Two German Teens Denied Entry, Detained and Deported From Hawai’i

Warning:  DO NOT TRAVEL OR EVEN TRANSIT THROUGH THE U.S. WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING YOUR VISA

Back in March, two German teenagers who were planning on backpacking in the U.S., were detained, interrogated, and then “deported” from Hawai’i by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).  The backstory on this is horrible as to what they were subjected to (including a complete strip search at the federal detention facility near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport aka HNL).

Following are screenshots of a posting now removed on Reddit by one of the teens (German press reported on this back in March, but this news is now only making its way to wire services in the U.S.)

Note that the deportation is a technicality since they were never allowed entry in the first place (it’s more about part of the procedure before the detention and transport from the airport to the Federal detention facility).

I already noted previously about hearing first hand reports regarding much more hostile questioning by returning greencard holders but this is the first report regarding tourists being interrogated by customs agents at HNL.

Yes, under more intense questioning (given their age and the lack of longer term accommodations), they admitted plans to work in the original Reddit post (which would be an automatic denial of entry because you are not allowed to work on a tourist visa; and ESTA has similar restrictions).  The posts made by the teen across several sub-Reddit’s was removed by them when many pointed out the entry denial is pretty much standard regardless of country once they mentioned they planned to do some freelance work.  That part is on them (anyone traveling internationally should understand their visa classification and what is allowed; this is now more so the case when traveling to the U.S. because of this regime’s stricter border control policies).

IMHO, it should’ve ended there (denied entry and they take the next flight out which the agents wanted them to do on the next flight out to Auckland).  However (as noted in their posting), the two wanted to re-book their flights for the next day which meant they would need to be detained overnight.  The agents really should have made it clear and better explained what being detained would entail (what the two girls ended up being subjected to at the detention facility including the arrest, strip search and the spartan accommodations).  Was ALL of that really necessary though (were they really perceived as a hostile threat requiring such an invasive search)?

It will be interesting to see how Hawai’i state officials will respond to this incident (Customs and Borders is Federal jurisdiction where the way these CBP agents handled this will have wider reaching impacts on the states main industry which is tourism.  Again, the government is within its rights to enforce the rules, but treating what are essentially non-threatening tourists like they are hardened criminals, will have a longer term detrimental impact (that is the sort of damage this regime is inflicting on the U.S.)

Myself, I’ve been recommending people not to travel to the U.S. if they don’t have to with some exceptions for Hawai’i.  After this incident, I can definitely no longer make this exception because it is clear that CBP agents at HNL are the same breed of soulless individuals who are just as bad as the ones on the southern borders on the continent.