in Dublin and shannon airports. They will just release you straight back into the EU, instead of handcuff you.
Why are Europeans still traveling to the U.S.? How many more horror stories do you need? Stop spending money in the US
Same thing the Trump voters said; It won’t affect us…
“We didn’t think it was going to happen to us because we are white” Lol, nice mindset.
And yet just the other day I stumbled on an American trucker livestreaming on TikTok telling his fellow Americans not to travel to Europe because the EU will look through your social media and deport you. And that France bans people who disagree or whatever. And that if that’s not fascism, what is.
Like it’s the other way around dude, the USA is the one that just denied entry to a French scientist for expressing a negative opinion of Trump on Twitter.
You the one who voted in a dictator and here you’re just gobbling up and regurgitating the lies your masters feed you, ffs.
Some MAGA cunt did a tiktok and because she traveled a lot she wqs saying that its normal you fill in the hotel were you gonna stay, every country requires that.
Bitch I’ve travelled over a dozen times to the authoritarian dictatorship called china. Probably half of the times as soon as I landed, (my business) plans changed, and I’d stay in another hotel. Never once was I detained and deported.
Let’s just not go anywhere near the orange mongrel.
Let’s see how their tourism industry likes not having any European tourists this Summer.
We need to understand that things changed. I guess israeli citizens might be only, who still travel safe to the US.
Phew. I really wanted to visit NYC for all my life. Finally went a month before the election last year. We had a blast there and wanted to book another flight for this year but we hasitated for some personal reasons that would not allow us flying. So luckily we didn’t book. See ya after the orange one is gon, my Yankee friends!
Did this exact kind of trip with my husband for our honeymoon in 2007. We booked the first and last nights in Honolulu and figured out the rest in between.
It was an amazing experience and raised not a single eyebrow from Homeland Security. They were weird and unfriendly even back then but we put it down to a rentacops generally inflated self importance and lack of any discernible sense of humour. Until my bag was searched and the suspicious item turned out to be sushi and the guy actually laughed.
It’s terrifying how things have changed.
Try getting an arrest warrant from the ICC next time. The red carpet will be rolled out for you
If the US keeps flipping back and forth into fascism you cannot trust that it will be a sane place to visit or do business with. They don’t honour their own treaties. They elected a criminal conman. How can you trust them?
I mean the notion that there was mold on the mattress is bad for a first world nation.
I saw people trying to justify this by saying, “well, Hawaii is a hub for human trafficking and this was two young women traveling alone, so it was for their safety.”
I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure that if you find people you suspect of being trafficked, you don’t stick them in handcuffs.
The Government of Canada has issued a Travel Advisory against traveling to the states.
Funny I had hard time getting Schengen visa compared to US visa. And still I only got 20 days Schengen visa compared to 10 years US visa.
While not exactly fun (and expensive), they seem to have taken the whole thing in stride:
>In Hawaii, they were taken out upon entry, questioned separately, detained for one night, and then deported to Japan. The two young women told Stern magazine about the disturbing events at the US border.
>After graduating from high school, Charlotte and Maria worked for several months to raise money for their trip without having to rely on their parents for financial support. This apparently proved to be their downfall. “Then the questions started,” Charlotte recalls about passport control at the airport in Hawaii. “Where we would stay, what our route was, where we had been before, and, above all, how we would finance the trip.”
>The two women answered everything and offered to prove their statements with bank statements, return flight tickets, and the booking of their first accommodation. “But the officer wasn’t interested in that at all and sent us straight to an interrogation room.”
>”After waiting for three hours, we were questioned separately,” Maria added. The main focus was on the question of financing. “They found it strange that we weren’t supported by our parents. In retrospect, I think the matter was already settled for us with the first officer.”
>After the interrogation, it became clear that the two were to be deported. “The officials booked us on a flight to Japan the next day because we didn’t want to return to New Zealand,” Charlotte says. They were given their cell phones for five minutes to “quickly call our parents and book onward flights from Japan to Germany.” Afterward, they were handcuffed and taken to jail.
>”The policewoman was visibly sorry about the handcuffs,” says Maria, “but she said that was protocol.” The two were taken in a police car to a detention center. “We only realized it was actually a prison when we got there,” says Maria.
>”It was a complete emotional whirlwind. The moment we were told we were being deported, we cried,” Charlotte recalls. “Then when I saw my friend in handcuffs, it was so absurd that we started laughing again.” In the detention center, the two were patted down and forced to strip naked. “It was just incredibly embarrassing. And we were kind of angry, too.”
>After an unpleasant night in the cell, they were handcuffed and taken back to the plane at 6 a.m. the next day. Only in Japan did the two receive their passports back – and the transcripts of the interrogations. “That’s when we realized there were things in there that we hadn’t actually said,” says Charlotte.
>Maria explains: “For example, when asked why I wanted to go to the US, I answered, ‘To travel and visit my family in California.’ In the end, the paperwork said, ‘Work for housing and extra spending money.’ We never said anything like that because that was never our intention.”
>The two were forced to sign their statements in the interrogation room. “We felt very pressured and didn’t have time to read through everything carefully,” says Charlotte. “That’s why our signature is now under the statement that we knowingly misused our ESTA and are therefore never allowed to enter the country again.” ESTA is the electronic tourist visa.
>Despite the unpleasant situation in the USA, Charlotte and Marie don’t want to end their trip around the world. “We’re flying to Mexico after Easter and then finishing in Costa Rica in June as planned. We can hardly wait to get back on the plane,” Maria says happily.
From Swiss magazine 20 minutes, also has [smiling mugshots of Maria and Charclotte](https://www.20min.ch/story/usa-deutsche-erleben-weltreise-schock-103328718)
Le the dumbshitathon rage on. If you are going to be in Hawaii for five weeks, what would compel you to book all your hotels for that entire time upfront? That’s not a thing that makes a trip surreptitious work. That’s a thing that enables some spontaneity.
ICE is just a bunch of stupid, rabid brownshirts.
Really not gonna help tourism in the US now.
It is foolish to travel to the US at all from now and the foreseeable future.
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