Tourists planning trips to the United States have been left unnerved after Donald Trump‘s borders crackdown has seen visitors stopped and detained – including a British traveller who spent three weeks in ICE custody.
US border officials have been using more aggressive methods with holidaymakers and legal immigrants, with the Trump administration calling it ‘enhanced vetting’.
Britain’s foreign office has revised its advice for citizens travelling to the US to include a warning that anyone found breaking its rules ‘may be liable to arrest or detention’.
Previously the guidance had only stated: ‘The authorities in the US set and enforce entry rules.’
Last month British artist Becky Burke, 28, was handcuffed and taken to a detention cell in Tacoma, Washington, after being classified as an ‘illegal alien‘.
She attempted to cross the border into Canada with an ‘incorrect visa’ on February 26, US authorities said, with her parents telling the BBC that she had been getting free accommodation for helping families with chores.
Her father believed that in doing so she had essentially broken the terms of her tourist visa waiver, which bans vacationers from doing work while in the US.
Meanwhile there has been suspicion in some cases that people have been turned away for expressing anti-Trump views, with a French scientist allegedly denied entry after officials discovered ‘hateful’ messages criticising the President on his phone.
A US Customs and Border police officer stands guard at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in 2020
Becky Burke, 28, was handcuffed and taken to a detention cell in Tacoma, Washington, on February 26 and is now back in the UK
The space researcher – who has not yet been named – was subject to a random airport search on his way to a conference in Houston, Texas .
Officers found messages ‘which conveyed a hatred toward Trump and could be considered to be terrorism’, according to AFP, while another source suggested they felt the messages were ‘hateful and conspiracy’.
The FBI later informed the academic that they had opened an investigation into the matter, but the agency later dropped charges.
After being rejected on March 9, he was sent back to Europe the following day after authorities confiscated his personal and professional equipment.
Philippe Baptiste, France‘s minister of higher education and research, condemned the US authorities for taking action over a ‘personal opinion’.
In a statement to Le Monde, he said: ‘I learned with concern that a French researcher who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled.
‘This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy.’
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Tricia Mclaughlin told the New York Times that this was not the case, claiming instead that the scientist had confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory, which he had taken without permission and tried to conceal.
‘The Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws – something the previous administration failed to do,’ Ms McLaughlin said of the recent arrests.
‘Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained and removed as required.’
While US customs officials are allowed to stop and search all people attempting to enter the country, customs agents are not allowed to search people or conduct inspections ‘based on your religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity or political beliefs’.
The French researcher is just the latest tourist to face deportation back to their home country.
German tourist Jessica Brösche, 26, faced a similar ordeal she tried to walk through a checkpoint at the southern border.
German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, 26, says she was left in solitary confinement with over a week after being arrested while trying to legally cross the US-Mexico border
The tattoo artist was arrested by border agents when she tried to cross from Tijuana into San Diego on January 25.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving as a tourist under the ESTA visa waiver program. The two had met in Tijuana and were carrying tattooing equipment.
Immigration officials reportedly accused Brösche of working in the US the last time she entered the country with the ESTA program, an electronic system that determines whether someone is eligible to enter the US without a visa.
Lofving told the outlet she asked officials if Brösche could be sent back to Mexico, but they said she would be deported to Germany in three to five days because she could not offer proof of residence in the Latin American country.
But Brösche says she spent days in a cell at the San Diego border before she was taken into ICE custody and brought to the the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she has been held for more than a month.
‘I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate,’ she told ABC 10. Her detainment included a ‘horrible’ eight days in solitary confinement, she added.
Berlin has said it is investigating and has involved its consulate in Boston to assist one of the individuals still affected.
American Pie actress Jasmine Mooney was also detained by ICE for nearly two weeks
‘The final decision on whether a person can enter the US lies with the U.S. border authorities,’ a spokesperson for Germany’s Foreign Office said.
Germany’s travel advisory warns that false information, past criminal records, or even minor overstays on previous trips could lead to arrest, deportation, or detention – with no legal recourse.
Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney was also detained by ICE, in her case for nearly two weeks.
The 35-year-old had been denied entry into the US while trying to make her way from Mexico to San Diego, California after her work visa was revoked back in November while traveling from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
The American Pie: The Book of Love star landed back on Canadian soil on Saturday as her mother, Alexis Eagles, and friends met her at Vancouver International Airport around midnight.
According to her mother, who’s been fighting for her daughter’s return home, Mooney was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing before being transferred to San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona.
She was loaded into a prisoner van, she said, and ‘put in chains’ by border officials. ‘That’s when I realized they are onboarding me into a real prison,’ she said.
While she was there, Mooney said she endured some of the harshest treatment there that left her weak and confused.
After being arrested and taken to the detention center, Mooney was featured in an emotional interview with ABC10, where she sobbed describing the conditions she and other women faced.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she told the outlet. ‘I feel like we have been kidnapped, and we are in some sort of insane social, psychological, social experiment.’
Welling up, Mooney added: ‘I really want to be a voice for the women in here, because what is happening is so unjust and I know that there’s a better way to do this.’
She also noted how her time in custody made her severely confused.
‘It’s been 11 days now, and I have no idea what is going on, they don’t tell you anything, and I have lost so much weight. I’m truly, physically, weak.’
The rise in tourists being detained was green-lighted by President Trump as part of his ‘Securing Our Borders’ executive order signed in hours after the inauguration.
Hilton Beckham, Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs for the US Customs and Border Protection, told MailOnline: ‘If individuals violate the terms of a lawful immigration status and attempt to re-enter the country, officers will take appropriate action. Federal privacy restrictions prohibit CBP from discussing specific cases.
‘All persons arriving at a port of entry to the United States are subject to inspection on a case-by-case basis. As part of their critical national security mission, CBP officers routinely determine admissibility of foreign nationals using longstanding U.S. immigration law.
‘If an individual has material discovered on their electronic media that raises flags during an inspection, it can result in further analysis. Claims that such decisions are politically motivated are completely unfounded.’
