SAN DIEGO (AP) — Lennon Tyler and her German fiancé typically took highway journeys to Mexico when he vacationed in the US because it was solely a day’s drive from her residence in Las Vegas, one of many perks of their long-distance relationship.
However issues went terribly unsuitable after they drove again from Tijuana final month.
U.S. border brokers handcuffed Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, whereas her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the foundations of his 90-day U.S. vacationer allow, the couple stated. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and despatched him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention heart. He spent 16 days locked up earlier than being allowed to fly residence to Germany.
Since President Donald Trump took workplace, there have been different incidents of vacationers like Sielaff being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at U.S. immigration detention services earlier than being allowed to fly residence at their very own expense.
They embrace one other German vacationer who was stopped on the Tijuana crossing on Jan. 25. Jessica Brösche spent over six weeks locked up, together with over every week in solitary confinement, a buddy stated.
On the Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent almost three weeks at a detention heart earlier than flying residence this week. And a Canadian girl on a piece visa detained on the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention earlier than returning residence final weekend.
Sielaff, 25, and the others say it was by no means made clear why they had been taken into custody even after they provided to go residence voluntarily.
Pedro Rios, director of the American Buddies Service Committee’s US-Mexico border program, a nonprofit that aids migrants, stated within the 22 years he has labored on the border he’s by no means seen vacationers from Western Europe and Canada, longtime U.S. allies, locked up like this.
“It’s positively uncommon with these instances so shut collectively, and the rationale for detaining these individuals doesn’t make sense,” he stated. “It doesn’t justify the abhorrent remedy and situations” they endured.
“The one purpose I see is there’s a way more fervent anti-immigrant ambiance,” Rios stated.
After all, vacationers from nations the place the U.S. requires visas — lots of them non-Western nations — have lengthy encountered difficulties coming into the U.S.
U.S. authorities didn’t reply to a request from The Related Press for figures on what number of vacationers have lately been held at detention services or clarify why they weren’t merely denied entry.
Weekslong lockups gas anxieties about vacationer journey to US The incidents are fueling nervousness because the Trump administration prepares for a ban on vacationers from some nations. Noting the “evolving” federal journey insurance policies, the College of California, Los Angeles despatched a discover this week urging its foreign-born college students and employees to think about the dangers of journey for spring break, warning “re-entry necessities could change when you are away, impacting your return.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated in an electronic mail to the AP that Sielaff and Brösche, who was held for 45 days, “had been deemed inadmissible” by Customs and Border Safety. That company stated it can’t talk about specifics however “if statutes or visa phrases are violated, vacationers could also be topic to detention and elimination.” The businesses didn’t touch upon the opposite instances.
Each German vacationers had been allowed into the US below a program provided to a choose group of nations, largely in Europe and Asia, whose residents are allowed to journey to the U.S. for enterprise or leisure for as much as 90 days with out getting a visa prematurely. Candidates register on-line with the Digital System for Journey Authorization.
However even when they’re approved to journey below that system, U.S. authorities have vast discrepancy to nonetheless deny entry. Following the detentions, Britain and Germany up to date their journey advisories to alert individuals in regards to the strict U.S. border enforcement. The UK warned “you might be liable to arrest or detention should you break the foundations.”
Sielaff arrived within the U.S. on Jan. 27. He and Tyler determined to go to Tijuana for 4 days in mid-February as a result of Tyler’s canine wanted surgical procedure and veterinary providers are cheaper there. They figured they’d take pleasure in some tacos and make a enjoyable journey out of it.
Lucas Sielaff poses for a photograph in Dangerous Bibra, Germany, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photograph/Stella Weiss) “Mexico is a superb and exquisite nation that Lucas and I really like to go to,” Tyler stated.
They returned Feb. 18, simply 22 days into Sielaff’s 90-day vacationer allow.
After they pulled as much as the crossing, the U.S. border agent requested Sielaff aggressively, “The place are you going? The place do you reside?” Tyler stated.
“English just isn’t Lucas’ first language and so he stated, ‘We’re going to Las Vegas,’ and the agent says, ’Oh, we caught you. You reside in Las Vegas. You possibly can’t try this,’” Tyler stated.
Sielaff was taken away for extra questioning. Tyler stated she requested to go together with him or if he may get a translator and was informed to be quiet, then taken out of her automotive and handcuffed and chained to a bench. Her canine, recovering from surgical procedure, was left within the automotive.
After 4 hours, Tyler was allowed to go away however stated she was given no details about her fiancé’s whereabouts.
Throughout questioning, Sielaff stated he informed authorities he by no means lived within the U.S. and had no legal historical past. He stated he was given a full-body search and ordered at hand over his cellphone and belongings. He was put in a holding cell the place he slept on a bench for 2 days earlier than being transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Middle in San Diego.
There, he stated, he shared a cell with eight others.
“You might be offended, you’re unhappy, you don’t know when you will get out,” Sielaff stated. “You simply don’t get any solutions from anyone.”
He was lastly informed to get a direct flight to Germany and submit a affirmation quantity. In a frantic name from Sielaff, Tyler purchased it for $2,744. He flew again March 5.
‘A blatant abuse’ of US border authorities’ energy, victims say “What occurred on the border was simply blatant abuse of the Border Patrol’s energy,” Tyler stated.
Ashley Paschen agrees. She stated she discovered about Brösche from a TikTok video asking anybody within the San Diego space for assist after her household discovered she was being held on the Otay Mesa Detention Middle. Paschen visited her a number of instances and informed her individuals had been working to get her out. Brosche flew residence March 11.
“She’s completely satisfied to be residence,” Paschen stated. “She appears very relieved if something however she’s not coming again right here anytime quickly.”
On Feb. 26, a vacationer from Wales, Becky Burke, a backpacker touring throughout North America, was stopped on the U.S.-Canada border and held for almost three weeks at a detention facility in Washington state, her father, Paul Burke, posted on Fb. She returned residence Tuesday.
On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, an actress and entrepreneur on a U.S. work visa, was detained on the Tijuana crossing. She was launched Saturday, her buddy Brittany Kors stated.
Earlier than Mooney’s launch, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed concern, saying: “It definitely reinforces nervousness that … many Canadians have about our relationship with the U.S. proper now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions.”
The detentions come amid authorized fights over the Trump administration’s arrests and deportations of different foreigners with legitimate visas and inexperienced card holders, together with a Palestinian activist who helped arrange campus protests of the battle in Gaza.
Tyler plans to sue the U.S. authorities.
Sielaff stated he and Tyler at the moment are rethinking plans to carry their wedding ceremony in Las Vegas. He suffers nightmares and is contemplating remedy to deal with the trauma.
“No person is secure there anymore to return to America as a vacationer,” he stated.
Related Press author Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.
Initially Printed: March 21, 2025 at 8:44 AM MDT
