The Risks of International Travel for Folks from other Countries

[Ernie]

The Risks of International Travel to and from the US, for folks from other countries.

https://apnews.com/article/border-touri ... 835f8b0c34

This sort of treatment of foreign nationals is totally uncalled for. I hope Canada doesn't adopt this sort of behavior and treat me this way when I visit my relatives.

[barnhart]

The only friction I have ever experienced a border was entering the US. The Canadians have been unfailingly polite a helpful.

[JohnH]

The only friction I have ever experienced a border was entering the US. The Canadians have been unfailingly polite a helpful.

We have several friends who have married Canadians. The amount of harassment they've gotten trying to move there has been ridiculous. One of them is considering just moving to the U.S. for a while, and working down here, until they can get things sorted out up there (he's Canadian and she would have preferred to move where he lives and already has a job and so forth.)

[Robert]

Sounds like be went past his 90 day visa. Actions have consequences. One must be responsible. Looks like they were not racially targeting.

U.S. border agents handcuffed Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day U.S. tourist permit, the couple said. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention center. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.

[JohnH]

The Risks of International Travel to and from the US, for folks from other countries.

https://apnews.com/article/border-touri ... 835f8b0c34

This sort of treatment of foreign nationals is totally uncalled for. I hope Canada doesn't adopt this sort of behavior and treat me this way when I visit my relatives.

Of course, the press never tells the whole story.

And a Canadian woman on a work visa detained at the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention before returning home last weekend.

She attempted to enter the U.S. from the Canadian border on a TN visa and was denied. Instead of dealing with this, she travelled to Mexico and tried to enter the U.S. from Tijuana, and was detained whilst doing so. The Tijuana border is one of the busiest borders in the world, with a great deal of (legal) visitors from Mexico entering San Diego - such as commuters who go there every day. It is not a good border crossing if you just had your visa revoked and think you are going to sneak in.

Most likely, she had her visa revoked because she worked for a company that infused marijuana in beverages. This is still illegal at the federal level.

[temporal1]

Border control methods wax+wane, accordng to politics, disease, etc. It’s wise to be prepared.

When the pandemic was new, late 2019-early 2020, my Seattle area daughter was invited to a business meeting in Vancouver, BC,
she planned to leave her teen daughter with friends .. typically, no problem, right? This was January 2020. i warned her to be very careful and alert, countries can close borders as they choose. Canada did a lot of border closing.

The first U.S. Covid cases were in a nursing home near my family’s home.
One of my fav Seattle area towns.

My neighbors in Illinois asked me not to let them visit.
That was a weird moment in my life. Much worse happened all over.

She got in+out ok, but .. wow, strict border restrictions soon followed! All over the world.
none of us have been in Canada since the pandemic, altho Canada is very close to them.
i’ve never had trouble at any border, i’ve been stopped and searched, asked questions, etc.

i wouldn’t want to cross a border, or even go to an airport, without searching for UP TO DATE requirements on designated websites, or phone calls, for instance, the State Department, or airline home website. REQUIREMENTS FLUCTUATE. It’s not time consuming.

In my view, international travel is ALWAYS something to seriously consider BEFORE leaving home, regardless of home country.
Even before The Patriot Act, messages were, “It’s easy to get OUT of the U.S., getting back IN may not be.” (in those days, vaccinations were paramount) DOCUMENTATION. yellow fever, etc.

Of course, this applies to legal, law-abiding citizens. Others do as they please.

Getting into California can be a wakeup call for state border checks. California is picky about agriculture.
Or, they used to be. i haven’t been there in many years.

Generally, U.S. citizens are ignorant and take a lot for granted when traveling.
i try to be cautious, to not be an annoying American traveler.

i believe members on this forum are above average wrt travel.

[ohio jones]

The only friction I have ever experienced a border was entering the US. The Canadians have been unfailingly polite a helpful.

The only friction I have ever experienced at a border was entering Canada. The US CBP officers, as well as those in several dozen other countries, have been unfailingly polite and helpful.
YMMV, obviously.

[R7ehr]

He suffers nightmares and is considering therapy to cope with the trauma.

“Nobody is safe there anymore to come to America as a tourist,” he said.

[ken_sylvania]

Sounds like be went past his 90 day visa. Actions have consequences. One must be responsible. Looks like they were not racially targeting.

U.S. border agents handcuffed Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day U.S. tourist permit, the couple said. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention center. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.

I think the article implies that US Immigration suspected he was planning to overstay his visa. Who knows why they thought that - maybe the answers he gave when they questioned him, maybe combined with no specific return travel plans. Maybe they found communications that made them think that.

[Ken]

From what I have read, some of this is being driven by new performance standards (quotas) imposed on ICE agents by the new Trump Administration. So even if ICE agents don't have explicit quotas for the numbers of immigrants they are expected to interdict, detain, and deport. Their performance reviews and promotions are now being driven by how "good" their numbers look.

It turns out that if you are an ICE agent, the easiest way to keep your numbers up is to bust law abiding people for technical violations or even no violation at all, just the perception that there might be one (he might overstay his visa). That is a lot easier and much less time consuming than searching out actual criminal aliens who are hiding in the shadows and not interacting with ICE in any way at border crossings and the like.

In any bureaucracy or organization you get what you measure. And if you are going to measure and evaluate agents by numbers of discretionary arrests and detentions you are going to see more arrests and detentions, even if they are unwarranted. So this is all the very predictable consequence of Trump policy.