USA Detains NH Green Card Holder

New Hampshire resident and green card holder Fabian Schmidt was detained upon his return from a visit to Europe. So far he has been stripped naked, subjected to a cold shower, interrogated, and deprived of his medications, adequate food and drink and sleep, and medical care until he became so ill he had to be hospitalized.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pressured him to give up his green card, which recently renewed with no issues.

When he returned from a trip to Luxembourg on Friday 7 March 2025, his partner, who is a cardiologist in Nashua, waited four hours at Logan Airport before contacting authorities. His mother did not hear from him until Tuesday 11 March after he collapsed and was hospitalized. At Mass General Hospital he also turned out to have influenza.

Schmidt has been taken to Donald W. Wyatt detention facility, Central Falls, Rhode Island. His partner and mother have retained lawyers and contacted the German consulate to try to get him released, at least on bail.

It is not clear why he has been taken. His mother has only been told that his green card was “flagged.” The only blots on his legal record are from years ago, more minor than would normally endanger green card status and have all been resolved.

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Text of the article by New Hampshire Public Radio:

This story was originally produced by GBH. We are republishing it in partnership with the New England News Collaborative. 

A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Fabian Schmidt’s family said they are unsure of why he is being held. They said he has a recently renewed green card, and no active issues in court.

Schmidt had been visiting Luxembourg and flew back to the U.S. on Friday. His partner had gone to pick him up at Logan Airport, and waited four hours before calling authorities.

“It was just said that his green card was flagged,” said Astrid Senior, his mother. She said she didn’t hear from her son directly until Tuesday, when she learned he’d been hospitalized.

Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair.

She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression.

“He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.

He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.

On Tuesday, Schmidt was transported to the regional headquarters for ICE in Burlington, Massachusetts, and then transferred to the Wyatt facility. The family, including his partner, who is a cardiologist in Nashua, have acquired attorneys and been working with the German consulate in hopes to have him released on bail.

Schmidt and his mother moved to the U.S. in 2007, and received green cards in 2008. He moved from California to New Hampshire in 2022.

Senior described her son as a hardworking electrical engineer with a partner and 8-year-old daughter who are both U.S. citizens.

“Fabian said to me that he feels he’s very fearful and is frightened,” said Senior.

Schmidt had a misdemeanor charge for having marijuana in his car in 2015, which his mother said was dismissed after laws changed in California around marijuana possession. He missed a hearing about the case in 2022 since a notice was never forwarded to his new address. Senior mentioned that Schmidt is successfully recovering from alcoholism, and had a DUI that he’s completely worked through and paid off from around ten years ago.

Can a green card holder be deported?

 

It’s a complicated question, but some protections exist.

Green cards grant foreign nationals the right to live and work in the U.S. as permanent residents. They’re valid for ten years and have to be renewed.

“Only the immigration judge can take away that green card. The Trump administration thinks that they can expand that and do some crazy things,” said Curtis Morrison, an immigration attorney in California with experience litigating against the Trump administration. “But the law as it is now — he needs to be able to appear before an immigration judge.”

The government has to initiate removal proceedings in immigration court, and an individual has the right to go before a judge to defend themselves and understand the government reasoning for the potential deportation.

“[It’s the] Immigration and Nationality Act — which describes different kinds of conduct or crimes that could trigger somebody with a green card being deported and put into court proceedings to have them deported,” said Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The law doesn’t always require convictions for green card holders to be deported.

“There is a long list of behaviors, conduct and also crimes. If somebody’s been convicted of something that could make somebody deportable if they have a green card,” he said.

Chen hadn’t heard of other green card cases like Schmidt’s other than that of Palestinian and Syrian student activist Mahmoud Khalid in New York City, a green card holder who is currently detained due to his protest activity at Columbia University. In that case, attorneys are relying partially on First Amendment right of protest.

“We have seen a disturbing trend from the federal government to target people who have legal immigration status,” said Chen, including not just those who have green cards, but people with visas and varying legal statuses.

“Denying a green card holder admission on such a minor charge would be an extreme case, but it is possible under the law,” said Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, immigration law professor at Cornell Law School of the pot possession charge and deportation.

The reasons a green card holder can be deported include many kinds of criminal convictions, even if those convictions are from a long time ago and even some very minor convictions. For marijuana convictions, a person is deportable unless the conviction is for possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana for one’s own use, she said. Otherwise, any controlled substances offense makes a green card holder deportable.