"WASHINGTON -- Immigration officers are using more aggressive questioning tactics with immigrants and tourists trying to enter the country, scrutinizing their visas and more frequently detaining them in a sharp break from past practice, lawyers and former immigration officials said.
In a string of recent cases, border authorities have detained holders of U.S. tourist and work visas for lengthy periods after seemingly minor issues.
Among them: a German national with a U.S. green card, who needed to be taken to the hospital after his mother said he was strip-searched during questioning. A tourist was shackled and chained after a routine stop driving into the U.S. from Mexico.
Immigrants with visa issues more often had been required to come back with additional paperwork to resolve their cases, or else put into deportation proceedings. Generally, it is rare that border authorities detain people with visa issues long-term, especially those with relatively minor violations, the lawyers and former immigration officials said.
"I can't remember anything quite that extreme," said Gil Kerlikowske, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under former President Barack Obama.
An executive order President Trump issued on his first day in office called on immigration officials to apply "extreme vetting" to visa and green-card applicants, including immigrants re-entering the U.S.
"The Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws -- something the previous administration failed to do," said Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. "Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained, and removed as required."
Lucas Sielaff, a plumber from Germany, was driving to the U.S. from Mexico with his fiancee, a U.S. citizen, when immigration officers put him in shackles at a border checkpoint.
Sielaff, 25, said immigration officers chained him to a bench, and denied him a translator and a lawyer. They also accused him of living in the U.S. instead of visiting as a tourist. He told them he planned to return to his home country before the 90 days allowed to German tourists were up. Sielaff was sent to a detention center in San Diego, where he was told he couldn't voluntarily leave the country. After 16 days, the officers allowed him to book a flight home.
"I'm shocked at how fast this all changed," Sielaff said. "And that they put innocent people in prison for nothing."
Hilton Beckham, spokeswoman for CBP, said she couldn't disclose specific cases because of privacy regulations, but added broadly of cases like Sielaff's: "If statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal."
These instances have made U.S.-visa holders uneasy, lawyers say, with employers of foreign nationals now also seeking guidance.
Brown University warned international students and staff not to travel outside the country after one of its professors with a work visa was deported following a trip to Lebanon.
Officials now require most immigration applicants to submit their social-media handles with applications, and have been increasing searches of cellphone contents at airports.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration lawyer for Dickinson Wright, told of "an extremely difficult conundrum to figure out what sort of travel should I allow" for her clients.
A case involving German green-card holder Fabian Schmidt, who was stopped at Logan Airport in Boston earlier this month, has drawn scrutiny. "There were unnecessary interrogation tactics imposed . . . it broke him to the point where, medically speaking, he needed to be transported to the hospital," his lawyer, David Keller, said.
Astrid Senior, Schmidt's mother, said he had been strip-searched and put in a cold shower at the airport. Keller said the government has yet to file charges against him. ” [1]
Strip searching means taking off the clothing, leaning down and coughing, when three people are watching. The Lithuanian elite should check out this procedure on themselves to understand what they are forcing Lithuanians to do, when pushing them to live with Green Cards, not allowing them to take the passport of the USA. Asking these emigrants to support Lithuanian government politics is naïve at minimum, though very needed in these difficult times.
1. U.S. News: Foreign Visa Holders, Tourists Treated Harshly. Tarini Parti; Hackman, Michelle. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Mar 2025: A5.
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