To think it's crazy to be planning a holiday to the USA right now

[Fragmentedbrain]

I know border control there has never been a relaxed experience but the risk of being detained arbitrarily for weeks or longer seems unacceptably high now.

Per the original post, he was asked why he was visiting, he answered "to visit my father, a US citizen", immigration asked some follow-up questions because his situation/story seemed a little unusual, he answered them and clarified the situation, he was allowed to enter.

Like, what part of this would you change? Immigration are never allowed to ask anyone any questions even if they think their story sounds a bit fishy?

Use MPC app if you can it’s much quicker than queuing for immigration.

So what part of that means he should act like a US citizen? Because his father is one? He's British!

Irish tech worker, overstayed his visa by 3 days because he was too sick to fly. He had medical records proving this. He was detained by ICE for ONE HUNDRED DAYS!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/irish-tourist-ice-detention

Exactly. Everywhere is unfriendly and questions you. Every country will mistakenly detain a few people each year who shouldn’t have been detained, given there are millions of people going in and out. I personally found Canada awful to go in and out of when we lived there (but didn’t have Canadian passports) and frequently got pulled aside along with my toddler children to be taken into a room and questioned. This added hours onto our journey time every time it happened. But would I still travel to Canada? Absolutely.

Have you seen the travel advisories for entering the UK?

Here’s Canada’s official travel advice.

Yeah, and from the point of view of the American immigration authorities, which is the relevant perspective here, he is ALSO a US citizen (through no action of his own, but that's irrelevant for citizenship purposes - e.g. see all the Australian MPs who got chucked out a few years ago because they unknowingly inherited random citizenships from grandparents).

PP's son has a weird setup involving, it sounds like possibly an uninvolved/uncontactable father, which, fine, but if you have a situation outside the norm then don't be antsy when you're occasionally asked questions to clarify your niche situation... questions which don't even stop you from completing your plans.

Again I'll ask what you expect immigration to do in this situation? Not ask anything? Ask no follow-ups?

It's not remotely niche to have parents of two different nationalities. Nor is it unusual to hold the passport of only one of those.

Immigration didn't seem to find it odd that I was visiting family.

I went a few months ago and had no issues, I made sure I had the address where I was staying and their contact details to hand when I went through immigration, but I wasn't asked.

Having said that, my American relatives do have serious concerns about some of the decisions that are being made by this current government and the impact it could have down the line.

At the moment I would still go - but I am white British.

If I were darker skinned and another nationality, then I might think twice.

Again I'll ask what you expect immigration to do in this situation?

Well I know it can be a stretch for some Americans, but possibly understanding that there ARE people in the world who don't want to be US citizens would be a bloody start!

Went last year, pre-Trump and had a lovely holiday. I know it's unlikely to be detained as the stories I've read have had some unusual anomalies but I just think why take the risk? Feel similar about Dubai these days, what if I was the unlucky person that gets arrested. Not worth it now I have responsibilities and lots of totally risk free destinations.

From experience, many US Border Control officers at the airports are themselves immigrants who have made it in the US and can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be an American.

Yeah…don’t feel bad for him.

He didn’t follow up the visa extension request despite having 2 months do so, and was detained byICE after being arrested.

My favorite part was how he was complaining that he was treated like a criminal… he was charged with false imprisonment , whichh is a felony in Georgia. He was an ‘alleged’ criminal.

I think his situation was not clear cut when reading it in it's entirety but given his detention I'd prefer to have zero risk of that happening to me so will stay away from USA.

Are you going to overstay your visa and get arrested for a felony? If not you’ll be fine.

Not applicable to me at all as I just won't be going stateside until there's a more stable regime :)

I mean it’s not a good idea* under any regime as the laws haven’t changed…they’re just being enforced more now than they were under Obama and Biden.

*…To commit felonies while overstaying your visa

😂 "welcome to America"!

Nope. DH is a US citizen, but he wasn't born in the US - he "inherited" his citizenship from his US-born parents. You can only pass on citizenship in that way for one generation, so our DC (born in the UK) aren't eligible for US citizenship.

Came through French border control last week and usually they are extremely serious and ask very deep questions (had 2 Sri Lankan students and one American last year, obviously had the correct paperwork which was deeply scrutinised) but this time, there was conversation, banter! To be fair, they were both young, but they ended up telling me I was obviously French and did I just live in the UK. We were all in near hysterics laughing once all the students went through. It was a bit surreal, the police nationale have always been deadly serious.

Last time I went into the EU on a UK passport it took over an hour and a shed load of questions. I finally got waived through when I pointed to DH waiting for me on the other side and said he’d been there for an hour (he has an EU passport and could use the e gates).

And your father has to have been born in the US himself. You do not get US citizenship if you are the second generation to have been born outside the US, even if your American parent has spent the requisite periods of time there. Not that I think that's any great loss for our DC tbh

Very true lol regarding committing felonies on hols. And agree that the laws were always there, just tougher enforcement now.
I just worry we'll hear more of these stories as times go on. And I worry about randomly getting in trouble with the law for example if there's a dispute or something occurs there's numerous examples of this happening to holiday makers in Dubai. I hope the US doesn't end up as strict.
Having said that if I had to travel to the US for business or family I would theoretically, just won't arise in my case.

I follow the news closely and haven’t seen a single shred of evidence that people with ESTAs who are not in violation of the ESTA rules have their phones examined and/or are denied entry because they don’t have booked accommodation.

Can you provide any?

Exactly, there's always a backstory!