Since the start of the new administration I’ve seen lots of UK- and EU-based folks wondering aloud on social media whether they should travel to the US. At first, this impulse was couched in a moral objection to Trump and Musk and everything they stand for. Now, this chatter has an edge of self-preservation, thanks to several recent news stories about tourists with minor visa irregularities vanishing into ICE custody for weeks at a time. Here’s just one that I’ve seen over the course of this week:
Today my partner and I cancelled our GDC plans.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but between reduced air safety, increased border control detainments, and escalating tensions between the US and Canada, travelling to the US for a games conference (especially from Canada) doesn’t seem worth it.
— Gary J Kings 🔜 No GDC anymore, sorry (@garyjkings.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 3:40 PM
From the Guardian, “British tourist detained by US authorities for 10 days over visa issue”:
His daughter wants to leave the country and fly back to the UK, he said, but he feared the immigration crackdown in the US meant there could be a long delay before her case was dealt with.
“She’s in this orange prison outfit,” he said. “She just feels so isolated and desperate, you can imagine, she’s saying, ‘I want to come home’.”
She is safe, he said, but living “in horrendous conditions” and had not had access to legal representation. He was taking comfort from the fact that the other women at the facility, many of whom have been incarcerated for months or even years while fighting deportation, had “all been really nice to Becky,” Burke said.
Burke said he and his wife, Andrea, had naturally had some worries about their daughter travelling, but thought the US and Canada would be one of the safest places for her to go as a solo traveller, and her plan to stay with host families provided further reassurance.
“The only thing really we were concerned with, in general, was our little girl was going off for four months as a solo traveller,” he said.
As of two days ago, Ms. Burke (the detained tourist) was still in ICE custody.
But wait, there’s more!
Two German tourists were detained for more than 10 days each in separate incidents: a young man and a young woman. The young man, Lucas Sielaff, was traveling with his American fiancée from Mexico. He was held in detention for two weeks (his fiancée also alleges she was shackled and handcuffed and subjected to a body search). The young woman, Jessica Brösche, seems to have had a particularly harrowing experience. Again from the Guardian, “German tourists’ ordeal reportedly ending as they are returned from US detention”:
Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Bibra in Saxony-Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.
The families of the two tourists, who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), had compared their ordeals to “a horror film”.
Both Germans were held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, a prison in San Diego, California. . . .
Speaking to a journalist from ABC 10News San Diego in a phone interview on 1 March, Brösche said she had spent eight days in solitary confinement. She said: “It was horrible. Like, it’s really horrible. I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate.”
Lofving, who had been in constant contact with her friend, said: “[Brösche] says it was like a horror movie. They were screaming in all different rooms. After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles.”
The staff at the prison had called a psychologist who wanted to prescribe anti-psychotic medicine to calm her down, but Brösche had refused to take anything, Lofving said.
Brösche’s mother told the Berlin tabloid BZ: “I will believe it [her release] only when I am able to take her in my arms.”
I couldn’t find a news report confirming that Ms. Brösche has returned home yet.
Next, as if we aren’t already insulting the Canadians enough, there is the story of Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur who is still, as far as I can tell, in ICE custody in Arizona, after initially being detained in San Diego. From ABC News 10, “Canadian woman put in chains, detained by ICE after entering San Diego border”:
CBP wouldn’t tell Team 10 the reason for Mooney’s detention, citing privacy restrictions, but said the agency routinely denies travelers from entering the country on 60 different grounds.
The agency noted it treats all travelers with integrity, respect and professionalism.
Mooney disagreed and said she was kept in a cold room at the border by CBP before being arrested by ICE, who placed her at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days,” she said.
Mooney said the food inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center was awful and claimed in the middle of the night she, along with a group of 30 other women, was rounded up to get transferred to a facility in Arizona.
“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she said.
Great quote for the California state tourism board right there. If you have family or friends planning to come from abroad, ensure they triple-check their entry requirements with the US consulate in their country and that they send scans of their documents (passports, visas, etc.) to you before they travel. Or, better yet, rearrange your plans. This isn’t getting better anytime soon.
LAC
How awful! Thank you for the updates and I hope that those families will be reunited soon.
