A Norwegian tourist has accused American authorities of denying him entry into the U.S. because he had a popular meme of Vice President JD Vance saved on his phone.
Mads Mikkelsen, 21, told his hometown newspaper Nordlys that he was subjected to “abuse of power and harassment” by officials at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Mikkelsen claims that immigration officials stopped him for questioning and quizzed him “about drug trafficking, terrorist plots, and right-wing extremism,” all of which he said was “totally without reason.” He says he was placed in a holding cell.
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“They took me to a room with several armed guards, where I had to hand over my shoes, mobile phone, and backpack,” he told Nordlys.
Next, Mikkelsen claims that officials threatened to imprison him or fine him $5,000 if he did not grant them access to his phone, so he did. He said that is when agents found a meme on his device that showed the vice president’s face—digitally altered to make him chubbier, bald, and cartoonish—that became popular after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Oval Office in February. He claimed they also signaled disapproval to a photo of him with a homemade wooden pipe.
“Both pictures had been automatically saved to my camera roll from a chat app, but I really didn’t think that these innocent pictures would put a stop to my entry into the country,” Mikkelsen said.
Mikkelsen claims he pleaded with agents that the photos were a joke, but they still searched him and forced him to give blood samples and document his fingerprints.
“It felt like I was a terrorist suspect where I was sitting,” he said. “I tried to pull myself together several times, but in the end, I just wanted to get home again.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to emailed questions about the alleged incident.
Mikkelsen told Nordlys he was traveling to the U.S. to visit friends in New York City and then in Austin, Texas. He also planned to visit multiple national parks with his mom, who he said planned to fly to the country and meet up with him at a later date.
“They demanded full information about everyone I was going to meet in the U.S., including name, address, phone number, and what they did for work,” Mikkelsen told the newspaper.
Mikkelsen did not say if he provoked immigration officials in some way. However, he did note that he was exhausted having just deplaned a long flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
“I had travelled for twelve hours, slept poorly, and was physically and mentally completely exhausted even before they started the questioning,” he said.
Mikkelsen said that he was placed on a flight back to Norway the same day he arrived in New Jersey. He is from Tromsø, a Norwegian city that is north of the Arctic Circle.
There have been multiple instances where western tourists have had issues entering the U.S. since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, promising a crackdown on immigration. Trump signed a travel ban on 19 countries this month.
An American citizen and her German fiancé were detained near San Diego in February when they tried to re-enter the United States after visiting Mexico. The German national was 22 days into a permitted 90‑day visa stay, but was forced to spend 16 days in a federal detention center before being deported.
A Welsh backpacker was also held for nearly three weeks at a U.S.–Canada land crossing this spring, and another German was detained for a month and a half, including eight days in solitary confinement, under suspicion of intent to work. None of the tourists involved in those incidents were charged with a crime.
