Fabian Schmidt, a German national holding a US green card, was arrested by the US immigration authorities when he returned to the country on March 7. The 34-year-old was stripped naked, "violently interrogated", and later transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility, his family alleged. 

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Schmidt claimed he has lived in the US since his teenage years and currently resides in New Hampshire. He was stopped and detained from the Logan International Airport in Massachusetts after returning from Luxembourg, reported Newsweek.

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His mother, Astrid Senior, said the incident has shaken her up. "It's unbelievable what's happening now," she told the Boston Globe.

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"It was just said that his green card was flagged," Senior told WGBH. She said her son was "violently interrogated," stripped naked by immigration officials, and put into a cold shower.

She further said that Schmidt's green card was reissued in 2023, legally. Despite this, it was flagged when he tried to reenter the United States. 

Also read: Trump calls immigration a greater threat than Putin; 'Don't end up like Europe'

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Meanwhile, the assistant commissioner of public affairs at ICE referred inquiries to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said, "If statutes or visa terms are violated, travellers may be subject to detention and removal." 

The case is the latest among those in which legal residents of the US are being detained at airports under increased immigration scrutiny under the Trump administration. 

How internet reacted? 

Also read: Trump's immigration crackdown: Mandatory online registry with names, fingerprints to track illegal immigrants

The case has sparked outrage online, raising questions about enforcement and misuse of immigration laws.

One of the internet users on the media platform X asked, “So they just tortured some German guy for no reason?” 

“Make no mistake this isn’t about protecting our national security, this is simply the Trump admin’s xenophobic agenda,” another opined.

Also read: 'They Spied, They Lied, But They Failed': Trump says Biden turned DOJ into 'Department of Injustice'

(With inputs from agencies)