It’s every international thru-hiker’s worst nightmare: training for a long hike, saving enough money for the trip, and clearing your calendar, only to be stopped at the border and turned back before ever setting foot on US soil — let alone the trail.
Seasoned German thru-hiker and Trek blogger Annika “Ravenclaw” Ananias says that nightmare came true for her — and escalated to a horrifying degree when she attempted to enter the US to hike the Arizona Trail (AZT) last month.
Ananias had expected the journey to be routine, having previously come to the US on a B2 tourist visa in 2022 and 2024 to thru-hike the PCT and CDT, respectively. But upon reaching US passport control this time, she found herself detained, interrogated, and accused of intending to work illegally in the US.
Ananias says she was separated from her American boyfriend, shouted at and mocked by US border officials, and detained overnight in a cold, shared holding cell without access to medication. After 22 hours of incarceration, the hammer fell: despite having broken no laws and holding the same valid B2 visa under which she previously hiked the PCT and CDT, she was deported back to Germany and handed a five-year ban on re-entering the United States.
This is infuriating. How can this even be legal?
You think the maga freaks care what’s legal!? AND traditional “small government, financially conservative” Republicans give them the cover they need to defraud and strip the country for scrap, they are just as complicit. Any true Patriot would have voted to haul them in front of Congress by now (no matter what party), or impeached Trump…
Oh they do care what’s legal, but not for the same reasons.
They think that any laws against their beliefs are there specifically to persecute them. Because that’s exactly what they would be doing (as an individual) if they were in power. Hence the bullshit we are seeing now with them gaining power.
Anything is legal when you just ignore the law and make up the rules to suit your own agenda.
Surely this wouldn’t hold up when she eventually files a lawsuit right?
Have you ever tried to get justice as a foreigner in am American court? Good luck with that. Yes, American courts are that biased.
In whose court?
For any non citizen, non LPR (green card), the border official at the desk holds the final authority on whether to admit. This is true with a visa or without one. US visas (not green cards) can be effectively cancelled at the border with no notice.
All visitors to the US, visa or no, must overcome a presumption of immigrant intent at the border interview each time they visit.
Unfortunately, the whole story seems to be legal. I would recommending thru hiking in some less shit hole countries.
From the article …
“legality” has never stopped rulers before