Lennon Tyler and her German fiance often took road trips to Mexico when he vacationed in the United States since it was only a day’s drive from her home in Las Vegas, one of the perks of their long-distance relationship.
But things went terribly wrong when they drove back from Tijuana last month.
US border agents handcuffed Tyler, a US citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiance, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day US tourist permit, the couple said. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded US immigration detention centre. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.
Lucas Sielaff poses for a photo in Bad Bibra, Germany, Thursday, March 20, 2025. AP
Since President Donald Trump took office, there have been other incidents of tourists like Sielaff being stopped at US border crossings and held for weeks at US immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense.
They include another German tourist who was stopped at the Tijuana crossing on January 25. Jessica Brösche spent over six weeks locked up, including over a week in solitary confinement, a friend said.
On the Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent nearly three weeks at a detention centre before flying home this week. And a Canadian woman on a work visa detained at the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention before returning home last weekend.
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