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.

I'm sure her "active refusal" to accept this award will have a big knock-on effect on international relations 🤔

Nothing says political resistance like turning down a few nights in a free hotel!

Unless of course it's liking a few memes and putting off all future visits to your mother-in-law 😂

So true. Like wtf is going on with Venezuela? Currently in Spain atm and people are pretty shocked.

For the pp who said “why make comments about a foreign countries president” this is why!

I can’t believe that question was even asked as the answer is so obvious.

The words conduct and actions of the U.S. president will always have a massive impact - - for better or for worse - on global political and economic affairs. So yes it does matter to all of us what the unhinged angry racist misogynist in the White House is saying 🙄

@perellonuts - sounds like a wise decision not to travel. As you say, the risk of challenge may be low but the stakes are high if you are challenged. The circumstances mean it’s not worth the risk. Congratulations on your award!

You reckon that the CBP officers at JFK don't racially profile. Shall we let someone who is not white tell us their experiences?

Yeah that’s like saying black men in NYC don’t get racially profiled by the police as it’s a racially diverse city.

This incident outlined in the linked article is one of my worst fears and it’s horrific that it can just happen randomly:

https://www.thesandersfirmpc.com/woman-claims-customs-subjected-her-to-unlawful-body-cavity-search

I was once questioned a bit aggressively in Philadelphia and I kind of locked horns with the immigration officer, but in hindsight I shouldn’t have.

Just back from Miami. Felt as safe there as anywhere in the world at the moment

All border control are interested in is asking for the reason of your visit ie vacation or business, how long you’re staying and where. That’s it.

And then Greenland - but Karma, she's oh so cold ...

"Absolutely insane story about a middle-aged woman from Hertfordshire who got arrested, shackled, and detained by ICE and held in a prison for eight weeks.... while on holiday... with a valid tourist visa... as she tried to leave the country."

That’s crazy and does make me think twice about visiting the U.S., but I must point out she wasn’t just an ordinary tourist.

It seems she was a tourist travelling with a husband who overstayed his work visa.

Obviously what happened to her is wrong and completely disgusting though. They should’ve just let both of them go home and banned them from returning if they wanted to.

It doesn’t make sense to hold them for that long when they were obviously going to be deported and were quite happy to leave.

Bill had been working in the US with a valid work permit, but did not have a green card – fed up with the appeals process, he had decided to leave and retire back in the UK. Karen was told that she was “guilty by association”, and that she had broken the terms of her valid B2 tourist visa by helping her husband pack for the trip. “It just went from crazy to ridiculous. It felt like they just wanted an excuse to detain me.”

It’s a bit unclear to me about her husband, was he in the U.S. all along and then his wife was joining him for a trip as a final hoorah before he came back to the UK to retire?

Or had he came back to the UK, then they both flew together to the U.S. for this summer trip?

I suspect the latter. But if so how did he get into the US with an expired visa?

Either way considering he was applying for a green card he must’ve been aware of his visa dates and that his visa was expired. It was utterly daft of him to travel in this political climate.

It seems they thought ICE wouldn’t bother them as they are white, British, older, and probably middle class.

Not justifying their treatment at all but hope this serves as a warning to all. Your privilege may not protect you.

I have decided I likely won’t be going back to the U.S. until Trump goes/there’s a better administration in power because this is just frightening . It’s heartbreaking as many of my closest friends are out there. I usually gp once or twice a year. Haven’t been since March 2025.

I think what’s concerning about that story is that she had done nothing wrong, she was just travelling with somebody who had made a mistake and was then detained for no apparent reason.

DH has a work trip to the US coming up and will be travelling with colleagues, most of whom are not British and we have no idea or information about their visa status/any complications they might have. A couple are from countries that ICE seems to target more.

DH is now seriously considering making an excuse so he can travel separately from the rest of his colleagues.

DH is now seriously considering making an excuse so he can travel separately from the rest of his colleagues.

So, your husband wants to avoid being tainted by association with his ‘colleagues, most of whom are not British and we have no idea or information about their visa status/any complications they might have. A couple are from countries that ICE seems to target more’…?

Really?

My husband wants to avoid being detained and held for weeks or months because a colleague he does not know well has a visa issue. Yes. I think that’s reasonable tbh, it’s not like travelling with them would give them some kind of magical protection from ICE.

The whole reason the woman in the article was detained is because her husband overstayed his visa and she was guilty by association, she had not done anything wrong.

Surely the employer will ensure they are visa compliant before sending them on a work trip to ann country?Irresponsible employer if they don’t.

Well yes you’d hope so, but even the employer won’t necessarily know if they have overstayed a visa in the past or anything?

There are documented cases of people who are in the US totally legally now, but had got something wrong in the past and so they are detained and deported.

I doubt the employer has every piece of information about their staff’s history, it wouldn’t make sense for DH to just assume everything will be fine.

@Parker231Do employees have NO responsibility? They need to tell the employer!

I wonder if she would have been detained if she was with a friend or work colleague as opposed to her husband.

Perhaps it’s different if you’re married as there’s a presumption - rightly or wrongly - of sharing information, whereas you’d be considered less likely to know a mates legal affairs.

That said I feel ICE have just been allowed to go rogue and are probably making it up as they go along, so who knows.

No and not a moral decision to do so …to answer the thread title

If CBP are locking people up just for "association" with people with irregularities, it would be prudent to do so.

Your husband and his employer should read that article or just read the room or between the lines and understand that the rules are no longer important and as that lady in the article says, no accountability, and decide to halt any employees traveling there. It would be like going to Berlin for a business meeting in 1940 , when Microsoft Teams exist.

@Doingtheboxerbeat - my DH can’t refuse to go, it is a fundamental part of his job and we can’t afford for him to lose it. But I do agree with you that the employer should not be requiring this and my DH and other staff members have raised this.