4w ago

Germany updates US travel advice after citizens detained

www.dw.com

Germany updates US travel advice after citizens detained – DW – 03/20/2025

Summary

Germany updated its travel advice for the US after three German nationals were detained despite holding valid visas or entry waivers.

The Foreign Office clarified that holding a US visa or ESTA approval does not guarantee entry, as border authorities have the final say.

Recent detentions include a green card holder held at Boston airport and two others detained at the US-Mexico border.

Germany investigates whether these cases reflect a broader policy shift under Trump’s tighter immigration policies.

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Just a reminder to fellow Americans even, that this crap has been going on way too long before this point. There's a rather huge area around our borders dubbed "Constitution-free zones".
Yeah, the "sworn to uphold" types are funny-quiet when it comes to "We can do whatever we want, cry about it." Within 100 miles of ANY land or coastal border.
Americans and visitors (God be with you both), might be wise to get a cheap "travel only" phone with only the bare-necessary logins and information on it, as they move about. Don't bother with your laptop if you can help it.
Don't anticipate basic encryption to do anything against this either. (Although , YES, DO ENCRYPT!)
People have been detained and coerced into unlocking their phones so agents could basically just dump the device to a drive and look through whatever they want.
(No, simply deleted files are not unreadable unless securely wiped, and evidence of wiping your phone beforehand would probably lead to more questioning.)
Within 100 miles of the border of the "land of the free", you have no say in this, and if you try to muster up the courage to resist in the "home of the brave", you'll just face further punishment.
It's unlikely you will get stopped for this purpose unless you have a certain profile-of-the-week or whatever they're looking for, but it's best to keep this in mind.
- Keep in mind, "land borders" includes any airport serving international flights, so if you're within 100miles radius of such an airport, you're technically in a constitution-free zone
  
  Woah, that's insane, thanks for adding that.
  So basically "You have these rights. . .unless you live within 100 miles of somewhere populated" basically...
  
  Yeah, according to this it's around 2/3rds of the US falls in this range - https://www.aclu.org/documents/constitution-100-mile-border-zone
- America is a sick joke.
- Border Patrol cannot search vehicles in the 100-mile zone without a warrant or "probable cause" (a reasonable belief, based on the circumstances, that an immigration violation or crime has likely occurred).
  So, hypothetically, what stops Mexico from removing ICEs rights to search at all within that 100mile zone?
  
  Isn't that zone extending inside the US rather than outside? ICE has no right to do anything outside the US, they may cooperate with local authorities, but they are effectively mall cops, aren't they?
  So ICE can abduct and rape you in NYC, but not do so in Juarez, Mexico as I understand.

50 comments