Germany tightens travel advice to US after three citizens detained
178 comments
·March 21, 2025fabian2k
Freak_NL
For the average European there was never a risk of getting detained for weeks in a prison facility where the lights are never off and your only comfort is an aluminium foil blanket.
It's not just rhetoric. I agree that the risk isn't particularly high, but it did seem to have gone from 'negligible' to 'possible'.
doix
Yeah, I would have expected to get my ESTA denied, or denied entry at the border and shipped back. It would have never occured to me that I would be arrested for weeks. It's insane to me, it can't make economical sense, it must be cheaper to just deny entry than arresting people.
Unfortunately I need to travel to the US soon for a company (on?)off-site, and the thought is in the back of my mind. Getting off the plane and getting sent back would be annoying but whatever. Getting detained would be a nightmare.
TomK32
We've seen a musician being detained and deported for reasons the immigration officer wouldn't share. https://dorseteye.com/im-so-proud-to-be-deported-from-the-us...
Is the company you have to travel for affected by the tariffs or retaliatory tariffs, or is a company with the same or very similar name in such a position?
mnky9800n
I thought one of the motivations is that its all privatize. so anyone getting detained is money in the pocket for the company doing the detaining once some official indicates a person may need to be detained.
_DeadFred_
The US pays private prisons per prison, not per prisoner. So it looks bad if XYZ agency is paying for a prison with empty beds. The incentive/political optics is to fill those beds. Something resource utilization rates something something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Detention_Center "In October 2015, the GEO Group renewed a ten-year contract with ICE.[11] The contract pays GEO for almost 1,200 beds daily, regardless if they are used."
kpmcc
It certainly would be cheaper, but then how would the people running the arbitrary detention centers get paid?
monkeyfun
Well, cheaper for whom? Many of the "detention centers" are run by private companies for-profit. And many of the border agents aren't concerned with cost, but "doing their job" or political agendas.
jajko
> It's insane to me, it can't make economical sense, it must be cheaper to just deny entry than arresting people.
Not if you run a for-profit private prison and get paid for nr of inmates X time of stay, then you want them to stay as long as possible and then some more, who is gonna complain anyway. Some subhumans with no rights?
US is properly fucked up in this regard for a very long time, private prisons owners were actively campaigning against decriminalization of marihuana for a long time to not lose revenue. The fact that part of their revenue is ruining people's lives en masse and for good (good luck getting any normal job in US with prison conviction, for ie having 2 joints on you in bible belt states) is just an insignificant detail.
piva00
> It's insane to me, it can't make economical sense, it must be cheaper to just deny entry than arresting people.
It's absolutely cheaper but GEO Group and CoreCivic make more money by imprisoning people for longer, so longer they stay in their private prisons.
It's a grift, upending people's lives to make a buck, the American way...
pjc50
> it must be cheaper to just deny entry than arresting people.
The cruelty is the point.
The real story is that Europeans and Canadians have been downgraded from "white country" immigration treatment to the "barely human scum" treatment previously reserved for the southern border. Note that that was bipartisan, as well.
> Unfortunately I need to travel to the US soon for a company (on?)off-site
Double-check the rules for working under an ESTA.
swat535
I don’t think many white people truly understand what it’s like to be a minority trying to travel to the United States.
As a personal anecdote, my family and I have been naturalized Canadian citizens for over a decade. We travel frequently on our Canadian passports and rarely encounter issues visiting the EU or UK is usually smooth and pleasant. But the U.S.? That’s a very different story.
Every time we try to cross the border, we’re pulled aside for additional questioning. Our belongings are thoroughly searched, and the process often takes hours, causing us to miss flights or arrive late.
Why? Because the country of birth listed on our passports is an Islamic country.
None of us have returned there in years. I don’t even follow Islam, I’m a Christian. And yet, U.S. officers repeatedly question me about my intentions, sometimes quoting verses from the Quran, as if I’m part of a terrorist organization. Then they seemingly get offended when I reply with "I don't know which year Mohammad was born, I'm not a Muslim."
The experience is deeply dehumanizing. From the holding area, we watch white travelers breeze through with a smile and a passport flash, while we’re treated with suspicion and delay.
For the longest time, no one seemed to care about this kind of treatment until it started affecting Europeans. Suddenly, it’s headline news. Sadly, issues like these often go ignored until they impact white Westerners or their government decides they matter. As an example, look at Gaza, which has been suffering for decades with barely a whisper until the West turned its attention briefly.
