this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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The teens claimed CBP targeted them because they hadn’t booked hotels for their entire stay in Hawaii.

“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”

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[–] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 26 points 4 hours ago

Look at those evil immigrants. No doubt they'll... they'll... hold on, can we use some AI to replace the stock photo with brown people? Thank you.

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 42 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

When the world thinks "illegal immigration" we all think "Germans sneaking into Hawaii".

[–] Kinperor@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 hours ago

They finally found the culprit for the shit state of the United State: It's all those pesky german young adults backpacking through the world and visiting Hawaii for like a few weeks or something!

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 47 points 20 hours ago

Every time I've been to Cuba I show up in the airport and basically have a car rented, maybe first night in a hotel. Then we drive wherever we feel like and usually pick up a hitchhiker or two that will have a "sister" that has a room for rent.

It has almost always been clean, friendly, cheap, and a good breakfast. Rinse, repeat. I love travelling like this and have generally done this everywhere I've gone in the third world. Apparently the US doesn't even measure up to third world.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 83 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

They're lucky they were sent home instead of to an El Salvador concentration camp.

[–] pleasegoaway@lemm.ee 38 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

They were the right color of skin.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 26 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

It likely saved them, but being white still doesn't guarantee your safety from the US gulags.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago

are you implying that fascists might not be reliable?

[–] AidsKitty@lemmy.world 26 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I saw this in an episode of border patrol Canada when a guy was coming to help his friend in Canada do yard work\landscaping. The officers said he was trying to take a Canadian job, work illegally, and was barred from entering the country.

[–] primemagnus@lemmy.ca 14 points 16 hours ago

My buddy had the same deal going into the US. Was going to take a month off and visit and while there was going to help reno his backyard. Just lifting and hammering. Another body.

Customs said literally the exact same thing to him (he was taking a job from an American) and said he could not allow entry. He tried to make it happen a year later and customs grilled him but let him enter that time.

[–] Absaroka@lemmy.world 113 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Both say they were handcuffed and sent to a detention center, which they claimed was more like a prison.

“We were searched with metal detectors, our entire bodies were scanned, and we had to stand naked in front of the police officers and were looked through,” Pohl said. “Then we were given green prison clothes and put in a prison cell with serious criminals.”

Among them was someone who had spent 18 years behind bars for murder, the women said, and they were left sleeping in a double cell with tiny barred windows and metal bunks with moldy mattresses.

I really want to know what changed that made the above happen much more often.

In December, if Customs had concerns about two teenagers trying to sneak into the US to work on a travel visa, where did they go? How was it handled? Because it feels like overkill and probably much more expensive than what we used to do.

Why are we sending backpacking teenagers with visa concerns to the same place as a murderer?

Why are they being strip searched like they were drug smugglers?

But the women — who were planning to continue on to Los Angeles and then Costa Rica after Hawaii — insisted they were interrogated by CBP for hours, and that transcripts show their words were “twisted” and outright falsified.

“They contained sentences we didn’t actually say,” Pohl said of interrogation transcripts they were sent home with.

“They twisted it to make it seem as if we admitted that we wanted to work illegally in the US,” she told the German outlet Ostee Zeitung.

And then this feels like the after-the-fact coverup. Whatever they held them on was super flimsy, so they tried to make it sound worse when they realized this was going to hit the news.

[–] Jamablaya@lemmy.today 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The news decided to pay attention, that's what changed, not the reality.

I mean yeah for non-white people maybe. But teenage German girls, that's a novum

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 0 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

At least they weren't detained.

[–] Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world 5 points 31 minutes ago

Spoiler: they were detained.

[–] Nikelui@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

CBP told them their entry was denied — and that they would be detained until their deportation.
Both say they were handcuffed and sent to a detention center, which they claimed was more like a prison.
“We were searched with metal detectors, our entire bodies were scanned, and we had to stand naked in front of the police officers and were looked through,” Pohl said. “Then we were given green prison clothes and put in a prison cell with serious criminals.”

[–] easily3667@lemmus.org 12 points 3 hours ago

I see you didn't read the article which describes the detention in depth?

[–] astutemural@midwest.social 29 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Oh no! This dastardly Europeans wanted to come here and work! How dare they! Deport them!

This country was cooked a long time ago.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 27 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

From another story about the event, it wasn't even like odd jobs for a host, it was small job remote work for people in Germany and Asia. Stuff they would be doing at home and just kept doing during downtime on a long vacation.

Don't reply to any business emails while lounging by the pool, you need a work visa for that!

[–] Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

This is a much, much better article. I'm surprised at the NYPost's shoddy quality (though I don't know much about them); the headline especially feels misleading. Thanks for sharing a better source.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 hours ago

The NYPost is a crappy conservative tabloid. I don't know why people keep posting stories from it.

[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 5 points 9 hours ago

They should find someone local and pay them to respond to the emails.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 28 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Travel advice to USA has pretty much always been to have your destination/hotel at hand for customs and your tickets for the flight back. They were also interested in how you would get to said destination, so better have a car rented in advance.

[–] Lennnny@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

In addition, don't say anything that suggests you will work, even if unpaid. Don't mention volunteering, helping a friend, doing remote work, etc. The rules are quite specific about what visas allow and do not allow, and many border people are just there to catch a paycheck - they will absolutely err on the side of denial. It is not a fair game, and you will not be given a fair chance to explain yourself.

[–] Blinsane@reddthat.com 8 points 11 hours ago

Turns out it never was a free country at all

[–] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 28 points 21 hours ago

It was so silly when the immigration officer asked me (at the origin, not the destination because they want to avoid to fly you back): "And what if John won't be there to pick you up at the airport?" Me: "I don't know man, take an Uber?"

[–] GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago (9 children)

This has been happening for a long time. It's just that they are from first world country. Welcome to how it feels to be from a third world country. Not only US but I have been stopped at Munich and Frankfurt airport and thoroughly scanned and document checked while everyone just walk through security.

[–] breezeblock@lemm.ee 13 points 11 hours ago

You're saying you've been arrested, handcuffed, strip searched, sent to jail and then deported -- and that's been happening for a long time?

The people just walking were checked at departure and are local citizens.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 34 points 22 hours ago

I'm from Canada and had to explain to border officers what my accommodations and means of personal support would be for a two week stay in the US. I was almost denied entry because I wasn't carrying sufficient cash on hand.

The was almost twenty years ago.

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