Fabian Schmidt sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and, for a few disorienting seconds, believes he is still inside a maximum security prison in Rhode Island. Then the Nashua resident remembers where he is: home, in the apartment he shares with his wife, a short walk from the restaurant where they met and steps from a trail along the Nashua River.

More than a year has passed since Schmidt, a German citizen and longtime United States green card holder, was pulled out of the customs line at Boston Logan International Airport and swallowed into the federal immigration detention system for two months. His story, told in depth this week by the New Hampshire Bulletin, became one of the most closely watched immigration cases in New England, a symbol of what critics called an arrest first, ask questions later approach in the early months of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

What makes the story remarkable a year later is not the anger one might expect. It is the absence of it. Schmidt, who is paying off roughly $60,000 in legal fees and related costs from his ordeal, says he remains committed to the country that locked him up. He is writing a book, planning for citizenship, and, in his words, driving home on his career.

Sixteen Hours in a Chair, Then Days in a Holding Room

Schmidt’s path to that holding room began decades earlier. Born in Germany in 1990, he lived in England and Denmark as a child before his father, an international businessman, brought the family to Palo Alto, California, when Fabian was 16. The family entered on an O-1 visa, sometimes called the genius visa, and Schmidt eventually became a lawful permanent resident. He moved to Nashua in 2022 to be closer to his mother, Astrid Senior.

On March 7, 2025, Schmidt flew back into Boston after visiting family in Europe. A Customs and Border Protection agent stopped him at the customs line and brought him into a holding room. He recalled a chaotic scene: people yelling, agents in Kevlar vests, a family with a baby. Agents told him there was a flag on his green card and asked him to sit. He sat in a chair for 16 hours.

The initial stop stretched into days. Schmidt slept on a cot rolled out each night and ate from a rotating choice of instant noodle cups or canned ravioli. He was not allowed to contact his family. His girlfriend, Bhavani Hodgkins, waited on the other side of customs, understanding after two hours that something had gone badly wrong but receiving no information.

During interrogation, an agent accused him of thinking he could sell drugs in the United States. The accusation traced back to a 2015 possession charge in California, where police broke up a college party and attributed a bag containing an alleged controlled substance found on the ground to Schmidt. He has always denied it was his. He pleaded no contest at the time and believed the matter was long closed. Notably, a separate 2016 drunken driving charge, which Schmidt credits as the catalyst for years of sobriety and his current volunteer work as a recovery sponsor in New Hampshire, was not cited as a basis for his detention.

On his fourth day in the airport holding room, Schmidt collapsed. He remembers an agent mocking him as he went down. He was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, diagnosed with influenza, and woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed. His family was not notified.

Two Months at Wyatt

On March 11, 2025, ICE transported Schmidt, shackled hand and foot and made to lie flat in an SUV, to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Wyatt is a publicly owned, privately operated maximum security prison that houses a mix of ICE detainees, U.S. Marshals Service prisoners, and Federal Bureau of Prisons inmates.

Schmidt witnessed three inmate fights on his first day. He describes the facility as bright, loud, and action packed, a place where you always have to keep your head on a swivel. His attorney, David Keller, says there is no good explanation for why a green card holder with no violent history was placed among violent offenders when alternatives existed, and notes that ICE detainees are supposed to be held in separate wings. In practice, Keller says, that separation does not happen.

While Schmidt was inside, Hodgkins spent hundreds of dollars a week on prison phone calls and hid the cost from him. Protesters gathered outside Wyatt on March 18, 2025, demanding his release and due process. And through it all, Schmidt says, agents repeatedly pressured him to sign a form relinquishing his green card in exchange for release. He refused.

Keller says that pressure campaign was not unique to Schmidt. He describes numerous consultations with green card holders who signed away their status under vague and coercive assurances from border agents and are now stranded abroad trying to find a way back. The pattern echoes concerns raised in New Hampshire’s own courts, where habeas corpus petitions challenging immigration detention have surged as detainees test the limits of federal detention authority.

The Release

Schmidt’s freedom came through the old California case. Keller had the 2015 charge reopened on ineffective counsel grounds, arguing Schmidt should never have pleaded no contest to a charge the government could not prove. The substance in the bag, Keller notes, was never even tested. A judge dismissed the drug charge.

At a subsequent Massachusetts immigration court hearing in May 2025, the order to release Schmidt came so quickly that it was issued before he had even joined the video conference. Hodgkins messaged him on a prison tablet: You’re free now. Keller confirmed it through tears. Within hours, Schmidt was transported to an ICE office in Burlington, Massachusetts, where his family picked him up.

Days later, Schmidt proposed to Hodgkins at a Manchester steakhouse with the engagement ring he had purchased before his trip to Europe. They married quickly. She is now Bhavani Schmidt.

Customs and Border Protection defends its handling of the case. Hilton Beckham, the agency’s assistant commissioner of public affairs, told the Bulletin that claims of mistreatment are blatantly false with respect to CBP, that officers take proper action when someone with drug related charges tries to reenter the country, and that green card holders who have broken no laws have nothing to fear.

Why He Stays

Schmidt has considered suing. Keller acknowledges the legal hurdles are steep given federal immunity doctrines, though he believes real violations occurred, including the government’s refusal to notify the German consulate during Schmidt’s first week in custody and the medical neglect at the airport.

For now, Schmidt is choosing a different path. He was featured in a German public television documentary about the administration’s immigration agenda and is writing a book in German that he hopes to adapt for American readers. He is also resolved to become a U.S. citizen, even if it costs him his German citizenship, though a recent change in German law may allow him to hold both.

His wife describes the ordeal as the worst thing they ever went through, and also, in a way that surprises even her, a source of unexpected blessings. She says the couple has no room in their hearts for resentment.

Schmidt’s case unfolded against a broader backdrop of federal immigration enforcement reshaping New Hampshire, from the expansion of 287(g) partnerships between ICE and local police agencies to Grafton County’s later withdrawal from the program. For Schmidt, though, the politics have always been secondary to something simpler. When he returned to Nashua, neighbors and strangers who recognized him from the news embraced him on the street.

It’s hard to be mad, he says, when you come home to such a great community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Fabian Schmidt?

Fabian Schmidt is a German citizen and U.S. green card holder who lives in Nashua, New Hampshire. He moved to the United States with his family in 2007 at age 16 and relocated to Nashua in 2022. In March 2025 he was detained by federal immigration authorities at Boston Logan Airport and held for two months.

Why was Fabian Schmidt detained by ICE?

Agents cited a flag on his green card connected to a 2015 drug possession charge from California, stemming from a college party where police attributed a bag containing an alleged controlled substance to him. Schmidt denied the bag was his but had pleaded no contest at the time. The substance was never tested, and a judge dismissed the charge in 2025 after the case was reopened.

Where was Schmidt held during his detention?

After days in a holding room at Boston Logan Airport and a hospitalization for influenza, Schmidt was transferred on March 11, 2025 to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, a maximum security prison that houses ICE detainees alongside federal prisoners.

How was Schmidt released?

His attorney, David Keller, had the 2015 California charge reopened on ineffective counsel grounds and won its dismissal. A Massachusetts immigration court then ordered ICE to release him in May 2025. He was freed the same day.

What is Schmidt doing now?

As of July 2026, Schmidt is married, living in Nashua, paying off roughly $60,000 in legal and related costs, writing a book about his experience, and pursuing U.S. citizenship.

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