The US May Have Denied Entry To A Norwegian Man Because He Had A Meme Of Bald JD Vance On His Phone
Officials found an edited picture of JD Vance with a bald, egg-shaped head, and sent Mikkelsen on a flight to return to Norway.
Mads Mikkelsen (not the actor), a Norwegian man traveling to the US, has said he was refused entry into the country after US border officials found he had memes of US vice-president JD Vance on his phone.
The 21-year-old had arrived at Newark International Airport in New Jersey on June 11, when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials demanded Mikkelsen provide access to his phone.
He said officials threatened him with a US$5,000 fine or five years in prison if he did not provide a password to access his phone.
He told Norwegian outlet, Nordlys, that officials found an edited picture of JD Vance with a bald, egg-shaped head, and sent him on a flight to return to Norway.
The memes gained popularity in October 2024 when a Twitter user posted a photo of Vance with a rounder face and larger cheeks and wrote, “For every 100 likes I will turn JD Vance into a progressively apple cheeked baby”.
The tweet went viral, with the user transforming Vance more and more and others joining in with their own creative edits.
US officials have denied the allegations and said they refused entry to Mikkelsen for his drug use.
“Mikkelsen was refused entry into the U.S. for his admitted drug use. Only those who respect our laws and follow our rules will be welcomed into our country,” the US Department of Homeland Security wrote on their Facebook.
Mikkelsen said he admitted to using cannabis in Germany and New Mexico, but did not see an issue since it was legal in both places.
He later received a printout from US officials, saying he was an immigrant and had a Spanish passport, despite him being Norwegian.
CBP said it has the authority to scrutinize travelers' phones or other electronic devices to combat terrorism, child pornography, drug smuggling, human trafficking and more, adding that less than 0.01% of travellers had their electronic devices searched in 2024.
However, since Donald Trump took over the presidency and cracked down on immigration, more cases such as Mikkelsen have come to light.
In early June, an Australian writer said he had been denied entry to the US for reporting about Pro-Palestine protests in Columbia University.
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