Are you wary of travelling to USA currently?

[RosaMoline]

I am sure you will tell me I’m BU, but that’s fine!
I’ve been to the states numerous times - Florida (all over, not just Disney/Orlando), New York City, California (los Angeles), Massachusetts and New Orleans.
Myself and 2 adult DCs were planning to go to Orlando again this October. Primarily for Halloween and DS (28) is autistic & very fixated with all things Disney.
DD (30) and I decided not to go ahead and take DS to Disneyland Paris instead. Yes, we’ve been there before, and it doesn’t really compare to the US version (IMO) not even close, but DS won’t mind.
it’s solely down to the current POS in charge and all his minions. America seems (to me) to be on a knife edge, very volatile, and DD being LGBT is understandably unsettled too.
I am not the sort of person who usually would even give a moment’s thought to something like this, but I just have a really uneasy feeling about going there. Chances are, at age 58, I may never go again.
AIBU or would you be thinking twice at the moment about travelling there? (especially Florida which is a red state)
I detest that man SO much!

I’ve never thought that we would have to deal with a ground invasion - am almost sure it wouldn’t happen but with the way Trump reacts, who knows? Originally I’d thought living near the border was good, now not so sure.

Slight misrepresentation of the situation. The tourist was trying to enter the US carrying tattoo equipment, which indicated she intended to work whilst in the US, which would violate the terms of her visa waiver. She’s being held until she’s deported back to Germany. You don’t fuck around with US immigration.

Trump announced in his speech last night that he is getting Greenland one way or another!

I'm boycotting in support of Canada, so I wouldn't travel to the US based on that alone right now, never mind all the other insanity.

Why let her over the Mexican border at all then? I know of Irish people turned back at enroute airport American visa checkpoints and not allowed to go any further because they think they are going to work, they don't let them continue flying on to America and then detain them for deportation.

Because, I suppose, by the time she’d been subject to a search, she’d already entered US soil. They’d want to process her so they knew who she was and to prevent her returning.

Haven’t RTFT so don’t know if anyone else has raised this, but I wouldn’t go to the US if there was any chance I could be pregnant. I couldn’t risk being denied lifesaving medical care in the event of a miscarriage (I’ve needed treatment for missed miscarriage in the past).

It’s a sad state of affairs! I’ve lived in New York in the past and I’m sure I’ll go back one day…

She’s in indefinite detention and spent a week in solitary confinement because they suspected that she might later violate the terms of the visa waiver programme. She hadn’t actually been allowed into the country yet, she was detained at the border. This is minority report style pre-crime stuff. Normal, healthy democracies don’t imprison people indefinitely for crimes they suspect they might commit in future. Being turned away at the border or banned from re-entry is to be expected. Being imprisoned “indefinitely” is not, and I find it unfathomable that anyone could defend it. How many of us have never answered a work email or logged into a work system from a holiday before? Would you be OK with one of your family being put into solitary confinement because they answered work emails on a holiday or even just because they had their laptop with them and the border team thought they planned to use it to work.

What have answering work emails got to do with carrying equipment that you’d only have on you if you intended to work whilst in that location?! You might easily have a laptop with you to watch films on the flight or use the internet whilst you’re away. Tattoo equipment is so you can tattoo other people - probably for money. You don’t generally travel on holiday with tattoo equipment for personal use. I’m not going to get into the issue of detaining people for crimes they think you might commit in the future - thems the rules and if you want to rock up to the US boarder as a solo traveller who looks like they might be trying to live and work in the US with a tourist visa waiver, you’re going to be caught. They’re strict and most people travelling to the US know this.

She was meant to be working on the tattoo of the friend she was travelling with (seemingly, one does the others' tattoos, one makes the other's clothes). I'm not sure if that is actually considered "work" for visa purposes.

In any event, she would normally have been immediately deported and the present situation does sound legally unusual. More on that towards the end of CNN's article.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/world/german-detained-ice-intl-latam/index.html

It’s incredibly naive to think you can enter the US with equipment used to make a living and have them believe you’ll just use it to do freebie tattoos on your mates. No idea why she’s still in the US but to use this as a reason why a legitimate tourist shouldn’t visit the States is ridiculous. This person made a big mistake and is unfortunately paying for it.

I don’t think it’s naive at all. Presumably a hairdresser couldn’t take scissors or a dryer as far as you’re concerned.

Canadian here... we definitely are not travelling to the States in the near future. We are doing our best to buy Canadian food and products.

I'm retiring this year, and hoped to visit the Grand Canyon and Arizona area, but won't do it now.

All the MAGA yahoos are feeling empowered and lord knows what could happen. I don't think I could withhold my contempt for their ideology if somehow engaged in a conversation.

I honestly don't know if it'd even be safe to try and cross into the US if you've posted support of the boycotts online.

Being in possession of the equipment doesn't prove that she was going to use it to work while she was there. Eight days in solitary confinement is utterly cruel, bearing in mind that she's not been charged with (let alone convicted of) any crime.

ICE certainly do not mess around, they've got quotas to fill. There have been documented instances of them detaining Green Card holders to pressure them into leaving voluntarily, even though they've got the right to live and work in the US. It's the sort of stuff you'd expect of Russia. Mind you, Putin is very much idolised by the POTUS...

LGB is different to TQIA+. They (the Trump administration) don’t want to give gay people special treatment but recognize their existence, like everyone else. I would still go.

Due to DOGE firings, there are fewer national park rangers and staff at aviation control. It's early days to exactly know the impact of the firings. There will be price hike and it was expensive to visit USA before but it will be even more expensive now.
To think that one in two of any American you meet, voted for the current administration- not sure how I will deal with that!
We have a trip planned to a red state and am rethinking of our plans.
If you cannot change your travel plan, then at least you can do some research and avoid MAGA owned businesses while you are holidaying in USA.

Slight difference there. One can take a hairdryer on holiday quite legitimately- they’re an everyday item. A tattoo gun? Not so much.

They don’t need to prove anything, unfortunately. If they suspect you want to try and live illegally in the US, you’ll be kicked out.

This. We're booked in April, to visit family and teach kids more about their heritage. Booked prior to the election, knowing Trump might be in, but didn't think it'd be this insane. WTF do we teach them now?

Also nervous about flights and about family dynamics. DHs parents, republican to the bone, find it bad enough when they're visiting. The family has become a battleground, and we have some Canadians and queer family in there to boot who are just devastated. I really wish we weren't going. Too late now though.

The thing is that she hasn’t been kicked out. That's the point. She hasn't been bounced back to Tijuana or put on a flight to Germany. She's been held in detention for a month, including eight days in solitary confinement.

I don’t know why she is still there. From the article posted above it seems there might have been an issue with her getting a ticket to fly home. My point was only ever that ICE aren’t just randomly picking up tourists and imprisoning them. This woman was trying to cross the border and she was refused entry because they thought she was going to he an over stayer. The situation wasn’t as a pp first described.

But she did have a plane ticket home. Her mother had booked one for March 11th.

I've got Canadian family and friends so I'm boycotting American goods and services anyway, they're not getting my hard-earned cash.

Hopefully she’ll be home on the 11th then.

And you are, of course, free to spend your money wherever you want, or not!

My cousin has long been planning a retirement celebration trip to Florida but just told me she won't be going.

1. she is too scared to fly and
2. doesn't want to support Trump in any way.

Anecdata!