All that said, I’m genuinely glad this conversation is finally happening. And despite everything, I have nothing but love for the American people. They’re incredibly kind, and the U.S. is home to some of the most breathtaking nature I’ve ever seen. Which is why, despite the above, I am always eager to travel there.
BrandoElFollito
You have your birthplace stated on your passport?
EDIT I just checked and yes indeed. This is strange, the kind of information that does not really makes sense to assert that you are the actual owner of the document
wendyshu
I know, it's so bizarre. It's like the US suffered a major terrorist attack by people from Islamic countries or something.
deadlydose
> For the average European
Depends how old you are, I guess:
- The Palmer Raids (1919-20) - WW2 internment and deportation (1942-45) - McCarthy era (all of the 50s) - Present day
Each one seems to have deported random people. Many of whom did nothing wrong.
And honorable mention:
- Fallout from the Iranian hostage crisis (1979-81)
That last one didn't involve Europeans, per se, but it did deport a lot of innocent people. And for a bonus, here's the ~30yr pattern of anti-immigration:
- Immigration Act of 1924 - Operation Wetback of 1954 - Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 - Present day
These things have _always_ happened here. And some of them even follow a pattern.
Edit: Sorry for the formatting.
josefx
Are we still pretending that Guantanamo Bay never existed or that the US didn't randomly accuse people all over the world of terrorism and imprison them without a shred of evidence?
Sammi
Those generally affected Muslims, so Europeans generally didn't have incentive to care.
When you wonder why people behave in a certain way, then thinking deeper about what their incentives are will often give the answer. Incentives, incentives, incentives.
atoav
Qoute from one of the cases that triggered the warning:
> Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair.
Source: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-03-14/green-card-holder-fr...
hulitu
> For the average European there was never a risk of getting detained for weeks in a prison facility where the lights are never off and your only comfort is an aluminium foil blanket.
Maybe I'm too old, but i clearly remember that, some years ago, US did a lot of phone searches at its border and rejected or detained people based on what they found in the social media profile of the victim.
flohofwoe
Not for weeks, but I was 'detained' for 24 hrs and then escorted in handcuffs to a plane back to Germany about 20 years ago (2002 or 2003 IIRC) for a 2 week overstay in 1998 (and since then I've been kicked out of the visa waiver program and on each followup visit interrogated in a backroom each time I wanted to enter the US for visiting GDC or E3 (basically 2hrs waiting time for 5 minutes of pointless questions and staring at my visa and passport) - I've since given up trying to travel to the US, it's just too much hassle.
TomK32
And from the reports, a lack of rights for detainees to reach out faster to their relative, lawyer or just a translator. Due process is out the window, what the King says is law. It sounds cynic, but with many detentions centers run by private operators, and expanding[1], there's just no interest for those companies to get rid of their guests quickly. Why won't they get every detained person before a judge within 24 hours, especially if they are move to another state? Is paying corporations for more beds really the preferred solution over appointing more immigration judges?
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/private-priso...
spiderfarmer
How is this a perception issue? It’s a real issue.
Even if the chances of getting detained on bullshit charges are slim, the behavior of the government is now so erratic and hostile that people who care will actively avoid going to the US. And for what exactly? Does anyone still wonder? Or do they just accept that the government constantly does stupid things for no real reason?
If my country behaved like the US for just one hour, the press would find enough scandals to talk about for a year. But the US manages to make the press move on to the next scandal. And the next. And so on.
fabian2k
It's both. But the real issue also existed before, they just turned it up to 11 and will likely go much further.
I don't want to downplay this, the point I was trying to make is that the perception will have a much bigger effect now independent of how likely it is for each person to be actually affected. And the perception includes the expected further escalation by the current US government.
There's a lot of issues with how the US handles immigration (and other countries as well). It's essentially a lawless zone where you're completely at the mercy of the US authorities. But even if that isn't new, the rethoric and aggressive actions by the new government will make this a lot worse.
throwing_away
You're both right. It was an issue before. It's an issue now too.
It might even be less of an issue now, practically, because of budget cuts.
But it will be perceived as a bigger issue than whatever the reality is because of the rhetoric.
Incidentally, when the ICE deportations started, the heated rhetoric was an explicit part of the strategy to spook people into "self-deporting".
