Fabian Schmidt, the New Hampshire green card holder detained by federal immigration authorities, was released Thursday night from detention after nearly two months in federal custody.
“FABIAN IS FREE and HOME!!!!,” his partner Bhavani Hodgkins posted on Facebook. The account wrote the post was also from Fabian himself, asking for patience and privacy.
“We are OVERWHELMED with love!” Hodgkins posted a video of Schmidt smiling and reuniting with his dog.
Schmidt’s attorney David Keller says Schmidt proposed to Hodgkins over dinner Saturday night.
“It finally was a beautiful sight to just bring it all home and make it all good again — finally — and make everything OK,” Keller said.
Keller said Schmidt was released after an immigration court appearance Thursday. Schmidt, originally from Germany, was detained at Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
But Keller said Schmidt’s alleged poor treatment in his questioning by law enforcement has not been forgotten. Keller said Schmidt will be pursuing legal action.
“We will be pursuing some legal remedies civilly for the tortuous behavior and the violations of due process,” Keller said in a phone interview. “His mode of detention was such that it eventually broke him to the point that he needed to go to the hospital.”
Schmidt had been visiting his father in Europe and flew back to the United States on March 7. He alleged poor treatment during his questioning at Logan Airport by Customs and Border Protection agents.
Shortly after his arrest, his mother Astrid Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours — being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials and being put back onto a chair.
She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression. Keller said he was asked to sign paperwork after being kept awake.
“He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” Senior said at the time. He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital and was treated for the flu.
At the time of his arrest, Schmidt had a recently renewed green card, and had no active issues in court. When he was released, Keller says his green card and passport were not returned to him by law enforcement.
Schmidt had a misdemeanor charge for having marijuana in his car in 2015, which his mother said was dismissed after laws changed in California around marijuana possession. She says he missed a hearing about the case in 2022 since a notice was never forwarded to his new address.
Keller said a judge at Chelmsford’s immigration court allowed Schmidt’s release after he filed a motion to terminate the proceedings. Keller said the grounds “lodged in his notice to appear no longer existed,” that is, the document the government gave Schmidt after his detention outlining why he was removable from the United States. He said the notice claimed Schmidt was detained because of a conviction for a controlled substance.
Federal immigration enforcement agencies didn’t return requests for comment about Schmidt’s release.
In March, Customs and Border Protection denied the allegations of mistreatment at Logan Airport, calling them “blatantly false with respect to CBP.”
“When an individual is found with drug related charges and tries to reenter the country, officers will take proper action,” wrote Hilton Beckham, the agency’s Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs then. The agency didn’t respond to further questions at the time about the specific claims they dispute.
The German Federal Foreign Office, whose Boston outpost advocated for Schmidt’s release, celebrated the news Friday.
”After the Consulate General in Boston was informed about the arrest by the family of the person concerned, our colleagues intervened on his behalf with the US authorities and provided consular assistance,” the office said. “We are happy to hear that the German citizen Fabian Schmidt could be released from custody.”
Schmidt and his mother moved to the United States in 2007 and received green cards in 2008. He moved from California to New Hampshire in 2022.
Senior described her son as a hardworking electrical engineer with a partner and daughter who are both U.S. citizens.
Keller said Schmidt is settling into a routine and is looking forward to seeing his colleagues and boss next week. His father flew in from Germany, and the family is relaxing together this week after an “incredibly stressful time,” Keller said.
