Summary

German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, 26, is indefinitely detained by ICE after being denied entry at the San Diego border from Tijuana.

Despite possessing a valid German passport, visa waiver, and return ticket to Berlin, she underwent secondary inspection and spent days in detention, including eight in solitary confinement.

Accused of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver by working in Los Angeles as a tattoo artist, her ordeal is described as "like a horror movie.”

Brösche‘s friend Amelia Lofving was finally able to track her down and visited after 25 days.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours ago

    Interesting how the moment a german gets detained its like a horror movie. Not blaming the germans but the media can fuck off.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    I love my Germans and all but wow! Just wow! Millions of Mexicans, Hispanic, Latinos and Chinese get detained and deported. But here comes one white person from Germany and wow! Now its s horror movie. Entire families torn apart, babies and small children lost forever, but nothing compares to the suffering of one German woman for 8 days! My God!

    But I’m pretty sure she might agree with my point here before you start down voting. I mean wouldn’t you sort of agree that maybe something is just fucking wrong and all lives should matter the same no matter where you might have come from? I known this comment might rough up some feathers. But think to yourself… Is a German’s mother’s suffering more than a Mexican’s mom if the assholes at the border took her baby?

    Time will tell. Is this it? Do we forget Jessica somewhere in Guantanamo just for Trump to make a point? Or do we all walk together realizing that Trump is a nazi and jailing people indefinitely is what nazis did? This shit has got to stop! I say get all the Jessicas out…Black, Brown, Asian or European, all of them need freedom.

  • WhatSay@slrpnk.net
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    10 hours ago

    Why is California allowing ICE to arrest people in their State? Why doesn’t any state ban them?

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Like a horror movie

    IE. It’s all good when the darker people are butchered until it happens to a white person.

    • damdy@lemm.ee
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      9 hours ago

      “She says it was like a horror movie. They were screaming in all different rooms. After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles,” Lofving said of her friend’s experience.

      It’s a quote from her friend. But yes, obviously this article is intended to show that it could happen to anyone, not just 'the bad one’s.

    • Jamablaya@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      you morons that think mexicans don’t come in white varieties are the real fucking ignorance problem.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    The Frankfurter Rundschau additionally writes

    Wie Nikita Lofving, eine befreundete Kollegin Brösches der Zeitung sagte, soll das Tattoo-Equipment, das die Berlinerin bei sich trug, den Grenzbeamten als Verdachtsmoment ausgereicht haben, dass Brösche in den USA arbeiten wolle. Lofving sagte, Brösche habe lediglich sie tätowieren wollen – unter Freundinnen und eben nicht kommerziell.

    Jessica had tattoo equipment with her to tattoo Nikita, but that equipment made the border police suspicious that she was trying to tattoo American customers illegally on her tourist visa.

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      What next: painter detained for 2 weeks as they tried to cross the US boarder for having paper, brushes, and a water colour palette as border police suspect they were attempting to paint illegally on their tourist visa.

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.net
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    2 days ago

    Hm, we were planning to go to LA this year, but with a German passport in light of this article, Uhm, I’m having second thoughts. I wasn’t that worried about problems when we went to China last year.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      As an American, please do not come to America right now

    • philpo@feddit.org
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      19 hours ago

      It’s not the only case, it’s just the only one getting media attention (which might not be a good thing).

      • Ziggurat@fedia.io
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        1 day ago

        The 20 days detention for westerners aren’t usual (while they are for others) but being stopped at immigration because they think you may work is unfortunately standard. If your lucky, they’ll search your laptop as good old corporate espionage if you’re not, you’ll fly home with a denied stamp on your passport

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          6 hours ago

          Flying home would have been d so much better than what they did. They held her for a fucking month! I hope there are lawsuits for back pay coming from this. It’s fucking nuts.

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Oh, I’m in LA and you should definitely come; just wait until after our civil war or coup or whatever it is that happens to get things to settle down. It’s a lovely city if you know where to go.

      Also if it’s any consolation, we’ve practically got ICE protests almost every day. People here are fucking livid over this shit, particularly the Latino parts of town. (Although in typical LA fashion, part of the protesting is because of a TikTok trend).

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      I’m from the US and still have family there. There’s zero chance I go unless someone is dying and, even then, I dare not bring my wife who speaks very little English. I’m glad we went before this shitstorm happened so she could at least meet my surviving grandparents once.

  • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    There is an ICE facility in California thats thrived by bribing local officials and has been known to detain people that are not carrying I.D., with agents believed to be going around the local neighborhoods harassing people.

    It’s not been about illegal immigration or violations of visas, ICE is corrupt and conducts itself in horrendous, morally heinous ways, to innocents and guilty alike.

  • MoonlightFox@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I was at some point wanting to visit the US as a tourist, see the grand canyon etc. The last part of me that wanted to go there has changed the last couple of months.

    But even before Trump won, I imagined a couple of horrendous scenarios that could happen based on things I read online. This confirms my worst fears. This does not sound like a safe country to visit. Even as a white cishet man.

  • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    We’ve been cancelling/postponing plans to visit the US since 2016. May never see it again at this pace. I’m sure america doesn’t need tourists anyway

  • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    CoreCivic spokesman Brian Todd said the company sometimes uses restrictive housing for medical and mental health observation, protective custody or investigative purposes.

    A horse by a different name is still a FUCKING HORSE!!!

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    From the article…

    According to KPBS, US Customs and Border Protection accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her time in Los Angeles.

    … and …

    Lofving said she asked Ice agents if Brösche could be sent back to Mexico, but they responded that her lack of legal residency would mean she would be deported back to Germany. Lofving also said she tried to get help from the German consulate in Los Angeles.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I feel sorry for this woman, but this is the second article I’ve seen about this blonde and you can imagine that there are hundreds of thousands of brown-eyed women going though that and worse who aren’t “worthy victims”.

    • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      The value of this case is to make exactly your point: “if they’re doing this to German tourists just imagine what they do to people from other less privileged nationalities”. It shows the depth of the depravity.

      (That there are hypocrites who would be content so long as this only happens to “those” people and not to white women is of course a given.)

    • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’m just hoping this story will reach more people because she is a western european (nothing to do with looks or gender) and will get people to pay attention to all the horrible stuff happening to a lot of people in these detention centers.

  • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    You are European, you have so many nice countries to visit, why would you go to the US, you kinda had it coming