I have no idea if this worked or not, but I believe the reason was due to not having enough budget or staff to do the scale of deportations that the administration wanted to do.
PieTime
Next year it will be rated electoral autocracy instead of democracy if nothing changes.
refurb
[flagged]
Almondsetat
Can you show these numbers are significantly higher than the previous years' average? If you can't then it's perception
lifeinthevoid
Too early for stats I think. But yeah, keep on denying the light of the sun.
_fizz_buzz_
Even if you cannot prove it doesn't mean it is necessarily perception. Just because one cannot prove something, doesn't mean it's not real. Can you prove the numbers haven't risen? The main issue is the arbitrary detention. Getting turned away at the border and taking the next flight home is one thing, but getting locked up seems scary.
nolok
It's rare enough that when it happens it makes the news in the citizen's country, so having several in quick succession like this is immediately noticed and acted upon.
drstewart
What is your country? Curious to see its border laws to see if I can be denied entry or deported if I break the law, which is clearly erratic and hostile behavior.
spiderfarmer
People are now targeted for speech, not for breaking the law. Open your eyes. The US is becoming like Russia, China and Turkey.
piva00
It's definitely the perception.
I'm originally from Brazil and have Swedish citizenship, last time I traveled with a stopover the USA I had a ESTA while completely forgetting I still had a valid visa on my Brazilian passport, going through immigration they caught up to that and asked me why I had 2 visas to the USA. I had to explain that while the immigration officer went on grilling me for reasons, I was just passing by the USA en route to visit family in Brazil, and it already made me quite uncomfortable.
Nowadays I have no idea if they would have detained me because it looked fishy to some immigration officer, at that time I was expecting I just wouldn't make the second leg of the flight and would be sent back to the EU, right now I won't ever chance passing by the USA simply because I have no idea what would happen.
I'm from South America, already a target to ICE/CBP, my B-2 expired and I would use ESTA instead, will that trigger something? No idea, I won't ever play my luck with that question in my head.
netsharc
White, from Canada, and even female: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...
What a horrific ordeal, and the Latin American women she met are having worse time. The worst of it is the "just following orders" robots (the foot soldiers of fascistic 1940s say hello) having no answers to her question of "How long will I be here?".
I wonder how it'll end. Trump/MAGA/Project 2025 can turn the country into a police state (Russia-style) with even more rigged elections (Russia-style) and the populace will probably just submit (and about 50% will defend it, some of them because of ego protection (1)). They are already ignoring judges' orders, basically saying "What are you going to do about it?".
Will someone in the military lead a batallion of tanks on Washington DC?
1) https://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/opinion-admit-you-r...
nobodyandproud
The jails (“detention centers”) she was held in are privately run, so they’re incentivized to hold people and ignore due process.
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2025/02/27/ice-plans-massive-ne...
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/02/27/ice-immigrant-detention-n...
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/0...
Being dispassionate about this: The incentives (reward vs loss) is no different from “asset forfeiture”.
account42
> White, from Canada, and even female: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...
... who tried to enter from Mexico after being denied entry from Canada instead of resolving the issue with the embassy as she was told. Plus some more sketchy shit.
TFA is light on details about the circumstances of the three Germans' detention but considering that the German ministry is basically telling people to not violate their visas or lie on their application it doesn't sound like they just had bad luck without doing anything wrong.
netsharc
> ... who tried to enter from Mexico after being denied entry from Canada instead of resolving the issue with the embassy as she was told. Plus some more sketchy shit.
Let's establish a timeline...
- She applied for a visa, and was denied.
- She applied again, went to the Mexican border because that's close to her immigration's lawyer office, and was allowed entry.
- At some point, she tried to enter the country, and the border guard thinks the above was shady (and you're accepting this guard's judgement. A lawyer would ask "What law did she break?").
- A week or 2 ago, she applied again, she went to the Mexican border for the same reason as above. Why is that sketchy? Immigration checkpoints should work the same anywhere, they're all connected anyway.
- At this point she's told she should've gone to a consulate to fix the problem. She's denied entry at the border and she looks for flights home.
- A few moments later she's arrested for who knows what and detained for an inderteminate amount of time.
- 3 days later, not knowing how long she'll be detained, someone tells her "be prepared for months.".