Rose Judson
@LAC: It’s getting to the point where I, a US citizen living abroad, wonder if I should come to visit this summer.
David Collier-Brown
Please folks, don’t enter the US. It isn’t even safe for white males.
yahoo.com/news/german-tourist-detained-ice-while-180528177.html?guccounter=2&guce_referrer=aHR0…
Steve LaBonne
@Rose Judson: I would seriously recommend against it. If there were people you wanted to visit, ask them if they could possibly visit you instead.
Rose Judson
@Steve LaBonne: I am one of four siblings and have 28 first cousins just on my mother’s side. Dunno where I’d keep everyone…
Steve LaBonne
For people abroad who just want to do North American tourism, Canada has pretty much anything you could want. I wish I were in Montréal right now myself.
Steve LaBonne
@Rose Judson: That’s a problem. Well, really triple check that your
papierenpapers are in order. The shit that’s already happening is scary.Expletive Deleted
Yeah, we’ve cancelled our plans to go to Seattle for Worldcon this year, I’m sure we’d be fine once there but I’m not eager to cross the border with my non-US citizen husband. A lot of friends have made the same decision already.
Add to that the slowly increasing anxiety that even for many of us on a US passport, leaving again might not be guaranteed. If something big kicks off, or the id laws keep getting weirder. Obviously trans folk, but also too married women or anyone else who’s had a name change.
David Collier-Brown
@Rose Judson: If you’re living in Canada or Mexico, I wouldn’t even consider it. If you do try to go home, arrange to pass US customs in a “pre-clearance facility” in another country. You can still be harmed illegally, but screaming for the police is likely to work better than in the States.
Ryan
We’re not quite up to Children of Men’s level of xenophobia, but I’d avoid the US. Sadly, I live here and feel the need to apologize to all those we’ve affected because 49.9% of our citizenry voted for the Oranged One.
Tom Levenson
I am scheduled to fly to the UK next month, and possibly again in May. I’m really hoping it goes ok; the notion that I am not actually on US soil until CBP says I am is not reassuring, even with my lovely blue passport.
Princess
I just heard a chilling story of the trouble a non-binary parent and their non-binary child had entering the US on separate occasions (not traveling together). They both have US passports. ETA these are people personally known to my husband.
(The idea that crapping on trans athletes is going to be some kind of moderate big compromise is such horsesh*t. They are so far beyond that now.)
HeleninEire
@David Collier-Brown: Anyone can do pre-clearance in Ireland. So if you are coming from Europe you can pass through Dublin or Shannon.
Jay
A whole host of Nationalities who could travel to the US with out a Visa, now require a Visa if they plan to stay for 30 days or more, submit fingerprints and biometric data, and carry that Visa with them at all times.
Canadian Snowbirds and Expats are only exempt for the fingerprinting and biometric data for now, but still require a Visa.
CaseyL
@Tom Levenson: I was thinking idly of traveling up to BC, purely since I used to go up there once every couple of years but haven’t since before Covid.
Now I’m rethinking the whole thing: a USian in Canada won’t be popular, even if I wear a T-shirt proclaiming I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM.
And getting back into the US…. well, not being able to leave Canada wouldn’t be the worst fate… Hmm…
Rose Judson
@HeleninEire: Ah, good point! Flying through Dublin also means flying out of Birmingham initially, which is easier than schlepping to Heathrow. I think we will do that this year.
Princess
But tbh I’m even more concerned about the silence surrounding “ordinary” deportations. How many undocumented are in custody? How many are already gone? 1000? 10000? 100000? There’s been very little reporting I’ve seen since the first week.
Rose Judson
@Tom Levenson: Good luck. My parents are coming to visit in April, and I’ll be a bit nervous for them, as well.
Princess
@CaseyL: you are correct to think Americans won’t be popular in Canada.
Jay
@CaseyL:
As long as you are not being an offensive A-hole, we don’t really care and welcome, (still) American guests. Spring is a great time to be a tourist in BC. Due to TariFFS, it is also a wonderful opportunity to sample Canadian alcoholic beverages.
Your biggest issue will be crossing back into the US.
