Deported

The eight German students who arrived at Denver International Airport Friday to begin four weeks learning English with host families in Salida instead received a lesson in U.S. immigration policies.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and Customs officers determined while questioning the students that they did not have the proper visas to enter the U.S., said agency spokesperson Jamie Ruiz.

Immigration officials decided the students would have to return to Germany on the next available flight on the same airline by which they arrived, which was at 5:15 p.m. Saturday. Customs and Border Patrol held the students in a room at the airport until they boarded that flight.

The debacle left the students exhausted and resulted from immigration officials applying regulations differently than they had in the past, said Salida resident Susan Masterson, who has coordinated the exchange program, Rocky Mountain Language Adventure, since 2012.

The students applied for and received traveler visa waivers to participate in the exchange program, just as other German students in the program have for the past five years.

This past weekend, however, immigration officials determined the students’ volunteer assignments at Salida business constituted work. Therefore, the traveler visas did not match their reason for entering the United States, Ruiz said.

Over the past year Customs and Border Patrol has not changed how it questions people requesting entry into the United States, and this was a normal incident in the agency’s day-to-day operations, Ruiz said.

Customs and Border Patrol officials “do their job the same way, and this had nothing to do with the (current presidential) administration’s travel policies or guidance,” Ruiz said.

Masterson, however, said the incident made clear that restrictions have been toughened and border control is now much stricter than it used to be.

Staff in the offices of Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Doug Lamborn and Gov. John Hickenlooper assisted Masterson in trying to change immigration officials’ decision to deny the students entry, but Customs and Border Patrol refused to change its decision, Masterson said.

The parents of one student, who has since decided to never set foot in the U.S. again, told Masterson they now understand the meaning of President Trump’s “America first” foreign policy.

“Typically what happens is that these kids experience the love and generosity and hospitality of people in the U.S., and they become ambassadors to Germany for the U.S.,” Masterson said.

More families in Salida applied to take in students this year than ever before, and Masterson for the first time had to turn away some prospective host families.

“We have a great country and wonderful people. It’s very unfortunate,” she said.

Masterson began the exchange program after teaching English at a Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany, for 15 years. All students who have come to Salida through the exchange program, including the eight deported from the airport this weekend, have been 18-year-olds from that same Waldorf school and other Waldorf schools in Germany.

Some members in this year’s group were siblings of students who had participated in the exchange program in previous years or were siblings of students Masterson had taught in Germany.

The students pay to participate in Rocky Mountain Language Adventure to enjoy a kind of vacation and also to prepare for their college entrance exams by improving English language and their understanding of American culture – two categories tested in the exams.

The exams ask questions about immigration and American government. If nothing else, the students will now be able to speak from personal experience on those issues, Masterson said.

Rocky Mountain Language Adventure places students with Salida businesses so they can practice their English. Past host businesses have included Boathouse Cantina, The Maverick Potter and The Mountain Mail. The students do perform some services at the business, such as bussing tables and seating customers at restaurants or writing articles about their experiences in Salida for The Mail.

The students typically burden rather than help those business because they lack training and English is their second language, and the businesses do not pay the students for the work they do, Masterson said.

“I had felt so confident that there was nothing wrong or done illegally. I was simply not worried so long as they were not gainfully employed,” she said.

Most of this year’s students had saved money for months to afford plane tickets and the exchange program’s fees, Masterson said.

The students could still apply for a different kind of visa that would allow them to do volunteer work in the U.S., Ruiz said.

While the students come from educated, middle-class families, they will not be able to afford another trip to the U.S. this summer after the travel costs they incurred over the weekend, Masterson said.

“The way we see it, it is a paperwork issue, something that happens every day. It’s unfortunate that it broke someone’s dreams and that they had some inconveniences,” Ruiz said.