Fabian Schmidt, a green card holder who has lived in the U.S. for 18 years, has recalled the “dehumanizing” ordeal that saw him detained for two months.
Schmidt, told GBH News that he’s still processing what happened once he was stopped at Logan International Airport in Boston on March 7 after returning from Europe.
“Once you’ve had such a traumatic experience, it kind of comes with—I would say some sort of postpartum scares and stuff like that, so I’m still very, like, shook. That’s the best word,” the 34-year-old said.
GBH News noted it was couldn’t confirm many aspects of Schmidt’s story. Customs and Border Patrol previously denied Schmidt’s allegations.
Yet the German-born man’s account is one of several from legal residents who have been detained by emboldened immigration authorities under Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Schmidt described in detail how he was treated from the moment he was brought into an interrogation room.
“As soon as I stepped foot in there, I started getting violently interrogated, verbally abused,” he said, adding that he was strip searched, had his smart watch confiscated, and was prevented from calling a lawyer, the German embassy, or his family.
A supervisor deemed Schmidt inadmissible despite having moved to the U.S. with his mother in 2007 and having gained a green card in 2008.
“He told me I was a flight risk and that he was scared that I would enter through a southern border,” Schmidt recalled. “I tried reminding him that I’m from Germany, I have a good family, none of us would ever sneak into a border, nor do I need to sneak into the border. I’m a legal permanent resident that’s lived here for 18 years.”
Schmidt was provided bare essentials while at the airport, and on the third day he felt like he had a fever.
“They didn’t care. Two men brought me to this back room, made me strip down naked and tossed me into this freezing cold shower and then gave me a camping towel,” he said.
He says he was then interrogated further while wet.
“I was shaking the whole time,” he said.
Schmidt eventually fainted, he said, and then requested to go to the hospital.
“[The agent] said, ‘Oh, you’re just gonna med out like everybody, huh?’ That’s the verbatim words. I was like, ‘Med out? I don’t even know what that means,’” he recalled.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, Schmidt was treated for the flu and a high fever. CBP officers, rather than follow the doctor’s advice for rest, brought him back to the airport for about 18 hours.
“[A supervisor] said, ‘You’re not effing going home, you are staying here, you’re going to go somewhere where there’s lots of immigrants, a hospital and a gym,”’ according to Schmidt.
Later, Schmidt was brought to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where he says CPB agents were “degrading” and “dehumanizing.”
Schmidt’s cellmate, he was told, had committed murder.
Eventually, Schmidt was able to communicate with his now-fiancee and his attorney. As weeks passed, he believed he would be deported.
It wasn’t until last Thursday when Schmidt was told he would be freed, and wouldn’t be going before an immigration judge.
Despite his experience, Schmidt maintains that he loves the United States.
“I love this country and the people in it so much—but I’ll tell you, the system is broken,” he said. “I think that we need to stand together strongly and ensure that we can fix this system and do proper legal work, because at the end of the day, when you hold your hand on your chest and you say ‘liberty and justice for all,’ it should mean something to all of us.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been established for Schmidt’s legal fees and lost wages. He plans on suing the government.
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