I get that asking for accountability from a unaccountable bureaucrats working in a corrupt police state is a moot point, but what law did she break that justified her detainment? Not knowing she should've gone to a consulate? Thinking there's some exploit in the system that different borders have different rules instead of them being all connected, and should treat everyone equally? Oh, some "shady shit" is enough excuse for you?
OK, maybe what she wrote isn't the whole thing. Maybe the corrupt police state will issue a statement to fill in the gaps. Would I believe that corrupt police state?
vkou
The way the TN visa works is you are supposed to go to the border with your papers, and get adjudicated there.
Unless you aren't allowed to re-apply after one denial (which I don't believe to be the case), it doesn't matter which border control point she went to for her return visit.
And unless the overton window has shifted into actual full fascism last week, being turned away at a border checkpoint is not grounds for a multi-week/month imprisonment.
But I suppose you can excuse any barbarity with 'well the victim was probably sketchy'.
Tarsul
good points regarding the Canadian. For the Germans: I don't believe that the statements from the ministry are indicative of the three individual cases. Regarding one case, I read in an interview with him that he was detained because his English was poor: He said he "lived" in the USA when he actually meant to say he was just visiting there. That was enough to incarcerate him. Sure, he probably came across as a bit sketchy anyway because his fiancée is American and they have a long-distance relationship, but those are not valid reasons to treat him like that.
vkou
The military will only carry out a coup if there is a legitimate opposing nexus of political power for it to rally behind, and there isn't one.
That's not a sufficient condition, by the way, but it is a necessary one.
The establishment Dems should be fighting like hell to delegitinize this shitshow, instead of rolling over like lapdogs. I guess the donors are happy with the outcome, and I have to assume that so are they.
netsharc
I really don't understand the Dems (dubbed Vichy Dems now). Sure legistatively they've got no power now, and they're probably waiting for the 2026 mid-terms campaign to start yelling, but yeah they appear to be rolling over. Is it because the voters have really really short memories? Is it because you don't interrupt the enemy while they're making a mistake?
Maybe they're yelling, but the cowered media (hello Jeff, hello Sinclair Media, hello ABC surrender-monkeys paying Trump settlement money 1)) and the places people now get news from (owned by the Supreme Imbecile, Zuck, and "Thank you President Trump for our ressurection" TikTok) are just not covering it.
If I cared more, I'd make a website called Department of Lies (since the regime defines what they're doing as the truth) and catalog all the actions of the regime, and how they're illegal.
1) https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/14/trump-abc-stephanop...
Edit to add: maybe the Dems are afraid of violence, the Imbecile Nazi (aka Proud Boys) are pardoned and can roam free, what's stopping them from physical violence against loud and promiment voices (and their children). Even if local police arrest them, the top of the regime can say "Let them go.". Ah, fucking despotic nation...
baybal2
[dead]
pembrook
Yes, the issue is one of rhetoric but it’s also the fact that border officers in most countries are afforded a ridiculous amount of power relative to their education/training/ability, and for a certain personality type in that job (I think we all know who I’m talking about) it becomes an interaction with a mini-Stalin.
This isn’t a new problem, and I don’t know how to solve it other than replace border agents with computers.
The US media’s love of hysterical rhetoric (on both sides) doesn’t help either, since constantly pushing these wild narratives in media emboldens these mini-dictator personality types to do really dumb things.
chneu
The both sides argument is nonsense. We really need to stop playing into that because it really isn't true and it benefits one side much more than the other by bringing everyone down to their level.
refurb
But it’s true.
The US has been ignoring its immigration laws for the last few decades (not just immigration, really).
All the while other countries routinely enforce their immigration laws. In Canada if you’re caught crossing the border illegally you will be deported. A number of people on student visa were recently told to “go home”. No nonsense enforcement, simply “follow the law”.
The US elects someone who decides to do the same and the media treats it like the collapse of a democracy. In the US illegally? Deportation. Caught crossing the border illegally? Immediately turned around. Simple enforcement of the law.
It does help if one keeps in mind that countries often use these travel warnings politically - Germany is upset the US isn’t interested in continuing the Ukraine war so does a little jab with the border warning.
pjc50
> hysterical rhetoric (on both sides)
This is simplistic dismissal of how people who accurately predicted how the US would get worse under Trump were described as hysterical. It's not symmetrical and anyone who thinks it is is delusional.
refurb
Saying “it would be worse under Trump” seems entirely subjective?
