A pair of young German travelers were left shocked after they arrived in Hawaii only to be detained and deported due to their loosely planned trip.
Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu to begin their trip but were grilled extensively by Customs and Border Protection.
The pair planned to explore before traveling on to California and Costa Rica, but they hadn’t booked any accommodation for their five-week stay in Hawaii.
It was the lack of planning that alerted CBP, despite the pair having obtained ESTA travel authorization, German news outlet Ostee-Zeitung originally reported.
The two were accused of potential illegal work intentions and, after hours of questioning, they were placed in handcuffs and taken to what they later found to be a deportation detention center, Beat of Hawaii reported.
Their experience was described as shocking and surreal, according to the outlet, after they were strip searched, had full body scans, and were handed green prison uniforms.
Conditions in the facility were said to have left them sleeping on moldy mattresses, rudimentary toilet facilities, and being warned by guards to avoid eating expired food.
The following morning, the young travelers were taken back to Honolulu airport and deported.
Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu to begin their trip but were grilled extensively by Customs and Border Protection
Their experience was described as shocking and surreal, according to the outlet, after they were strip searched, had full body scans, and were handed green prison uniforms
The following morning, the young travelers were taken back to Honolulu airport and deported to Japan as requested
Pohl and Lepere requested deportation to Japan.
The German Foreign Office then later reminded travelers that ESTA approval does not always grant access to the United States, and that border officers may still not allow entry.
Their horror story comes as many European countries have shown a significant decrease in travel to the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement in an attempt to diminish travel fears.
He said: ‘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…stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about.’
However, travelers from overseas to the US fell almost 12 percent last month compared to March in 2024, according to data from the International Trade Administration.
While Trump’s tariffs struck fear in international travelers and their wallets, horror stories of travelers winding up being detained has caused many to think twice before flying over.
Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney was denied entry into the country while trying to make her way from Mexico to San Diego, California after her work visa was revoked back in November while traveling from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
While Trump’s tariffs struck fear in international travelers’s and their wallets, horror stories of travelers winding up being detained has caused many to think twice before flying over
Jasmine Mooney, 35, landed back in Canada on Saturday after being detained for nearly two weeks by U.S. immigration officials after trying to enter the country from Mexico on March 3
She was hurled into jail on March 3 and spent 12 days in detention, claiming it felt like she had been ‘kidnapped’ and trapped in an experiment. She told ABC10 ‘what is happening is so unjust and I know that there’s a better way to do this’.
Lucas Sielaff, 25, was driving into the US from Mexico with his American fiancée when he claims that Border Patrol agents accused of him violating the rules of his 90-day US tourist permit.
Sielaff, who alleges he held a valid visa and had visited the US several times before, was handcuffed, shackled and sent to a crowded immigration detention center where he spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.
‘I still have nightmares and I’m not yet back to normal,’ Sielaff told the Financial Times of the horrific experience. ‘I’m trying to process everything properly. It’ll take a while.’
Becky Burke, a Welsh backpacker traveling across North America, was stopped at the US-Canada border on February 26 and held for nearly three weeks at a detention facility in Washington state, her father Paul Burke posted on Facebook.
Her father said she was accused of traveling on the wrong visa. After being held in custody for 19 days she was allegedly transported to the airport ‘in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs’.
The tourists said it was never made clear why they were taken into custody even after they offered to go home voluntarily.
Jessica Brösche, 26, spent over six weeks locked up, including over a week in solitary confinement, after she was stopped at the Tijuana crossing on January 25.
Becky Burke, 28, was handcuffed and taken to a detention cell in Tacoma, Washington, in February
German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, 26, says she was left in solitary confinement with over a week after being arrested while trying to legally cross the US-Mexico border
The German tattoo artist was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection while trying to walk through a checkpoint in San Diego.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving as a tourist under the ESTA visa waiver program. The two had met in Tijuana and were carrying tattooing equipment.
Immigration officials reportedly accused Brösche of working in the US the last time she entered the country with the ESTA program, an electronic system that determines whether someone is eligible to enter the US without a visa.
Many countries have issued travel warnings for the United States, including Germany which updated its warning to state that ”entry to the United States is at the sole discretion of U.S. border authorities.’
The incidents are fueling anxiety amongst travelers the Trump Administration’s illegal migrant crackdown sees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents take ‘more aggressive enforcement’ approach at the border.
