29-year-old German tourist J Brösche from Berlin was looking forward to visiting the land of unlimited possibilities, including spending a fun weekend in Tijuana, Mexico, while on vacation in the United States, and was detained for months without seeing a judge, thrown in isolation, having no one to talk to – lost in the American prison system.
It resulted in the German lady becoming suicidal in an “hopeless” case of what many say was being kidnapped by U.S. Immigration authorities.
All she wanted was to go home. She is not a criminal and has no intention of entering the United States illegally. Her crime was that her hobby was to be a tattoo artist and well known in Berlin. She brought tattoo equipment in her bag when she crossed the land border from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California. She was visiting her German friend in San Diego and wanted to give her a taste of her talent.
In another incident, British tourist Rebecca Burke was trying to cross from the US into Canada when a visa mix-up saw her handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in the States – where she has now been held for 14 days.
Ms Burke, who has been travelling since January, had a tourist visa for her backpacking trip around North America. Still, her entry into Canada—where she planned to stay with a host family in exchange for food and accommodation—was rejected because Canadian authorities saw this as illegal work.
Canadian officials said she needed a working visa and sent Ms Burke back to the US – where she was then taken by Homeland Security in handcuffs to a large detention centre, without ever seeing a judge.
In both cases, the German and British Consulates tried to help after friends and relatives notified them weeks into the ordeal.
None of the two tourists had a criminal record, but both were looking forward to a short vacation in the land of unlimited opportunities.
In the case of the German girl from Berlin, what followed was something Brösche could not have imagined even in her worst dreams:
She disappeared into the American prison system, where she was put in solitary confinement for over a week. No judge, no hearing, no answers. She spent eight days alone in a cell, with no blanket, no pillow, surrounded by screams from other rooms. Her friend was desperately trying to find her friend, later reported that Brösche was so distraught that she began to hit the walls until her knuckles bled.
Psychological terror instead of the rule of law
Brösche was eventually transferred to the notorious Otay Mesa Detention Center – a privately run prison known for its brutal conditions. According to Brösche, they tried to calm her down with tranquilizers. But instead of letting the drugs make her compliant, she continued to fight for her release. For weeks she received no clear information about her status. Her crime? None – except that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Private Prison Company CoreCivic, which receives billions from the Trump administration to operate such detention centers, claimed that there was no solitary confinement. But reports from inmates and human rights organizations paint a different picture:
- Psychological terror
- inhumane conditions
- Being held for weeks without a hearing
are the order of the day here.
The German government? Silence in the face of inhumanity. A very weak performance by all colors.
The German Consulate General in Los Angeles tried to help Brösche, but this also showed how powerless diplomacy is against a system that considers human rights a secondary importance. For weeks, they said they were working on a “timely solution” – while a young woman was waiting in prison for her deportation flight.
Donald Trump’s immigration policy is not only directed against migrants from Latin America or Muslim countries – it affects all. The arrest of Jessica Brösche is a prime example of how quickly anyone can become a target in Trump’s America. All it takes is a wrong visa, a misunderstanding, a bad mood from a border official – and a tourist becomes a prisoner.
The conclusion is that traveling to the United States can still be a lot of fun and amazing, but it is not always safe for visitors, even for those with no bad intention.
Trump’s America does not act rationally, but according to the motto “take tough action, no matter who you are against”. The rule of law that the USA was once so proud of has long since given way to a brutal, unpredictable system.
Trump may look like an American problem, but his politics have become a problem for the world and, now, for the international travel and tourism industry.
eTurboNews reached out to the American Embassy in Berlin for comments, but was told they no longer have a “public affairs” officer under the Trump administration.