I mean if you want common sense immigration it actually “got better”?
pembrook
[flagged]
consumer451
As Europeans look upon what is happening in the USA and think "that could not happen here..."
Please be aware that what happened in the USA was largely a product of Fox News (News Corp.)
While still in their nascent forms, the EU equivalents are Axel Springer [0] and Euronews [1]. If what happened in the USA is to be avoided in the EU, then these extremely ideological news publishers must be tarred and feathered as soon as possible. Avoiding the path of the "post-truth" USA [2] is the greatest task of our time.
[0] https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/06/axel-springer-politico-... (Politico, Bild, and more!)
[1] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2024/04/11/orban-s... (Victor Orban)
[2] https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/summer-2020/feat...
BigglesB
Was actually planning to be at GDC this week & while there were other factors at play, the clincher was a feeling that there’s now a non-zero risk of getting caught up in some serious nightmare scenario like this. Seemed pretty self evident that the new administration’s rhetoric even a couple of months ago was paving the way to fascist authoritarianism & I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Tbh, even having a post like this in my user history is apparently the sort of thing that could cause complications at the border! So much for “free speech absolutism”. Makes me wonder how many others will stay silent to minimise that risk & whether that’ll lead to an illusion of support for these policies…
ctack
It’s the kind of thing I think about before going to China or if I were to visit NKorea. But hasn’t this possibility of hardcore border harassment been a feature of visiting the land of the free (the US that is) for a while now? Phones confiscated and inspected etc..
BigglesB
I suppose so. There have always been stories of those kinds of things, but from the outside looking in, this definitely _feels_ different. Perhaps it's the privilege of my pigment but in the past I've had little issue the handful of times I've travelled across the pond & felt like if anything did escalate it'd eventually make its way to someone reasonable. Now...? Well I guess it just feels like "reasonableness" isn't exactly being projected as a valued characteristic at any level in the current chain of authority.
TomK32
Is there a newsletter for the games you release?
BigglesB
Not really. I did set up a blog at biggles.games a while back but haven’t been actively updating it for quite a while & there’s nothing about our current project on there yet… probably time to do an update tbh!!
jajko
Everything you ever say online can and eventually will be used against you. No reason to tie your real identity into any online forum, including this one. Plenty of reasons against.
With AI pairing even semi-anonymous accounts to real people will become much easier over time.
Its fine if you never plan going to US but who knows the future right, also maybe they will eventually steer back from current direction... I am not holding my breath though. This is 50% of US population, consistently. Don't forget orange man didn't win previous elections only very narrowly, US folks on the ground don't give a nanofraction of a fuck about other nationalities and love this style of government. Out of 3 attempts, he won twice easily and 3rd time almost.
Stay the fuck away from US and any US product in literally any form, best advice for 96% of mankind currently.
jlg23
This is travel advice I've been following for 25 years; because, as the article states, the rules are not new: Go through a port of entry that is not on US soil so being refused entry does not lead to incarceration and deportation. For people in the EU, Dublin is such a port of entry. Once on a plane from there, arrival in the US is the same as for a domestic flight.
vkou
That will only protect you from CBP.
ICE, who are currently the ones responsible for disappearing people will happily pick you up at a domestic arrival terminal.
jlg23
Yes, but ICE can pick you at random (probably lawfully at least close to borders and international airports) while you always have to talk with CBP when entering the country. I personally have been avoiding travel to/through the US whenever possible just because some of the wrong people have been my friends and I happen to make my money with drugs - completely legal, helping to disseminate neutral information for free, but I would not want to discuss the finer details of ethics and drug policy with an underpaid officer of any police force.
The one thing that protects me somewhat from ICE is that I am white, in my forties, middle class and non-confontational when talking with officials. Or how a friend put it: No worries, you could be drinking a beer, smoking a joint and cops would laugh about your accent before telling to have a nice one.
rich_sasha
Surely the US customs etc can still find a way to intimidate and screw you over.
My limited experience is that they either train their staff for it, or pick people who enjoy it. Or both.
decimalenough
The staff in Dublin aren't any better, but the consequences are: you're not on US soil, so you can't be detained or deported.
rich_sasha
Sure, I got that. I more mean, does it really stop them from being assholes once you land? On paper perhaps, but in practice, I wouldn't bank on it.
sschueller
What port of entry is not US soil? You can be detained in an US embassy and sent off somewhere. In fact the US doesn't even have a problem with kidnapping people in the middle of a European city sending them off for torture[1].
decimalenough
There are quite a few US preclearance facilities overseas. Dublin, Abu Dhabi, most major Canadian airports, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_border_precleara...
the_orange_pest
Any links that point to U.S. transgressions under presidents other than orange man are downvoted.
