Talking with the Day by day Dot, Mikkelsen says {that a} customs agent first questioned him a few sausage in his baggage. A plainclothes ICE agent approached and promised to “repair the difficulty rapidly” earlier than bringing him to an interrogation room. They questioned him for an hour, then allegedly threatened him with authorized penalties if he didn’t allow them to search his cellphone.

“They threatened me with a minimal $5,000 tremendous (about 50,000 Norwegian kroner) or 5 years in jail if I refused to surrender my cellphone password,” he informed Norwegian outlet Nordlys.

In keeping with authorized specialists and CBP’s web site, whereas they’re allowed to go looking digital units, essentially the most they’ll do to a international nationwide for refusing to unlock their cellphone is confiscate it and deny that particular person entry.

Sadly for Mikkelsen, in his digicam roll, they discovered one babyface JD Vance meme and a photograph of a picket pipe. ICE brokers grilled him over the political intent of the meme and known as the tobacco pipe—made for a good friend in commerce faculty 5 years in the past—”narcotics paraphernalia.”

Following that, he says U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers ransacked his baggage, patted him down, fingerprinted him, scanned his face, and even took blood samples. Then, they interrogated him some extra.

The expertise, he informed us, was traumatic sufficient to make him bodily unwell.

“The occasion as a complete was what I can solely describe as extraordinarily violating and traumatic,” he mentioned. “I felt sick for a number of days after I bought dwelling. Felt weak like if I’d had meals poisoning, simply with out the puking.”

He says information misstate his passport and the aim of hellos go to

After Mikkelsen was turned away, forcing him to return to Norway and cancel his plans, he seen some starkly incorrect info on the customs kinds that documented what CBP had requested him and his solutions.

Firstly, the kinds declare that he was coming into the U.S. to go to household when he’d informed them he was there for associates.

Second, the doc claims that the agent known as Mikkelsen’s passport “Spanish.”

“Q. I current to you this Spanish passport, which bears the quantity [redacted] and was issued on December 29, 2021, in Norway. Does this passport belong to you?” the doc reads.

“Sure,” Mikkelsen supposedly answered.

Why customs would name a passport from Norway “Spanish” is unclear. ICE and the Trump administration, nevertheless, have made no effort to obscure the truth that they’re primarily focusing on migrants from Spanish-speaking nations.

Mikkelsen confirmed to the Day by day Dot that he obtained his passport in Norway and has by no means been to Spain.

This isn’t the primary time that somebody has accused CBP of falsifying information. In November 2019, the San Diego Union-Tribune mentioned it discovered 14 events during which CBP brokers wrote non-existent court docket dates on paperwork given to migrants looking for asylum with a purpose to ship them to Mexico as a part of Trump’s “stay in Mexico” coverage.

“That is fraud,” mentioned immigrant lawyer Bashir Ghazialam. “I don’t name every thing fraud. That is the primary time I’ve used the phrases, ‘U.S. authorities,’ and, ‘fraud,’ in the identical sentence. Nobody ought to be OK with this.”

ICE detaining and deporting international guests

Mikkelen is much from the primary customer to the U.S. to finish up with an ICE-related horror story. One of many first was British vacationer Becky Burke, who ICE detained on the Canadian border in Washington State on Feb. 26, 2025. A difficulty together with her visa despatched her again into the U.S., then to a migrant detention middle in Tacoma.

ICE accused her of trying to realize employment illegally as a result of she thought she may do some work for a few of her hosts to pay them again for his or her generosity. She spent weeks behind bars earlier than they returned her to the U.Okay. on March 18.

Referring to how ICE eliminated her in chains, Burke’s father remarked to the BBC that his daughter is “not Hannibal Lecter.”

Many extra tales have adopted, together with these of U.S. residents like in style Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Mikkelsen’s expertise led him to comply with within the footsteps of many by recommending that no one go to the U.S. who doesn’t must.

“I might extremely advise anybody who’s pondering of touring to the US to actually have a look at their plans and choose whether it is essential,” mentioned Mikkelsen. “They don’t want a purpose to deal with folks poorly, and they’re going to lie and say no matter is required for issues to go their method.”

He added that these he is aware of within the U.S. who’ve heard his story expressed “disgrace, anger, and disappointment within the present authorities and the way they deal with each their very own and international guests.”

The Day by day Dot has reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for remark by way of electronic mail.

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