Summary
Germany updated its travel advice for the US after three German nationals were detained despite holding valid visas or entry waivers.
The Foreign Office clarified that holding a US visa or ESTA approval does not guarantee entry, as border authorities have the final say.
Recent detentions include a green card holder held at Boston airport and two others detained at the US-Mexico border.
Germany investigates whether these cases reflect a broader policy shift under Trump’s tighter immigration policies.
You’re assuming a single rational actor. The current US government is neither rational nor unified in policy. Whether someone gets in or not is down to the whims of individual ICE agents and whether they’re detained or not is down to the whims of individual ICE agents, so you get one reasonable guy who says “sure, come on in”, and then you get one xenophobe who says “need to get all these damn foreigners out of our country” and then you have this situation.
Normally you have a sane leadership setting and enforcing uniform policies. The current leadership is entirely focused on generating sound bites and demolishing everything within reach. Thus individual agents have been handed almost complete authority with almost no oversight.
Wow, that’s really scary. I wonder if my government will put out travel warnings urging Canadians to stay away, we’ve already had a deportation story make the news and the details are harrowing.
Do Canadians even need such a warning at this point? Between the tariffs and the direct threats to your sovereignty, I’m surprised you aren’t installing trenches, barbed wire, and land mines along the border yet.
No, we don’t, but politically an official warning signals a shift in the relationship that nobody (i.e., Canadians denying that America is now a blatant fascist government) can ignore any longer. I believe Germany recently did so after 2 of their citizens were detained for several weeks.
It would also give us official guidance on how to prepare and keep ourselves safe in the event that we do choose to travel or are forced to enter due to a layover. We do this for other countries where there may be immediate safety, diplomatic, or democratic concerns.
At present, the official travel advisory website says there are no immediate concerns other than the normal risks of travel. I think that’s misleading.
It’s a really long border. In fact, it’s all but impossible to defend, and greatly favours an invader to pierce - due to its size - than a defender trying to keep people out.
Canada understands its best option is a France ploy, with politicians toeing the line and letting the barbarians in, while sniping and burning and counter-attacking and fomenting civil war on the nightly.
So the other one, not the Maginot Line, LOL.