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New Hampshire
German national with green card detained by ICE after arriving at Logan Airport, family says – The Boston Globe
A week into his detention, Astrid Senior, Schmidt’s mother, who lives in Lyndeborough, N.H., said the family was still seeking answers about why her son is being held.
“I’m feeling shaken up,” Senior said, stressing the point that her son was here legally. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening now.”
This case, involving the apprehension of a legal permanent resident with few answers available, is the latest instance of unusual immigration enforcement under the new Trump administration, which has pledged a hard line on immigration. Schmidt’s case is part of a wave of reports involving people with green cards or visas being detained by immigration authorities after returning from trips out of the country.
News of his arrest comes after a Rhode Island physician, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who had traveled to Lebanon to see her parents, was prevented from re-entering the US at Logan on Thursday despite having a visa running through 2027. It also follows the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and outspoken figure during the Gaza war protests last spring at Columbia University, who was arrested last weekend at the behest of the Trump administration. His detention has generated national headlines and protests from progressives.
In the labyrinth of immigration law, each of these cases has slight but significant differences. Schmidt faced misdemeanor drug and drinking charges years ago and was allegedly flagged by immigration authorities for failing to show up to court in 2022, while Alawieh and Khalil do not appear to have criminal records in the country. Schmidt’s family says he has faced no new legal issues since he was granted a new green card, and that his failure to show up in court wasn’t an issue during the renewal process.
Schmidt and Alawieh’s cases also differ from Khalil’s because they were reentering the country, which put them in vulnerable positions, according to immigration attorney Heather Yountz of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. A visa is a request for entry, but does not guarantee it, and people entering on visas can be subject to additional screening. Someone with a green card can typically just present it and enter unless it’s flagged for some sort of violation.
“You are more vulnerable when you’re seeking to enter the United States than you are when you’re in the United States,” she said.
That’s why, she said, the actions against Khalil were shocking: He seemed to be stripped of his green card while in the US because of his political opinions.
“He was in a much more legally secure situation,” she said, noting that the constitutional right to free speech applies to everyone in the US.
People with work visas and green cards are heavily vetted, with background checks and fingerprinting, said Boston-based immigration attorney Annelise Araujo. To get a green card, applicants are checked against all the federal agencies to make sure there’s nothing that would make them inadmissible, which could include specific criminal issues or national-security concerns.
All three of these detentions, she said, are “going to have a chilling effect on who wants to come here, and who wants to study here, and who wants to work on our hospitals.”
US Customs and Border Protection would not provide answers about Schmidt’s case, citing federal privacy concerns. Border protection officers determine admissibility of foreign nationals on a case-by-case basis, according to the law, and treat travelers with professionalism, agency officials said.
“If statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal,” Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner of public affairs, said in a statement Saturday.
No charging documents against Schmidt have yet been filed with the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which operates the immigration courts.
Schmidt, who works as an electrical engineer, was returning from a week-long trip visiting his father in Germany when he was stopped by immigration officials at Logan on March 7, his mother said.
Bhavani Hodgkins, Schmidt’s girlfriend, waited for hours for him to come out of the airport that night so they could return home to Nashua. Hodgkins said she eventually spoke with US Customs and Border Patrol officials who told her Schmidt was being held indefinitely and she should go home.
Hodgkins said she called for updates every day and was eventually told by immigration officials that Schmidt had been sent a letter in 2022 asking him to appear in court, why exactly is unclear. Schmidt never got the letter, Hodgkins said.
And his failure to appear in court was not flagged in 2023 when he applied and received a new green card, after misplacing his previous one, Hodgkins said.
“He was never informed there was problems,” Hodgkins said.
Most green cards are valid for 10 years.
According to his family, Schmidt has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction in the past. He has been charged with misdemeanors, including possession of a controlled substance, driving under the influence, hunting without a license, and failure to appear for jail, while he lived in California, according to court records.
Court records show that Schmidt has attended recovery programs, paid small fines, and was placed on probation to resolve his cases.
There are no current charges against him, Hodgkins said.
“He suffered from his own demons,” she said. But he went into rehab when he moved to New Hampshire in 2022 and has been “dedicated to his own sobriety,” Hodgkins said.
She and Senior said that Schmidt has complained about his treatment in detention. He fell ill while being held by immigration authorities and collapsed, they said.
Hodgkins said Schmidt told her that he was taken to the hospital in handcuffs and tested positive for the flu.
According to Massachusetts State Police, Schmidt was taken to a Boston hospital from the customs area of the international terminal at Logan Airport on Monday morning. Tim McGuirk, a spokesman for the State Police, said CBP officers accompanied him to the hospital “as they were not able to process the individual through customs” beforehand. He referred further questions to customs and border patrol officials.
Customs officials could not provide information Saturday afternoon about why Schmidt was taken to the hospital and where he was held between his scheduled arrival on March 7 and the hospital trip on March 10.
Schmidt was moved to the Wyatt Detention facility on Tuesday, his family said.
Officials with the German consulate in Boston have spoken to Schmidt’s families and authorities.
“The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Boston is aware of the case and has been in close contact about it with the relevant US authorities as well as with the family of the concerned person,” a spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington.
“He was not given fair treatment,” Hodgkins said. “This is unjust and very painful for us as a family.”
Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her @fernandesglobe. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter. Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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