Ronno2018
I made it to Spain and now Rome OK as an American. Returning in a few weeks.
Dot your i’s and cross your t’s. DO NOT ENTER OR EXIT THE USA WITHOUT CHECKING THE RULES!
Never say you are not a tourist when entering or exiting the USA. DO NOT SAY YOU ARE WORKING IN EXCHANGE FOR ROOM AND BOARD.
Good luck visitors to USA!
hells littlest angel
We’re arrogant stupid, quick to anger, bigoted, resentful, and armed to the teeth. If you’re looking for a lovely vacation, try the sovereign paradises of Canada, Mexico, Panama, or even Greenland.
David Collier-Brown
@Expletive Deleted:
If your husband happens to be Canadian, it’s relatively easy for permanent residents, like yourself, to get a temporary travel document, a “Permanent Resident Travel Document”, See canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/permanent-residents/card/urgent.html
If you don’t have permanent resident status, you may be eligible for a “Temporary Resident Permit” in emergency situations. See canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/inadmissibility/temporary-re…
Your country of residence should have something similar: folks get their papers stolen a lot. Ditto to flee unfriendly countries who’ve seized their passports.
Jay
@CaseyL:
Oh, and stay out of the high Alpine areas, it’s avalanche season.
Mai Naem mobil
It’s a pity Edolph wasn’t arrested when he re entered the US from Canada by lying about going to the David Letterman show. See, I toocan be tough on aw.and order on immigration!
Mai Naem mobil
@hells littlest angel: Orange Pig is doing whatever Putin is telling him to do. Hope the Pig realizes his hotels and resorts will be affected by a slump in tourism. Maybe Lutnick or one of the other idiots will let him know that.
David Collier-Brown
@Tom Levenson: As I described briefly before, ensure you go through a US pre-clearance facility in the foreign country. If you’re rejected, you are not in the US and can call for the police.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I don’t have a choice but to return to the US soon, for a time. I don’t think I’ll feel safe, though, until my recovery is complete and I’m safely back abroad.
rikyrah
Folks shouldn’t travel here.
Period.
David Collier-Brown
@CaseyL: If asked, just say you’re taking a vacation from Trumpland. We’ll understand. (And do consider staying in Canada)
p.a.
Thank goodness Canadians needing warm climes in winter have Mexico and Cuba as options.
“The travel and tourism industry contributed $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2022 (2.97 percent of the country’s GDP), supporting 9.5 million jobs. The International Trade Administration actively supports the industry through the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) and the U.S. Commercial Service.”
tam1MI
If I were the International Olympic committee, I would be looking into revoking Los Angeles ‘s Olympics for 2028 and moving them elsewhere. It’s clear that the host city cannot guarantee the safety of all the athletes that would show up.
mrmoshpotato
@hells littlest angel: Don’t forget Iceland. My mom and her sister went to visit their nephew and his wife a few years ago in July.
They had a great time.
zhena gogolia
Trump barely won the election.
Millions of us, half the country, do not fit the picture being painted here.
mrmoshpotato
@tam1MI:
Agreed, with the reason of “Go fuck yourself, you fat, orange, fascist fuckface.”
Xenos
I am an American living outside the US for 15 years now, and work for an American company. I have a work trip to Texas in a few weeks – not looking forward to it.
I will stop and visit family on the way, which I am looking forward to.
But when the airport accident took place in DC, and the administration blamed in on DEI, I had a sinking feeling it would not be safe to travel to the US for some time.
horatius
@Mai Naem mobil: He doesn’t care. He’ll make up the revenue by jacking up the prices and taking regular golf trips there.
LAC
@Rose Judson: i wish I could say emphatically yes, but the insanity of these cases make me wonder. Your suggestions are good and having loved ones with your back here with back ups of papers is definitely advised!.
Wilson Heath
This is the kind of shit Iran, North Korea, and Russia pull all the time. Some company to choose to keep.
Yes, the United States is going all in on being a pariah state.
CaseyL
@David Collier-Brown:
Believe me, I would LOVE to go up to Canada and stay there.
I’m in my late 60s, though, and while I have a FT job here, I have no idea how employable I am in Canada. And I have no idea how long Social Security will continue, so can’t rely on that as a source of income.
