Mads Mikkelsen, a 21-year-old from Norway, was denied entry to america earlier this month after immigration officers uncovered a preferred meme that includes a chubby, bald Vice President JD Vance on his telephone.
In an interview, Mikkelsen informed Hyperallergic that he arrived at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport on June 11 from Norway for a two-month trip. Mikkelsen got here to the US for the primary time when he was 18 years outdated and made mates there, and he was planning to journey to Austin from Newark to go to one in every of them. On the finish of his keep, he was going to fulfill his mom to discover US nationwide parks.
Whereas in line for passport management on the New Jersey airport, Mikkelsen mentioned he seen two people carrying civilian garments eyeing him. When he stepped as much as present his passport, the officer requested him if he had any meat in his suitcase. Mikkelsen had introduced a cured sausage as a housewarming reward and the passport officer requested him to forfeit it, which he mentioned wasn’t an issue. At that time, Mikkelsen mentioned, the plainclothes males, who later revealed themselves to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers, took him to an armored room, presumably to get rid of the sausage.
Mikkelsen mentioned the ICE brokers then requested him if he deliberate to commit acts of home terrorism, whether or not he was a part of any extremist teams, and if he deliberate to smuggle narcotics into the nation. After answering “no” to those questions, Mikkelsen mentioned the officers requested to do a typical verify of his telephone.
When requested for his password, Mikkelsen hesitated, however the officers informed him he may face a $5,000 high quality or 5 years in jail for not complying with US authorities.
“I’m pondering: ‘What the fuck?’ And, ‘Oh, shit.’” Mikkelsen recalled. “I comply and provides him the password, despite the fact that I actually didn’t need to, this was very a lot in opposition to my will.”
Mikkelsen mentioned he was taken to a different room, the place officers confirmed him a monitor displaying a photograph of a picket tobacco pipe supposedly taken from his telephone. Mikkelsen acknowledged the article as a picket pipe he made round 5 years in the past in commerce faculty, and defined to officers that it was a tobacco pipe.
The brokers, in keeping with Mikkelsen, alleged that it was “narcotic paraphernalia.”
“I, then once more, attempt to say that it’s only a pipe, and it is vitally clearly not a stereotypical weed pipe, as a result of it was only a picket pipe,” Mikkelsen informed Hyperallergic. “It’s very apparent to me that I can’t argue with these individuals, and that they’ve determined preemptively that it was narcotic paraphernalia.”
The officer then requested him if he had ever tried medicine, and Mikkelsen mentioned he had consumed marijuana twice in his life in locations the place the drug was authorized. (Below US immigration legislation, drug abuse is grounds for entry denial, however drug abuse is outlined as “present substance-use problems.”)
The second picture the brokers introduced to Mikkelsen was the viral meme of JD Vance in opposition to a blue background. Mikkelson mentioned he hadn’t downloaded the picture on his telephone, but it surely had mechanically saved from a message another person had despatched him on WhatsApp.
As Mikkelsen tried to clarify this, he mentioned, an officer informed him the picture was “unlawful” and “harmful.” He remembers that the officers could have used the time period “propaganda” to explain the meme.
After being proven the pictures from his telephone, Mikkelsen mentioned one of many officers strip searched him with “extreme pressure.”
“He pushed me in opposition to the wall and was squeezing me so onerous it was bodily painful,” Mikkelsen mentioned.
He was then launched to Customs and Border Safety (CBP) officers, who went by means of his baggage. At one level, Mikkelsen mentioned, an officer pulled out a flower-printed shirt that he claimed was additionally drug paraphernalia. The officers additionally mocked him for packing a choker necklace, Mikkelsen claims.
On the finish of the hours-long affair, Mikkelsen mentioned, the officers informed him that he was being denied entry to the US over a “mixture of the narcotic paraphernalia in addition to the extremist propaganda, being the JD Vance meme,” in Mikkelsen’s phrases.
When Mikkelsen’s story broke earlier this week in Norway, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) publicly rejected the declare {that a} vacationer was deported over a JD Vance meme, and mentioned Mikkelsen was denied entry as a result of he admitted to utilizing medicine.
DHS, which oversees ICE and CBP, didn’t reply to Hyperallergic’s request for remark. Neither department has responded to inquiries.
Nevertheless, paperwork offered to Mikkelsen by Customs and Border Safety, reviewed by Hyperallergic, say that he appeared to not be a vacationer however as an alternative deliberate to immigrate to and work within the US, and that this was the explanation for his entry denial.
“I additionally discover that declare to be completely ridiculous, as a result of I dwell in Norway,” Mikkelsen mentioned. “I might be giving up all of my freedom and my superior wage and a a lot safer and far more healthy place to dwell.”
Now again at dwelling in Norway, Mikkelsen mentioned he doesn’t plan to pursue authorized motion in opposition to the US as a result of he lacks religion within the judicial system. He has a concept, now, about why he could have been focused: As a lone traveler, Mikkelsen believes officers assumed he wouldn’t have anybody to again him up and that denying him could possibly be search for their very own statistics.
“My purpose for going to the media with this case was to not get revenge — it was to spotlight the extraordinarily poor therapy that I obtained,” Mikkelsen informed Hyperallergic. He worries about what his expertise bodes for different vacationers.
“I’m a White, European, cisgender male, which implies that I, by most circumstances, obtained in all probability the absolute best therapy I may obtain,” he mentioned.
