Lying alone in a darkened cell, Jessica Brösche heard screams in the distance.
A German tourist, Brösche attempted to cross the U.S. border near San Diego on January 25. She was instead detained by Customs and Border Patrol agents and placed in solitary confinement for nine days before being transferred to a nearby detention facility.
In the month since, the tattoo artist from Berlin has yet to appear before a judge or be returned to her home country. Amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers have become increasingly congested, with many detainees waiting several weeks for deportation paperwork to be completed.
Nikita Lofving, a clothing designer based in Los Angeles who was traveling with Brösche, said the two friends were planning to collaborate while vacationing in Southern California.
“Our plan was that she was going to come and stay with me for a month,” Lofving said. “She was going to tattoo me, I was going to sew her whatever clothes she wanted.”
Lofving said she and Brösche were separated during the border security process. After two hours of waiting for Brösche, Lofving — a U.S. citizen who lived in Berlin for many years — said she was told her friend was being detained under suspicion of attempting to work for compensation despite only having tourist authorization under the ESTA visa waiver program.
“She’s one of my best friends from Berlin,” Lofving said. “There should be nothing wrong with an artist coming to America to make art with another artist without money involved.”
Brösche is being held at the Otay Mesa detention center, a for-profit prison in San Diego owned by CoreCivic, a private prison management company. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a report on the center’s “decades of abuse” in 2021, detailing its poor living conditions and policies of limited outside communication.
Lofving visited Brösche on Saturday and said her friend is sharing a cell with eight other women — most of whom are asylum seekers, unlike Brösche.
“It’s obvious she’s going to get deported,” Lofving said. “We just want to get it done fast, because you cannot sit and hold people indefinitely...in some money-making scheme.”
Lofving said Brösche had her cell phone taken away by ICE agents and can only communicate with friends and family through an inmate communication app called GettingOut, which charges per message.
As of February 10, Birget Brösche, Jessica’s mother, said she had been unable to speak with her daughter.
“I tried to reach the Otay Mesa center, because normally it’s possible to talk to the detainees, and they promised me my daughter would call me,” she said. “But I think the problem is [it’s] a long distance call.”
ICE officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment. There is currently no case pending in the Executive Office for Immigration Review under Jessica Brösche’s name.
Birget said she has stayed in contact with the German consulate based in Los Angeles.
“Our colleagues at the Consulate General Los Angeles are aware of the case and in constant contact with U.S. authorities and the family members in order to find a solution,” the German Federal Foreign Office said in a statement. “We kindly ask for your understanding that as a matter of principle we cannot provide further details on our consular support in specific cases.”
Niels Frenzen, director of the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic, said it is normal for customs and border protection officials to restrict entry to tourists whom they believe have the intention of working in the U.S.
“The fact that she is still apparently detained and has been detained for [one month] is unusual,” he said. “I suspect that people are being scrutinized more closely now than they were some months ago.”
Brösche was detained six days into the second term of President Donald Trump, who signed 10 executive orders involving immigration during his first week in office. These initiatives included suspending refugee resettlement programs and finishing construction of a southern border wall.
Frenzen said it is common practice for border officials to search the electronic devices of tourists entering under the ESTA program in order to determine whether someone should be allowed entry.
“If there’s anything on your phone or on your computer that gives indication that you’re planning on staying beyond 90 days, or that you’re seeking work, that is evidence that CBP uses,” Frenzen said.
Brösche’s Instagram profile bio states that she planned to be in Los Angeles starting Jan. 26, after spending the previous seven weeks working in Mexico.
Frenzen added that tourists in Brösche’s situation are typically sent back to their home country within a few days without needing to see a judge — barring any suspicion of criminal activity or an asylum request.
“There’s something wrong if she is not being criminally charged, if she’s not being placed under removal proceedings,” he said.
Lofving said she is sharing Jessica’s story on social media and among friends and family as a warning to European tourists that traveling to the U.S. under the Trump administration is far from business as usual.
Brösche’s story has been shared widely on TikTok in the last few weeks, with one video reaching over 39,000 likes. Hundreds of commenters expressed shock and sympathy for Brösche, with many stating they will cancel or avoid making travel plans to the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
“People need to know that German [tourists] are being held,” Lofving said. “It’s not just criminals…or whatever the f— Donald Trump thinks is the problem.”
Lofving launched a GoFundMe on Monday with a goal of €2,500 to help Brösche get back on her feet after being unable to earn an income for the last month.
“I’m hoping the judge will say very quickly, ‘Listen, this isn’t a very complicated case,’” Birget Brösche said. “‘We can buy [Jessica] a return ticket to Germany.’”