Honestly, if you have any tips, I am ready to hear ’em.
TBone
Indivisible talking points on Immigration from the ‘Freedom Over Fascism’ toolkit
Snippet
docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1pHOrprC1hRfmRROrfkirkSex0RZOBYr_ckOrycO_Zsg/mobilebasic
Chacal Charles Calthrop
for everyone’s general amusement (I assume no-one reading the blog would ever own a tesla):
stealmytesla.com/
Jay
The only times I have ever been harassed at a border crossing, were US Border Crossings.
Britain, no issue, Indonesia, no issue, Singapore, no issue, Mexico, no issue, Guatemala, no issue, El Salvador, no issue, Nicaragua, no issue. Venezuela, no issue, etc.
Having the misfortune to have a H-1B visa and having to work 3 weeks a month in Milwaukee, for several years, I was harassed and insulted every trip down. My spiel was a polite version of “No, you dipshit, I am not taking American jobs, I am keeping a US Factory running and saving 500 American jobs”.
Then, later learned to never, never take the scenic route south into the US, because apparently, only Canadian Drug Smugglers want to drive the rural routes through beautiful scenery and interesting small towns.
Mai Naem mobil
@horatius: he isn’t going to live forever. Junior has the charisma of a dead fish. He’s got several properties. I get that he’s completely soaking the government and getting his bribes through them but he’s got too many properties to do that through and at the end of the day he’s partly dependent on tourism. He has competition in his resort market. If you get a drop in tourists you’ll see a drop in rates and people will go to the place that gives you a bigger bang for the buck. I wouldn’t count on his properties being that
Old School
Whoops. Wrong thread.
catclub
I listened to Meidas Touch before the election, but no more.
Now it is Times radio (on youtube) trying to sucker me in with headlines like this:
I ain’t buying it. Hopium salesmen.
Expletive Deleted
@David Collier-Brown: We’re in the UK, he’s British and hits all the privilege checkmarks to be a-ok. But that doesn’t feel like as much of a slam dunk as it used to be.
I’m dual US/UK, should probably be fine. But I do have an odd name, and we don’t share a surname, and I don’t have a birth certificate, and and… eventually you just think maybe I’ll wait till next year. Save the stress and money.
Plus the whole planes falling out of the sky thing.
tam1MI
@Old School: Well, now we know who to primary in the next election. Are there any states that will allow voters to recall Senators?
Baud
@catclub:
Next they’ll ask him to stop grifting.
Jay
@zhena gogolia:
Unless you work for Immigration, Customs and Border Patrol, a Police Force, Sheriffs Department, ICE or DHS, you are not being “painted” here.
As a Foreign National, even a Green Card holder, or Visa holder of any kind, it is no longer safe to live, work, study or travel to the US because of the arbitrary application of “law”, and the punitive application of detention.
Old School
@tam1MI:
I don’t believe senators can be recalled.
(Sorry I deleted my post and put it in Cole’s morning thread.)
Albatrossity
One rich Saudi or Russian oligarch can fix any cash flow issues that he has with his properties, alas. Tourism declines will hit lots of Americans pretty hard, but not him. Per usual.
A Ghost to Most
Probably wise.
“Things are gonna get mighty rough, Here in Gomorrah-by-the-Sea.”
“The Garden of Allah”
Baud
Mike in Pasadena
@Rose Judson: I’ve cancelled my plans to travel outside the U.S. I am worried about getting back in upon returning.
The nine Dem Senators that voted yes today just surrendered in advance. Disgraceful.
Jay
@Mike in Pasadena:
Well, as a Democracy, y’all had a good run. You are now a Kingdom again.
Steve LaBonne
@Jay: Nothing so dignified- just a banana republic with a particularly stupid caudillo.
Jay
@Steve LaBonne:
Republic in name only.
Baud
Via Reddit. This happened last week but I’m just now hearing of it.
Manyakitty
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Godspeed
Matt
It’s almost like having an entire agency staffed by violent, racist psychos is a bad idea.
Shame those hippies objecting to excessive police funding smelled so bad!
mr perfect
@CaseyL: I’m in the metropolitan Vancouver area. If I saw you with that shirt on I would buy you a beer.
