Is USA safe to visit?

[perellonuts]

I can’t even believe I’m asking this but is it safe to visit USA now? I’m concerned about the social media issue, I’m pretty sure I’ve liked one or two anti-trump posts each time I’ve doom scrolled since his first term. Could this be used against me? I definitely feel free speech is not tolerated there now. I’d be travelling with my neuro diverse son, age 7. He is perfectly capable with full autonomy and we travel a lot but being separated with no due process would be a disaster and scares the hell out of me. We’ve been invited to go to collect a prestigious award and they put you in a hotel for a few days etc. We have American friends and family and the first hand ICE stories are horrific.

it is super annoying having to fill out a us tax return!

This is really weird. I thought you were concerned about the terrible crime and filth in liberal cities, but you are worried because you believe we don't have free speech here.
We are allowed to talk shit on the internet about anyone. Even saying racist things isn't again the law here. We have the right to voice our opinion and anyone who disagrees with us, has the right to tell us why. It's a beautiful thing. Unless you have been threatening anyone with violence/murder you have nothing to fear. I know you can get imprisoned in the UK for voicing your opinion on social media, but it's not like that here.

Came back from Florida today. Amazing time. Lovely people. Felt aafer than anywhere in the UK.

That’s a really good idea and it can identify be cheaper than direct UK flight and so much faster when you land

Is “here” the US? I know online that’s the default but I’m just checking.

Murder rate in Florida around 5 per 100,000 people annually. UK around 9-10 per million.

May have felt safer. Absolutely wasn’t safer.

" The crime and filth in liberal cities" - I think they are from the freedom country 🔫 🦅 🤭 .

I don’t like to assume

Nothing to fear? I wonder if the parents of children massacred in their schools would have the same opinion or are they reassured by the “hearts and prayers “ message which keeps getting rolled out?

I'd like to go one day. Bit scared of the alligators though. But I would watch videos on how they refused to lockdown during COVID, made me jealous.

I know they have stand your ground laws in Florida compared to our cower in fear laws. I think the data actually shows that most of the victims are the ones who are unarmed. Makes sense for them to be targeted more (obviously they didn't deserve it), no one does.

I’d say you’re probably ok if you’re white and going on an ESTA. If you’re a brown person, I think it’s far trickier.

I'm brown but a UK citizen. CBP didn't bother with me. But others might have had different experiences. Surely CBP officers themselves are the same regardless of the white house is blue or red.

Ludicrous. Your conclusion assumes everyone is at equal risk of being murdered.

I'm an American in the US and I agree with what you've posted. Many of us are extremely concerned with exactly that and due to the degree of political propaganda from the GOP, we are worried that we are heading down the same road. We have political pundits endorsed by the Trump administration who will openly say that they are pro Nazi and/or that they wish the Confederacy had won our Civil War. It's not at all hyperbole. The CECOT video that was removed from air here is absolutely horrifying.

I'm a US citizen resident in the UK. When we went over in November, immigration at JFK was facial recognition. Never even came in contact with a human, which was super weird.

OP, the odds are 99/9% that everything would be fine. But if it wasn't for friends, family and sometimes work, I wouldn't make the choice to go there right now.

I live in the safest and wealthiest neighborhood in my city in the Northeast part of the US. We have an Ivy League university in our neighborhood. We just had a mass shooting at the university several weeks ago and it was terrifying. This is one of the last areas you'd ever expect to experience gun violence. It truly can and does happen anywhere.

Presumably from one of the states that relies on those 'liberal cities' they're so afraid of (but have never been to) to fund... well, pretty much everything.

Oh this would be strange! I am from the mid west so usually fly into ohare and was there last Christmas and made it through human free right until the end. This is what I meant by my first post is that I am actually finding it a lot less angsty and it’s to do with automation not politics. I remember the days of having to fill out the lading card ect and now that’s all done on a machine

Not to diss O'Hare (born in Chicago, parents from Chicago, both went to U of C) but that's an airport that's about 20 years behind the times!

Diss away! It’a honestly the worst…. Actually LAX is the worst. If I’m visiting family I can actually fly either to Detroit or ohare and Detroit has had a major upgrade so will prob try to do that but it’s not always a cheap

You have to give your social media account details? Why? That’s shocking!

You don’t.

Part of the proposed changes from the US to the ESTA application

Wait... OP is a US citizen and worrying like this?
You having American passports means they can't deny you entry.
You may get a random extra search at border but that just happens, every 20th person or whatever. It's no biggie. They ask questions, you act and are genuinely bored, small children always do or say weird things, they are looking for bombs & weapons not poorly filtered small kids.

Go or don't go, but fretting about entry when you're US citizen is waste of energy.

I was in FL last week. National Parks are heaving with foreigners (as ever, all the rich countries were represented). Alongside Mennonites, Sikhs & every skin colour of American born person. We met a lot of French families on the beaches and on the airport shuttles. And Germans, Ukranians... the locals say that lots of Russians are buying property.

BTW: the Americans literally don't have resources to store, process or analyse individual arrival social media or DNA. Most of that is very hot air.

I know it can happen anywhere but it doesnt happen everywhere and to everyone. There is a difference in risk.

Some perspective here showing 2025 had lowest number of mass shootings in 20 years. I.e. the peak years were nothing to do with Trump. And mass killings make up 1% of gun deaths in the US. This is one article, I haven't done detailed research but its findings give pause for thought.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/12/08/mass-killings-data-2025/