Camp America, concerns

[Conkersinautumn]

I'm looking to chat to anyone with recent experience of Camp America. I had been really positive about my daughter volunteering as a Camp counsellor, but now we are in the Visa stage and I am deeply unnerved. The recent actions of ICE are showing that, politically, America is very unstable, then they're seemingly hostile/ inflammatory to other countries at the moment. My daughter is very focused on she'll be out of cities.etc, but. Well, frankly I am genuinely losing sleep.

Anyone recently had a child do this? Did they feel.safe, was there a weird feeling about being foreign?

I'm keeping a close eye on UK travel advice, but I can't help but feel a teen, brought up in a fairly standard up for others mentality might be a bit naive making her politics.known etc.

DD is going again this year. She going back to the v v rural camp she was at last year, she is white and is not planning on travelling in the US after camp anymore. If any of these 3 were different Id be concerned.

Oh and travelling from Dublin with its US border post, so if there are any visa issues she's still at home.

Hmm. She is white. She has autism and a very strong concept of 'fair', which worries me. Nothing fair about the States.

She is aware of the ridiculous work expectations.
I'd love for her to have chosen Canada but the camp is one in the wider state of NY (not the City).

Flight money probably won't be seen again. But I'm discouraging the trip, though softly, for now. It just feels hypocritical when I spent my equivalent summer backpacking and hitchhiking with no clear plans or true knowledge of the countries I went to.

This is like an American parent hearing about trouble in London and deciding their child can't go on a trip to the Scottish Highlands.

ICE has been rounding up ordinary tourists and shoving them in detention centres for weeks at a time.

Not really, tourists could be detained anywhere, everyone has to go through airports.

Whether it's a big risk or not, I'm not sure, I think with the World Cup and everything, I would continue with any planned trip (but would not plan any new trip).

Sounds more like a prison. The camp my daughter went to last year was so good she is going back this year.

A young colleague of mine went out last summer, and she absolutely loved it. She wasn't an experienced traveller, but there were no issues.
I think if someone is lucky enough to get a place, they should jump at the opportunity (and parents need to back off!).

This. The issue isn’t with travelling or being at a summer camp. Those things are perfectly safe. The issue is at immigration where tourists have been detained. The chances are very low that anything would happen, but it’s not a risk I’d be comfortable with for a teen.