By Tarini Parti and Michelle Hackman

WASHINGTON -- Immigration officers are employing more aggressive questioning tactics with immigrants and tourists trying to enter the country, scrutinizing their visas and more frequently detaining them in a sharp break from past practice, lawyers and former immigration officials said.

In a string of recent cases, border authorities have detained U.S. tourist and work visa holders for lengthy periods after seemingly minor issues with their cases. Among them: a German national with a U.S. green card, who needed to be transported to the hospital after his mother said he was strip-searched during questioning. Another, a tourist who was shackled and chained, was detained after a routine stop driving into the U.S. from Mexico.

Immigrants with visa issues more often had been required to come back with additional paperwork to resolve their cases, or else put into deportation proceedings. Generally, it is rare that border authorities detain people with visa issues long-term, especially those with relatively minor violations, the lawyers and former immigration officials said.

"I can't remember anything quite that extreme," said Gil Kerlikowske, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under former President Barack Obama.

The moves come after an executive order, which President Trump issued on his first day in office, called on immigration officials to apply "extreme vetting" measures to visa and green card applicants, including immigrants re-entering the country. Lawyers say the directive appears to have put pressure on them to find more violators, with the goal of tightening restrictions on who is allowed into the country.

Trump has cited national security reasons for his administration's efforts to enhance screening of those entering the country.

A spokesperson for CBP didn't respond to a request for comment.

Lucas Sielaff, a 25-year-old plumber from Germany, was driving to the U.S. from Mexico with his fiancée, a U.S. citizen, when immigration officers put him in shackles at a border checkpoint.

Sielaff said immigration officers chained him to a bench, and denied him a translator and a lawyer. They also accused him of living in the U.S. instead of visiting as a tourist. He told them he planned to return to his home country before the 90 days allowed to German tourists were up. Sielaff was sent to a detention center in San Diego, where he was told he couldn't voluntarily leave the country. After 16 days in detention, the officers allowed him to book a flight home.

"I'm shocked at how fast this all changed," Sielaff said. "And that they put innocent people in prison for nothing."

These instances have made U.S. visa-holders uneasy about future travel plans, lawyers say, with major universities and companies that employ foreign nationals now also seeking guidance on how to advise their workers and students on travel. Brown University warned international students and staff members not to travel outside the country after one of its professors with a work visa was deported after a trip to Lebanon.

Officials are also now requiring most immigration applicants to submit their social-media handles with applications, and have been increasing searches of people's cellphone contents at airports.

"I think the chance of this happening to somebody is still low, but I'm definitely advising people to be very careful about what's on their social media and their devices," said Dan Berger, a lawyer in Boston who advises universities and hospitals on immigration matters.

Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration lawyer for Dickinson Wright, described the moves as "an extremely difficult conundrum to figure out what sort of travel should I allow" for her clients.

Two other cases involving German nationals have drawn scrutiny. The German government is looking into the cases, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said this week.

One of the German nationals was Fabian Schmidt, who has a U.S. green card but was stopped at Logan Airport in Boston earlier this month and aggressively questioned, according to his lawyer, David Keller. "There were unnecessary interrogation tactics imposed...it broke him to the point where, medically speaking, he needed to be transported to the hospital," Keller told reporters on Tuesday, outside the detention facility in Rhode Island where Schmidt is being held.

Astrid Senior, Schmidt's mother, confirmed that Schmidt had a previous marijuana possession charge that had been dismissed. She said her son had been strip-searched and put in a cold shower by immigration officers at the airport. Keller said after nearly two weeks of detention, the government has yet to file charges against Schmidt.

Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian actress, was denied entry in the U.S. after she tried to apply for a new work visa, which Canadians have been allowed to do at a border port of entry. Before the actress, who has appeared in movies such as "American Pie Presents: The Book of Love," could return to Canada, an officer approached her to start processing her for detention. She was moved to two different detention centers over 12 days, she told The Wall Street Journal.

"I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family, and even politicians advocating for me," Mooney wrote. "Now imagine what this system is like for every other person in there -- people who don't have my privilege."

Write to Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2025 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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