People would prefer even G.W. Bush, because at least he did proper neocon wars and was aligned with the establishment.
wtfwhateven
>Any links that point to U.S. transgressions under presidents other than orange man are downvoted. Not true.
thegreatpeter
"A criminal conviction in the United States, false information regarding the purpose of stay, or even a slight overstay of the visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation upon entry or exit," information on the ministry's website now explicitly says.
That’s the updated guideline if you’re only reading titles
aktuel
As I said before, I would not travel to the US unless my life depends on it.
smidgeon
I used to, interesting people there, but stopped when they brought in fingerprinting ...
xadhominemx
Basically every country in the world fingerprints travelers upon arrival. The EU will start doing it later this year.
smidgeon
Then I won't go there either, meh
drstewart
Okay. Good for you.
xadhominemx
The USA hosts 35 million foreign visitors per year. These enforcement actions are absurd, but if you have your documents in order and are planing a normal tourist trip. you will be fine.
PieTime
Even during normal times with proper documentation I was detained for a few hours. This is something completely different. I’ve seen deportations immediately for wrong documents. I haven’t seen 14 days of arbitrary detention before for correct documents.
xadhominemx
I don’t think the latter is happening. The multi-day detentions have all been related to actual immigration violations. Again, something I oppose very strongly but the notion your life will be severely negatively affected if you show up at the border as a normal tourist with normal travel documents is just incorrect. The worst thing that will happen is they send you home.
dietr1ch
During the "good" times I was regularly chosen for random checks because I'm not white enough. I don't want to step in the US now.
__loam
They detained a green card holder who didn't break any laws and tortured him for weeks. They deported a French scientist over private speech after searching his phone. Why do you think all this is just going to be okay?
vosper
Tortured?
xadhominemx
The situation is not good but let’s not lie. Green card holders returning from overseas have always been at high risk of encountering issues upon reentry. Overseas visitors working informally have likewise always risked detention and deportation. The gentleman in Boston was treated very badly, but his detention lasted hours, not days. Ordinary tourists are not being detained. I am a US Citizen who worked in the EU for some time and was detained upon initial arrival into the Schengen area while they checked into my work visa. The French scientist situation - very concerning, but they were just sent home. Hardly a reason to withhold a visit “unless your life depended on it”
amarcheschi
Well a researcher was denied entry because his messages against Trump were deemed terrorism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-f...
I would be scared of that as a tourist, and I guess a lot of other people would be as well. Not just because of being denied entry but for the possible investigations one could face
nkurz
I don't know what actually happened, but the current reporting is that he was turned back for other reasons:
U.S. Says Decision to Turn Back French Scientist Had Nothing to Do With Trump
The Department of Homeland Security said the academic was denied entry because he had 'confidential' data from an American lab, not because of his views on the president’s policies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/world/europe/us-france-sc... (https://archive.is/z7mhZ)
onion2k
More accurately, people who travelled to the US in recent years were fine. The assumption that will continue to be the case is something every traveller needs to consider for themselves. It's not unreasonable for people to choose not to travel, just in case.
xadhominemx
I agree with you. However, this is very different from “I would not travel to the US unless my life depends on it”
Wololooo
Honestly this seems to be a really short sighted view, none of the people that got arrested there really had reasonable grounds to be arrested, although I guess that legally they are "in the clear", but I am no expert, and this is high profile only because of the situation is absolutely absurd, and we are only two months in.
How many cases are not reported and as bad as this or worse? Am I willing to be gambling this?
lovich
What was wrong with the guy at Logan who they beat the shit out of?
xadhominemx
Returning green card holder, who have always been subject to scrutiny. His treatment was absurd and unacceptable, but not a situation that would be faced by an ordinary tourist or business traveler.
croes
Nope.
https://thetrek.co/a-german-thru-hiker-has-been-detained-dep...
