CNN
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A German tattoo artist who tried to enter the United States from Mexico through the San Diego border has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention for over a month, according to a friend who witnessed her being detained.
Jessica Brösche, a Berlin-based tattoo artist, had been vacationing in Mexico when she decided to travel to the US from Tijuana with an American friend, Nikita Lofving. But at the San Ysidro port of entry immigration authorities took Brösche into custody.
“They took her right in front of me as we were walking over,” Lofving, a clothing designer based in Los Angeles, told CNN. “Two hours passed, and then she called me and said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get deported back to Germany. I’ll call you from Germany in a couple of days.’”
The call was on January 25. Brösche has been in detention ever since, half a month past when she originally hoped to leave the US on February 15, Lofving says.
According to the ICE Detainee Locator, Brösche is currently in the Otay Mesa Detention Facility, in San Diego County, while she awaits deportation. CNN reached out to both ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ask why she was detained.
A spokesperson from CBP told CNN affiliate KGTV that if a foreign national denied admission to the US is unable to book travel back to their country of origin “he or she will be turned over to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
In a statement to KGTV, an ICE spokesperson wrote that Brösche is in detention due “to the violation of the terms and conditions of her admission.”
Lovfing told CNN that her German friend was joining her in Los Angeles to tattoo her. She speculated that immigration officials may have misinterpreted Brösche’s statements about the project as a declaration that she’d come to the US to work.
“I mean, she was coming to work, but not really for money,” Lofving said. “We have an agreement between artists. She’s one of my best friends. We’ve been working on this tattoo project on my body for the last five or six years, and in exchange, I make clothes for her.”
In a phone interview with KGTV last month, Brösche said that she had been kept in “horrible” solitary confinement for eight days when she entered US custody.
“I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate,” Brösche told KGTV from Otay Mesa. “I don’t really understand why it’s taking so long to get back to Germany.”
Lofving said that Brösche’s friends and family are hoping that she’ll be out of detention and on a flight back to Germany on March 11, and that her mother bought her a plane ticket home. They aren’t sure whether ICE will let her out by then, however.
“We sent (Brösche) back the information for the tickets, and she told her ICE agent,” Lofving continued, saying the ICE agent had said, “No, you have to get the ticket approved before you buy it.”
A spokesperson from the German Consulate in LA told CNN in an email that they are “aware of the case and in close contact about it with the relevant US authorities as well as with family and close friends of the person concerned.”
CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates Otay Mesa, told CNN that the company “does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in our facilities.”
“Our responsibility is to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to,” said spokesperson Ryan Gustin.
Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told CNN that Brösche’s case is “fairly unusual.” Brösche, who entered the US via the Visa Waiver Program agreement that the US has with Germany and 40 other countries, would usually have been deported immediately rather than sit in detention for over a month, Joseph said.
By entering on the waiver program, a tourist waives their right to any kind of litigation, Joseph explained.
But normally, a tourist denied entry to the US would be allowed to withdraw their application for admission. “Instead of being subjected to deportation proceedings, they’re allowed to kind of get back on the airplane and turn around and go home, and that does not appear to have happened in this case,” Joseph continued.
In any case, Joseph said that Brösche’s extended stay in Otay Mesa is “extremely concerning.”
