An Australian was deported from the United States simply because he flew here via Hong Kong instead of non-stop.
It’s often cheaper to fly via Asia (certainly easier to get frequent flyer award tickets in business class that way), and doesn’t add that much time to the total journey when traveling to the East Coast. However, it apparently looked odd to the border agent processing the man and a day one Executive Order from President Trump insists on “enhanced vetting.”
- The man was held and interrogated for 8 hours
- He was valid for his status with no criminal history, though immigration officers can deny entry for any reason or not reason
- He was enroute to Florida for a $15,000 cruise—which he lost because he didn’t make it for the sailing.
While questions have been raised about some stories around visitors from the UK, Germany, and Canada facing similarly stringent and invasive border checks, including confiscation of electronic devices and prolonged interrogations, there are enough of these examples to be scaring off visitors. A young British woman recently endured 19 days of detention in an immigration facility.
U.S. officials deny targeting travelers based on political beliefs or nationalities, which in some sense is even worse – Australians and Brits no longer feel safe coming here, and can’t tell themselves “well, I’m good, I’m white.”
Foreign visits to the U.S. were already off about 20% in March. Forward bookings by Europeans traveing to the U.S. are down 25% for travel this summer, according to Accor Hotels.
At New York JFK alone, 194 arriving foreigners were deemed ‘inadmissible’ in March up from “135 inadmissible aliens that were removed in February at the port of entry.” And the U.S. gets to decide who’s even allowed to fly here in the first place, reviewing airline passenger lists prior to departure.
As stories like this spread, more and more people are going to avoid flying here. I’ve been asked by friends, family and readers whether they should risk travel to the United States right now – knowing that they’re fully compliant with the law but that there’s simply discretion being exercised to turn people away in ways that cannot be predicted.
There’s always risk crossing a border, because so much is left to individual agents who do not judge things in the same manner. That’s true in the U.S. and elsewhere. CBP has historically rotated people around different roles, so sometimes you get inexperienced agents used to inspecting cargo processing passenger arrivals. But this is different. The stories stack. And even if you find the individual decisions reasonable, the cumulative effective is a narrative that keeps people away.
That’s bad for the U.S. economy and jobs. It’s bad for cultural understanding and peace. And it’s bad for international relations. The U.S. needs allies, and frayed relations diminishes U.S. soft power and an ability to exert influence in world affairs.
(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)