Norwegian Tourist Fires Back at DHS Denial That He Was Deported Over JD Vance Meme
(Screengrab via Nordly’s/Instagram)
A Norwegian tourist who says U.S. border agents deported him over a meme of Vice President JD Vance is pushing back against Homeland Security’s claim that his past drug use was to blame with new allegations, now flagging that officials wrongly identified him as a Spanish national and accused him of carrying drug paraphernalia in a deportation document riddled with errors.
Mads Mikkelsen, no relation to the iconic Hollywood actor of the same name, told local Norwegian news outlet Nordlys Tuesday that his “dream vacation” to New York ended before it began when border officials at Newark Airport stopped him and demanded the password to his phone. The agents scrolled through his photos, interrogated him and sent him back to Norway.
One image, he claims, was a meme of Vance, showing his face grotesquely distorted and ballooned, which went viral after the Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Nordlys story was picked up by British newspaper The Daily Mail, prompting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to declare the story was “FALSE” and “BS” in a post via X on Tuesday, adding that reason for Mikkelsen’s border turnaround was his “admitted drug use.”
Mikkelsen, however, is doubling down on his meme allegation and is pointing to a written decision given to him at the border that he says is riddled with falsehoods.
Asked by Nordlys in a follow-up article on Wednesday about the DHS statement he said that the administration’s drug explanation was implausible. Mikkelsen admitted to the outlet that he had used cannabis twice in his life, once in Germany and once in New Mexico.
“It’s legal in both places, so in my mind it was irrelevant,” he said. “It’s a legal substance where it was taken – just like alcohol.”
Mikkelsen said he never got the impression that his past cannabis use was a major issue during questioning and tried to answer everything truthfully. He said agents grilled him about “drug smuggling, terrorist plots, and right-wing extremism,” and took a blood sample.
Aside from the Vance meme, Mikkelsen said a second image that drew scrutiny was of a wooden pipe he’d carved as a teen.
After being denied entry, he received a written decision, one he only got around to reading after the DHS statement. What he found, he says, was riddled with inaccuracies. The document reportedly identifies him as an immigrant with a Spanish passport.
“But I’m Norwegian and have never been to Spain,” he said. It also claims he was carrying a physical pipe, which he denies.
“I assume they meant the one in the photo,” he said. “So it’s not correct? No. And I don’t have a Spanish passport.”
The report further stated he intended to visit family in the U.S., which is also false, according to Mikkelsen, who says he had no such plans and has no family in the country.
“It’s easy to contradict what the U.S. is saying,” he added. “I don’t have Spanish family, and I have no connection to that country.”
Mikkelsen told the outlet that he believed he was randomly selected and that border agents have a random quota to fill on deportation.
