There seems to be more fear mongering than reality here. Why would a scientist coming to the US for a conference be picked up and sent to El Salvador (or some such)? Do they really believe these things are happening to everyone? Are they spending too much time on Reddit instead of doing research?
I think a more common legit fear is paying for flights, accommodation, conference etc then getting turned back (maybe after a short detention) because of some social media post in your past or your name was on some misidentified "woke" science.
There were a few other stories that made the news like a British citizen that was prevented entry to Canada and then arrested trying to return to the US (who wanted to work illegally in Canada but admittedly treated very badly by the Americans).
"Claims that CBP is searching more electronic media due to the administration change are false. CBP’s search numbers are consistent with increases since 2021, and less than 0.01% of travelers have their devices searched. These searches are conducted to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to visitor admissibility, all of which play a critical role in national security."
"Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the United States from foreign countries totaled:
4.541 million in March 2025, down 9.7 percent compared to March 2024.
This represents 87.3 percent of pre-pandemic March 2019 volume."
It's true that there is real confusion and fear. I have coworkers (I work for a large US company with offices all over the world) that share worries. This includes people with green cards, other working visas, and foreign visitors. There's plenty of travel and zero issues. People are worried is true.
In Canada there we also have a lot of people with strong feelings/emotional response to Trump's 51st state nonsense and tariffs. There is a real feeling of betrayal. There are practically zero issues with Canadians traveling to the US.
"In March, Canadian residents returned from 2.7 million trips to the United States, representing a 24.0% decrease from March 2024 and accounting for 63.9% of all trips taken by Canadian residents in March 2025.
Meanwhile, US residents took 1.2 million trips to Canada in March, down 6.6% from March 2024 and representing 81.3% of all non-resident trips to Canada in March 2025. "
Basically the worries are real, fueled to a large extent by these sorts of articles, and in my opinion politically motivated (and I don't like Trump either) but the likelihood of running into problems is small and unclear if larger than it ever was.
> Claims that CBP is searching more electronic media due to the administration change are false. CBP’s search numbers are consistent with increases since 2021, and less than 0.01% of travelers have their devices searched. These searches are conducted to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to visitor admissibility, all of which play a critical role in national security.
I'm sure the CBP would never dare to lie about such things in a way that potentially puts their egomaniacal boss in a more favorable light than he deserves.
In these sorts of situations you need to consider what is the more likely reality based on whatever limited data you have.
A few things to consider:
- Organizations take a while to change. Is it more likely that the CBP is operating more or less as it has been or that it had some dramatic changes?
- Searching phones takes time and effort. To scale up this in a significant way while still supporting similar amount of traffic would require more people? extended waiting times?
- Do you know people who travel to the US? Have they had their electronic devices searched? Have we seen a surge of stories about electronic devices being searched? The numbers they claim are less than ~450 a month (0.01% * 4.5M). Do we have evidence to suggest the scale is significantly different?
- The CBP could simply have said nothing. What would be their reason for explicitly addressing this question? If it's a lie wouldn't they be concerned e.g. with needing to deal with this down the line? Do you think Trump reads these reports and rewards some person in the CBP for this? Feels very unlikely.
- CBP is a huge org. 65k people or so. If there was some major change or lie then presumably it'd leak somehow?
You seem to be ignoring the very deliberate anti immigrant/foreigner shift in the political landscape, as well as deliberate intimidation tactics to silence opposition on certain topics. Sure in a vacuum it doesn’t make sense for a big organization to turn on a dime no but when the current admin is deliberately engaging in intimidation tactics against immigrants and visa holders having the CBP be more aggressive in enforcement makes perfect sense.
If people are put off by the media reporting Trump's anti foreigner rhetoric and actions is that the media's fault? This week for example "Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status" and 50% tariffs on the EU because why not.
I don’t think such articles are responsible for the drop. As a Canadian, i wouldn’t visit the US even if i though i was perfectly safe there. I simply don’t wish to contribute even a single dollar towards our enemy.
> i wouldn’t visit the US even if i though i was perfectly safe
That's certainly your right and I get where you are coming from but
> our enemy.
Calling the US your "enemy" is a pretty strong stance, especially considering how deeply tied our countries are economically and culturally.
Don't want to visit? That's fine, but let's not pretend for a second that every American supports all the things you oppose. Only a plurality, not a majority, of Americans even voted for Trump and more than 75% of us still consider you an ally.
But you might want to lay off the media and tone down the rhetoric and drama a bit. Shit like that is why things are the way they are now.
It is incredible seeing people like you defend the administration when there's new executive orders signed every day that push your country further into the stone age. We're witnessing North Korea-level brainwashing at a never before seen scale and it's all out in the open for the entire world to see.
Its not fear mongering to acknowledge that this administration is anti-science, or at least less pro-science than previous administrations. Hundreds of grants are frozen due to the Harvard shenanigans - its not just Harvard, as many grants flow through there on their way to other universities.
Are the chances of getting deported high? No of course not, but America is certainly not rolling out the red carpet for international scientists right now.
This makes no sense to me whatsoever.