We don’t have much of a choice about travelling to the USA. Our daughter’s career took her to Seattle, later in a red district in Washington State and now she lives in metropolitan Kansas City. My son in law is American and so is my toddler granddaughter with my daughter holding a green card. I told my wife on Nov. 6 I wouldn’t be travelling overland by car or train to anywhere south of the 49th parallel because I was fed up with rude obnoxious CBP officers who would be even more emboldened by Orange Yeller’s victory plus with all the red districts between here and KC, I had no intention of putting money into the pockets of restaurant and hotel/motel owners along the way who would most certainly be tRump supporters. Now with the Administration going total Canadian Bacon on us, it would be even less safe to drive our car across the border. Better to deal with the CBP at YVR. My wife fully agrees with me. We can’t convince our son in law to move to Canada. Perhaps if his wife gets deported since green card holders are no longer safe, he might change his mind.
mr perfect
One other thing. Back in 2018 to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary we did a Baltic cruise with two nights in port at St. Petersburg, Russia. We had to go through customs to get on and off the ship to do our tours with our Russian guide. I found it easier going through Russian customs than I do going through US customs.
Bulgakov
2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics attendance will plummet if they keep this shit up (which they will).
lowtechcyclist
@Baud: That story is heartbreaking.
Here’s the link to the full ProPublica story.
way2blue
I can’t believe my eyes. How is this possible? Are these European travelers being held in private prisons? I couldn’t tell. Just that border control seems to be letting their inner sadism fly. Grim. And getting grimmer…
MobiusKlein
I worry about folks at work on my team who are going to visit their families back home.
One guy hasn’t gone back to his home country in Africa in the Covid era, and wants to go visit in winter. I’m afraid he will get massively hassled on the way back.
Another guy on the team has two kids with 14th amendment based citizenship. It’s madness what is going on.
Princess
@Bulgakov: Given how happy everyone was to participate in the 2014 Sochi Olympics after Russia’s anti-gay legislation, I doubt this will make a dent.
Searcher
It’s a shame that all foreigners avoiding the US is exactly what the xenophobes want, because I couldn’t advise anyone to visit the US.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Baud: Mom and everyone else resident in Texas did, in fact, do something. She voted for policies and politicians that would kill her daughter and that’s exactly what happened.
And now the family wins the Darwin awards.
David Collier-Brown
@CaseyL:
The best tips I have are
I’m biased: I grew up in Chatham (little) and worked in London (middle-sized). I prefer both sizes to Toronto (large), but I have elderly relatives.
Bulgakov
@Princess: If you wish to compare the American government detaining innocent visitors for no evident reason 3 months into Trump’s regime (the topic of this post), as a potential factor in reducing overseas visitors to the upcoming World Cup and the Olympics to the attendance at the Sochi Olympics not boycotting the Olympics due to Russian anti-gay legislation, you are certainly free to make that comparison.
This is just beginning. Watch the number of tourists plummet over the next 3-6 months. It will only get worse if they keep detaining innocent visitors like this.
No One You Know
@Mike in Pasadena: “Damnedicrats.” It’s a little clumsy but it’s what I got for now. Primary every one. Faithless fucking tools. We don’t have one Sinemanchin. They’ve multiplied.
Benno
@Rose Judson: Agreed. My partner is returning for a conference next week and I’m supposed to go back in a month to help my brother care for our mom. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried to the point of parnoia.
Obvious Russian Troll
We’re in Ontario (and originally from the US but dual citizens as of 2013), but my mother-in-law is in Appalachia. We went down to visit in February.
We didn’t have any problems, but I was damn worried about it.
I have also never seen so little border traffic in either direction.
MinuteMan
And even American citizens returning from abroad have reduced rights when dealing with the Migra.
In any case, this latest by the Migra is bound to kill off tourism to America and they’ll stay away for a very long time perhaps even well beyond the end of the Orange Plague. So much damage to the USA; it’s yuge!
La Nonna
@Rose Judson: Same here, we’ve changed plans, will miss a family wedding, the honeymooners will visit us here in Italy, so much better all around.