Tourist says he was barred from entering U.S. over JD Vance meme
An ill-fated Norwegian tourist came to visit the US to enjoy his dream vacation, but the trip could not have ended in a bigger farce and a controversy as the man is said to have been denied entry due to his meme about the Vice President JD Vance.
Mads Mikkelsen, 21, the traveler, who was questioned by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in a New York airport, states that the ordeal started after an altered photo of Vance, with an exaggerated bald and egg-shaped head (an internet meme) was spotted by the officials on his phone.
According to Mikkelsen, who was visiting friends in New York and Texas, and who now described her 12-hour standoff with the CBP agents as dramatic, she and her friends were flying to New York when she was told about the meme incident. He says that he was forcefully interrogated, strip-searched, and deported without getting out of the airport.
Mikkelsen added, during the interview: I was prejudiced, suspected and humiliated. They questioned their involvement in drug smuggling, terrorist plans, as well as right-wing extremism without any reason. Across a pair of pictures.”
As Mikkelsen was told, agents insisted on getting access to his phone, threatening him to spend time in jail and pay a 5,000-dollar fine unless he gave his password. After being introduced into the device, CBP
allegedly raised two images, namely the JD Vance meme and a picture of Mads gritting a wooden pipe he had carved on his own as an amateur hobby. Both, he asserts, were automatically downloaded through a group chat and were not intended to stir anything up or cause panic.
However, the U.S. authorities soon resisted Mikkelsen retelling of events. CBP has made a rebuttal on the social media by stating that the claim is false in a publicly issued statement.
The agency wrote on X: Fact Check: FALSE, and attached a screenshot of a headline of the Daily Mail. Mads Mikkelsen was refused the entry on no memes or political grounds but because of his drug use which he admitted.
Department of Homeland Security repeated the message further adding: Claims that Mads Mikkelsen was barred entry due to a meme are Categorically FALSE. Mikkelson was denied access to the U.S because he acknowledged his use of drugs.”
Nevertheless, Mikkelsen denies this account saying that he did not admit anything and he thinks that this is just a cover used by the agency. According to him, once his cell phone was unlocked, agents quickly spun out of control, strip-searching him, drawing blood, scanning his biometrics, and isolating him hours later with no food, water or contact with anyone.
I felt as an object of terroristic or criminal investigation, he stated. I only wanted to stay a couple weeks with my friends and cross the U.S. with my mom. Rather I was arrested, question and tossed out.
The meme under consideration appeared first in October 2024, as a part of an otherwise popular viral chain by user @DaveMcNamee3000, where he promised to morph JD Vance into a more baby-faced
caricature every 100 likes that the post would get. The weird picture found its way in various platforms and eventually on the phone of Mads through a personal chat thread.
Although CBP has a legal right to search through the electronic devices of travelers without the issuance of a warrant, the incident has raised a new set of questions regarding the interpretation of digital media
content at the border and whether political attitudes or satirical newsmagazines ought to be wrongly construed as dangerous.
The case of Mads has also create concerns in Norway, where the Foreign Ministry released a statement advising local citizens to carefully look into the U.S. regulations on travel, particularly on the use of digital content and any past personal revelations that could cause suspicion during the arrival processes.
The experience has made an impression in Mads. That is a treatment he will never forget, he says. It has made me doubt myself trying to go back even once.
In the meantime, the supposed instigator of the mayhem still keeps making the rounds on the internet with a fresh coat of internationalization on it.
