It was meant to be a perfect reunion.
Amelia Lofving, a designer, had just moved to Los Angeles. Her friend Jessica Brösche, a tattoo artist from Germany, was spending the winter in Mexico.
The two planned to meet up in Tijuana, cross the border, and head to LA.
“We were going to have a month of just making art,” said the 37-year-old Lofving. “That was our plan.”
Brösche, 26, never made it to LA. She’s been in federal immigration custody since Jan. 25 — the day they tried to cross into the United States through the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Brösche had her German passport, confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country, along with a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin, Lofving said. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent pulled Brösche aside for a secondary inspection.
“I look at her and go, ‘I’m going to wait right outside for you,’” Lofving recalled.
She didn’t know it then, but it would be 25 days before Lofving would see her friend again. Brösche would spend that time in federal detention, where she remains, waiting for a deportation flight back to Berlin.
‘I can’t find Jessica’
CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said.
KPBS independently confirmed that Brösche is in federal custody. CBP declined to comment on the specifics of the case, citing privacy concerns.
Lofving said a CBP agent told her Brösche would be deported back to Germany in a few days. “She’s like, ‘Jessica is going to call you in a couple of days from Germany,’” she said.
Lofving waited two days. No calls from Germany. She waited a week. Still no contact with Brösche.
Mutual friends also hadn’t heard from her. People started to freak out, Lofving said. No one knew where Brösche was.
“I’m a dumb artist, I don’t know what to do in these situations,” Lofving said. “I posted something online, ‘hey guys, help me out. I can’t find Jessica.’”
The posts generated hundreds of views. And some people answered the call.
Using the federal Detainee Locator website, online sleuths tracked Brösche to the Otay Mesa Detention Center, which is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility run by the private contractor Core Civic.
Meanwhile, local resident Ashley Paschen found Brösche’s story while, “doom scrolling TikTok.”
“At the end of the video, she just asked is there anybody in the area that can put eyes on her and help?” said Paschen, who lives near the detention center.
Paschen said she’s not an activist and doesn’t consider herself the type of person who would normally get involved in a situation like this. But something about Brösche’s story grabbed her.
“I think it was just the mom in me,” she said. “Her mom hasn’t heard from her and doesn’t know where she is. At that point, no one had had any contact with her at all.”
Despite being a complete stranger, Paschen decided to visit Brösche at the detention center. She brought Brösche messages from family and friends. Paschen also told her that friends had already contacted the German embassy and were trying to get her out of there.
“She was blown away,” Paschen said.
‘It was like a horror movie’
A few weeks later, with Paschen’s help, Lofving was able to visit Brösche.
It was a tearful reunion, filled with hugs and Lofving repeatedly saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
Lofving said Brösche told her about her time in custody — and a particularly difficult nine-day period in what amounted to solitary confinement in a CBP holding cell.
“She says it was like a horror movie,” Lofving said. “There were people screaming from the rooms all around. They are feeding her through a little mailbox hole. She didn’t have a blanket, she didn’t have a pillow. It’s basically a yoga mat on the ground and a toilet on the corner.”
Spending that many days in one of CBP’s short-term detention facilities appears to be a violation of the agency's own internal detention standards, which, “generally limit detention in these facilities to 72 hours,” according to a 2023 report from the Office of Inspector General.
Inspectors conducted unannounced inspections of four short-term facilities in San Diego and El Centro. They found that of the 447 migrants detained in all four stations, 42% of them exceeded the 72-hour standard, with some being there for more than 20 days.
Brösche told friends that the prolonged confinement has impacted her mental health.
“After nine days, she says she started freaking out and punching the walls,” Lofving said. “There was blood everywhere.”
Brösche was transferred to the ICE Otay Mesa facility after that episode. She has been there since.
Lofving and Paschen say they still don’t know when Brösche will be released. Their questions to ICE have gone unanswered. The agency did not respond to an inquiry from KPBS.
Costs to taxpayers
Lofving said the episode is particularly absurd because Brösche’s original return flight to Berlin was on Feb. 15 — nearly two weeks ago.
“Why are American taxpayers spending thousands of dollars detaining tourists who are perfectly willing to leave,” she said.
The average cost of detaining a noncitizen adult is $164 per day, according to an ICE memo. Based on that average, a month of detention costs taxpayers $4,900.
An immigrant rights activist said Brösche’s story is an example of the country’s broken immigration system.
“It speaks to how inefficient this whole situation is,” said Pedro Rios, with the San Diego-based American Friends Service Committee. “There’s a lack of appreciation for how to make things run smoothly, and people are suffering in the process.”
KPBS was unable to reach the German consulates in LA and Washington D.C.
German officials told a Berlin-based news outlet, “Our colleagues at the Consulate General in Los Angeles are in constant contact with U.S. authorities and family members regarding the case and are trying to find a solution.”
