Two German teens were jailed in the U.S. and then deported. This came after Customs and Border Protection disagreed with their travel plans. They found their loosely planned vacation to be "suspicious."
So, both 18-year-old Charlotte Pohl and 18-year-old Maria Lepere ended up behind bars rather than a luxury vacation. The two German teens arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii in March with plans to island hop for five weeks. They then planned to go to California and Costa Rica as part of a big high school graduation trip.
However, German outlet Ostsee Zeitung reports the two were met with hostility. The two German teens did not book accommodations for their entire stay in Hawaii, choosing to play things by ear. This earned them a red flag from US Customs and Border Protection. This comes despite both having an Electronic System for Travel Authorization.
"They found it suspicious that we hadn't fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii," Pohl told the outlet. Upon arriving in Hawaii, the two German teens were questioned for hours at the airport. Customs subjected them to strip searches as well as full-body scans. They placed them in a holding cell overnight.
German Teens Detained
They then deported both of them out of the country to Japan. This comes after a decrease in European travelers to the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted concerns.
"I would say that if you're not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is or to tell us about — stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our street and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about," Rubio said.
However, the case of the German teens is unlikely to stifle fears of travelers to the country. It comes after several high-profile detainments, including Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney. Mooney was detained at the southern border over an expired work visa.
The German travelers are not the only foreigners detained and then deported trying to enter the US over recent months.
"I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days," Mooney said.
