A 21-year-old tourist from Norway, Mads Mikkelsen, says he was sent back from the United States because of a meme saved on his phone. The meme showed US Vice President JD Vance with a bald head and a cartoonish face, reported Daily Mail.
Mikkelsen landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to meet friends in New York and Austin, Texas. He also intended to go on a road trip with his mother to visit national parks. But things took a wrong turn when immigration officials questioned him.
“They took me to a room with several armed guards, where I had to hand over my shoes, mobile phone, and backpack,” he told the local newspaper, Nordlys.
He claims officers accused him of being involved in “drug trafficking, terrorist plots, and right-wing extremism,” which he said were baseless.
Mikkelsen said that the meme was saved automatically from a group chat app and was meant as a joke. He also said they didn’t like a photo of him holding a handmade wooden pipe.
“Both pictures had been automatically saved to my camera roll from a chat app, but I really didn’t think that these innocent pictures would put a stop to my entry into the country,” he said.
OFFICIALS DEMANDED DETAILS AND SENT HIM BACK
According to Mikkelsen, the officers pressured him to unlock his phone and threatened him with jail time or a fine of $5,000 if he refused.
He said even after explaining the context, officials searched his belongings, took his fingerprints, and collected blood samples. Mikkelsen said he was forced to provide the names, addresses, phone numbers, and professions of all the people he planned to meet in the US.
“I had travelled for twelve hours, slept poorly, and was physically and mentally completely exhausted even before they started the questioning,” he added.
Later that day, Mikkelsen was put on a flight back to Norway. The US Department of Homeland Security did not issued any statement on the case.
Mikkelsen’s experience isn’t the separate case. Many European travelers reported problems entering the US this year, particularly after President Donald Trump returned to office in January with stricter immigration rules.
Earlier this month, Trump signed a travel ban targeting 19 countries.
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