A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.
Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Bibra in Saxony-Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.
The families of the two tourists, who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had compared their ordeals to “a horror film”.
Both Germans were held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, a prison in San Diego, California.
Their cases, followed closely by German consulate staff in the US and the foreign ministry in Berlin, share similarities with the fate of the British tourist Rebecca Burke, 28, a graphic artist from Monmouthshire who was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in Washington state more than 11 days ago while trying to cross into the US on the Canadian border, according to her family.
All the incidents are being described as evidence of the immigration crackdown in the US since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Not only has there a crackdown on entries into the US, but the increase in cases has reportedly meant a bureaucratic backlog leading to delays in decisions on cases of those who have been detained.
Brösche’s mother, Birgit, confirmed to German media on Tuesday that her daughter was on her way home. Brösche’s friend Nikita Lofving, whom the Berliner had intended to visit in Los Angeles, confirmed to the LA Times she had spoken to her friend.
Speaking to a journalist from ABC 10News San Diego in a phone interview on 1 March, Brösche said she had spent eight days in solitary confinement. She said: “It was horrible. Like, it’s really horrible. I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate.”
Lofving, who had been in constant contact with her friend, said: “[Brösche] says it was like a horror movie. They were screaming in all different rooms. After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles.”
The staff at the prison had called a psychologist who wanted to prescribe anti-psychotic medicine to calm her down, but Brösche had refused to take anything, Lofving said.
Brösche’s mother told the Berlin tabloid BZ: “I will believe it [her release] only when I am able to take her in my arms.”
CoreCivic, the company that owns the Otay Mesa Detention Center, denied Brösche’s claims that she had been in solitary confinement, according to ABC 10News.
Brösche and Lofving had attempted to enter the US from Tijuana in Mexico on 25 January. The two were traveling with tattoo equipment. Lofving said that Brösche was arrested and taken away by officers on the border. The US immigration authorities, Ice, assumed Brösche was intending to work illegally in the US, Lofving said. Her friend was in possession of an Esta travel permit.
According to Brösche’s Instagram profile, she had only intended to stay in LA until mid-February. Germany’s foreign ministry confirmed it had worked together with its consulate general in LA to resolve the issue.
Sielaff returned to Germany last week after spending two weeks in detention, after his entry permit was cancelled at the Mexican border, amid suspicions by the US authorities that he had remained in the US longer than he was allowed.
He was arrested at the border point at San Ysidro on 18 February. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and had subsequently visited Mexico with his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, where they had taken her dog to the vet. According to Tyler, on their return to the US, Sielaff had incorrectly answered a question as to where he lived, due to his poor grasp of English. He had said Las Vegas, where he was staying with Tyler, his fiancee, when he should have said Germany, where he permanently resides, she said.
After two weeks in detention, Sielaff was allowed to leave. His girlfriend said she booked him a flight from San Diego to Munich on 6 March. In an interview with the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger, Tyler warned people against travelling to the US. “Don’t come here,” she said. “Especially not if you’re on a tourist visa, and especially not over the Mexican border.”
US authorities have yet to issue a statement on the German cases.
Rebecca Burke’s father said on Monday that he was trying to get his daughter out of the detention centre, and had been in touch with the British consulate in San Francisco. He described the conditions in which she was being held as “horrendous”. She had been travelling on a tourist visa, but was told she should have applied for a working visa as she planned to stay with a family receiving accommodation in exchange for carrying out domestic chores.