They didn’t even look at the documents she provided.
xadhominemx
The current crackdown is absurd. But let’s be honest - this specific situation with the German backpacker is nothing new. If you show up at the border for an extended trip with no money, you are subject to extended examination. This happens all over the world.
account42
The hiker in question seems to be affiliated with the site hosting this article.
nobodyandproud
It’s good advice to its own citizens and even business travelers have a right to worry.
Many years ago, I asked my wife why’d she give up her green card (or chance for a dual).
She didn’t want to deal with the hassle or a non-zero chance of getting rejected for renewal and getting deported. Her perspective was based on the ease or difficulty based on who was in power at the time.
I thought she was paranoid, but she was right and I was so very wrong.
If you’re not a citizen (and even if you are, but of the wrong “type”), things are looking worrisome.
comprev
> The country's foreign ministry clarified the updated guidance doesn’t constitute an official travel warning to the US.
Clickbait headline. Nothing has changed officially.
tene80i
The change they have made suffices for “tightens travel advice”. Not everything has to be an official warning.
> "A criminal conviction in the United States, false information regarding the purpose of stay, or even a slight overstay of the visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation upon entry or exit," information on the ministry's website now explicitly says.
mathw
Everything has changed in practice, when people are detained at the border because they posted something on social media which was critical of Trump, in a country which prides itself on having "freedom of speech" in the constitution. When denial of entry means weeks in detention rather than an expedient flight back to where you came from. When going to speak at a conference can get you detained for violating a visa which has always been fine for that before. When people with green cards are getting arrested and sent for deportation... everything has changed.
intended
Clickbait comment - the headline correctly states that guidance has been tightened.
graycat
The US needs:
(1) To be strict and strong on illegal immigration.
(2) To be welcoming, courteous, gracious, flexible, understanding, and helpful otherwise.
Propelloni
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Unhindered immigration was part of the recipe of success for approx. 92% of the lifetime of the US. What changed?
piva00
> Unhindered immigration was part of the recipe of success for approx. 92% of the lifetime of the US. What changed?
They got extra-greedy and fascist.
oblio
That's not how it works.
The system is designed that everyone is suspected of wanting to overstay their welcome in God's Most Graciously Developed Country in the World. Even funny scenarios where they do that to people coming from Switzerland or the like :-)
I'm not sure how this works for American citizens, but almost every interaction with embassy personnel and definitely with personnel at airports and such, feels.
jajko
> God's Most Graciously Developed Country in the World
Its funny how far from truth this is. Go and compare better parts of US with with Switzerland for example. Now compare worse parts of both. Literally any aspect - cleaniness, nature, society, personal freedom, criminality, development, public transport, access to education, healthcare and so on and on.
oblio
And here I was, thinking the funny capitalization and the weird and over the top title would be enough to signal sarcasm :-)
carlmr
Having to clarify that it's not a warning is a warning.
ionwake
Sorry for a noob question, but aren't the tourists from western european countries exactly who the country WANT to let in? Or is the USA against allowing even the Germans in?
pjc50
The US wants some arbitrary violence against foreigners. This now includes Canadians as well as white Europeans. Because the frothing rage against immigrants has reached that level of blindness.
Also things like the (not new! present under Democrats!) border searches of social media for evidence of disloyalty.
account42
The USA is allowing tourists from western European countries. They are not allowing "tourists" that they suspect of coming for other purposes e.g. to work without an appropriate visa.
ionwake
You didnt understand, I was not saying they are not letting them in I am talking about their changed stance.
lifestyleguru
They also shouldn't ruin relations with their best neighbour along their longest land border. It looks they are in a state of vicious writhe "WE against THEM".
brettermeier
For the first time those border guards are equally racist :P
I think the perception is the much bigger story here than the actual change in advice by German authorities. Traveling to the US (and other countries as well) always had the chance to trigger some overzealous enforcement and/or arbitrary rejection or detainment.
But the current US government is very strongly ramping up the rethoric and actions in that area, so the risk increased and will very likely increase further. That creates an enormous amount of uncertainty and this uncertainty will have effects. For some people (white, from western countries) this is probably still a very low risk, but anyone that fits the target profile of the new government is in much more danger.
I don't want to downplay this by pointing to perception, but in the end the perception is much more likely to affect the behaviour of visitors than the murky real change. Even at a low chance, people quite justifiably don't want to risk geting locked up in a cold cell for an arbitrary amount of time. And the perception matters much more here than the quantifiable risk of getting detained.