US Denies Meme Led to Norwegian Tourist Deportation

Mads Mikkelsen, a 21-year-old Norwegian tourist, was denied entry to the US at Newark Liberty International Airport after border agents found a meme on his phone depicting Vice President JD Vance, and he was interrogated about various issues including drug smuggling and extremism. Mikkelsen says he was detained, strip-searched, threatened with a $5,000 fine or jail time to unlock his phone, and questioned about a photo of him with a handmade wooden pipe. He was required to provide contact information for people he planned to meet in the US before being deported to Norway the same day. While Mikkelsen asserts the meme was a harmless joke from a group chat, US Customs and Border Protection denies that the meme led to his denial of entry, instead attributing the decision to Mikkelsen’s alleged admission of past drug use. The incident has drawn attention to increasingly strict US border procedures and electronic device searches. Similar cases have been reported in recent years, raising concerns about privacy and due process.