Ritchie Torres, a Member of Congress who represents New York’s 15th congressional district, has written a letter to the German Consul General requesting an investigation be opened into a March 8 incident at the Frankfurt Airport in which 16 Hasidic Jewish Americans from New York were detained for over 10 hours without a reason, some without food and water.
“We begged for a cup of water. So they brought us out a few cups of water. Literally holding the cup of water so it doesn’t spill on the way out, you know the way you feed your dog basically,” said one of the detained men in an interview with Americans Against Antisemitism. “There was no communication, which was almost the worst part to me.”
Torres would like answers to why the group was placed in a holding room without charges for hours. He highlighted the fact that they were not informed of why they were being detained. It was not until one of them called the American Embassy in Germany that German officials finally explained that their passports were being investigated for fraud. The individuals were made to sign a form before they were allowed to leave.
“The allegations are deeply disbursing and call for an investigation into the actions taken by German officials. It is also disturbing that it was not until the U.S. Embassy in Germany was notified about this incident that these Americans were provided a reason for why their passports were taken and why they were being held,” Torres stated in the March 22 letter addressed to Germany’s Consul General for New York, David Gill. “An American passport is one of the most internationally accepted passports, which calls into question why these Americans’ passports were viewed as suspicious.”
Torres is looking for answers from Germany. He wants to know why the 16 American citizens had their passports confiscated; why they were held for more than 10 hours; why did it take the U.S. Embassy’s involvement for them to get answers as to why they were being detained; and what where the forms they were made to sign.
“I look forward to an expeditious response into these reports from your office,” Torres concluded in his letter to Gill.