Some Europeans are wary of entering the United States, as rumors circulate of US immigration officials holding people while they travel for unknown reasons.
Several European visitors claim they have been detained at US border crossings and kept in US immigration detention centers for weeks, despite having tourist passes, work visas, or thinking they are permitted to come to the United States.
A backpacker from Wales was delayed at the Canadian border for over three weeks before being allowed to travel home. A Canadian lady on a work visa was delayed at the Tijuana border for 12 days before returning to Canada.
Lucas Sielaff, a German tourist who traveled to Mexico from Las Vegas to meet his American fiancé, was arrested on his way back from Tijuana. According to the pair, despite being just 22 days into his 90-day tourist stay in the United States, immigration officials accused him of breaking its terms. Sielaff was jailed for 16 days before being allowed to travel back to Germany on his own cost.
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Sielaff and other detainees said that the reason for their arrest was never explained.
“What happened at the border was just blatant abuse of the Border Patrol’s power,” his fiancée, Lennon Tyler, told the Associated Press.
Pedro Rios, head of the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit that helps migrants, concurred that “the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense.”
“The only reason I can see is that there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere,” Rios told the Associated Press.
The Associated Press requested information on the number of tourists detained in detention centers, but US officials did not answer. Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified the Associated Press that Sielaff was judged “inadmissible” by Customs and Border Protection, without offering any details.
Generally, they said that “if statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal.”
Consider “delaying personal travel” abroad
Universities have cautioned foreign teachers and students to reconsider going overseas, citing the Trump Administration’s shifting federal travel regulations.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage international students, staff, faculty, and scholars — including U.S. visa holders and permanent residents (or ‘green card holders’) — to consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the U.S. Department of State,” said Brown University executive vice president for planning and policy Russell Carey in an email to the Brown community.
Could trade war weigh on tourism to U.S.?
A new research found that President Trump’s trade war might deter visitors from visiting the United States just by upsetting important friends and trading partners.
Tourism Economics, a part of investment advising business Oxford Economics, predicts a 15% reduction in Canadian visitors in 2025.
The analysis predicts that international travel from all foreign nations to the United States will fall by little more than 5%. According to Tourism Economics, if Americans spend less domestically this year, total travel expenditure in the United States might fall by up to $64 billion in 2025.
“The negative effects of an expanded trade war scenario will reach U.S. hotel room demand by 2025,” Tourism Economics said in the paper. “Domestic travel will be negatively affected by slower income growth and higher prices while international travel to the U.S. will be hit by a trifecta of slower economies, a stronger dollar and antipathy toward the U.S.”