Two teenage girls from Germany were detained, arrested, and deported at an airport in Hawaii after immigration officials said it was suspicious they had not booked a hotel room.
Backpackers Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu from Auckland while undergoing a round-the-world trip. The duo planned to spend five weeks in Hawaii before moving onto California and Costa Rica for the next legs of their journey.
But despite having ESTA travel authorization, immigration officials accused them of attempting to enter the U.S. to work illegally, and they were placed in handcuffs and taken to a nearby detention center they later learned was a deportation facility.Upon arrival, they were subjected to full-body scans, strip searches and forced to wear green prison jumpsuits, German outlet Ostee Zeitung reports. They were then placed in a holding facility with serious criminals, including an alleged murderer who had been locked up for 18 years, and were forced to spend the night in a freezing cold double cell.
“It was all like a fever dream,” Maria told the German outlet. “It was a shock; we didn’t expect it. We had already noticed a little bit about what was going on in the U.S. But at the time, we didn’t think it was happening to Germans. That was perhaps very naive. We felt so small and powerless.”
Backpackers Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu from Auckland while undergoing a round-the-world trip. The duo planned to spend five weeks in Hawaii before moving onto California and Costa Rica for the next legs of their journey.
But despite having ESTA travel authorization, immigration officials accused them of attempting to enter the U.S. to work illegally, and they were placed in handcuffs and taken to a nearby detention center they later learned was a deportation facility.Upon arrival, they were subjected to full-body scans, strip searches and forced to wear green prison jumpsuits, German outlet Ostee Zeitung reports. They were then placed in a holding facility with serious criminals, including an alleged murderer who had been locked up for 18 years, and were forced to spend the night in a freezing cold double cell.
“It was all like a fever dream,” Maria told the German outlet. “It was a shock; we didn’t expect it. We had already noticed a little bit about what was going on in the U.S. But at the time, we didn’t think it was happening to Germans. That was perhaps very naive. We felt so small and powerless.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00Two teenage girls from Germany were detained, arrested, and deported at an airport in Hawaii
00:05after immigration officials said it was suspicious they had not booked a hotel room.
00:10Backpackers Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Le Perret, 18,
00:14arrive in Honolulu from Auckland while undergoing a round-the-world trip.
00:19The duo planned to spend five weeks in Hawaii before moving on to California and Costa Rica
00:25for the next legs of their journey.
00:27But despite having the USDA travel authorization,
00:31immigration officials accused them of attempting to enter the U.S. to work illegally,
00:35and they were placed in handcuffs and taken to a nearby detention center
00:39they later learned was a deportation facility.
00:42Upon arrival, they were subjected to full-body scans,
00:46strip searches, and forced to wear green prison jumpsuits, German outlet Osti-Zeiting reports.
00:53They were then placed in a holding facility with serious criminals,
00:56including an alleged murderer who had been locked up for 18 years
01:00and were forced to spend the night in a freezing cold double cell.
01:05It was all like a fever dream, Maria told a German outlet.
01:09It was a shock, we didn't expect it.
01:11We had already noticed a little bit about what was going on in the U.S.
01:16But at the time, we didn't think it was happening to Germans.
01:20That was perhaps very naive.
01:22We felt so small and powerless.
01:24The U.S.
01:26The U.S.
01:26The U.S.
01:32The U.S.