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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) a

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.

spiderfarmer 2y ago
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.
- Almondsetat 2y ago
  Can you show these numbers are significantly higher than the previous years' average? If you can't then it's perception
  - lifeinthevoid 2y ago
    Too early for stats I think. But yeah, keep on denying the light of the sun.
    - Almondsetat 2y ago
      If it was the "light of the sun" you wouldn't have to "think" and there would be stats.
      - spiderfarmer 2y ago
        Stats coming from ICE itself would probably be cooked. https://prismreports.org/2024/10/31/ice-has-been-lying-about-its-racial-data-collection/ https://prismreports.org/2024/10/31/ice-has-been-lying-about... I’ll wait for stats coming from the EU or my own government.
  - _fizz_buzz_ 2y ago
    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.
    - Almondsetat 2y ago
      If you cannot prove it and yet you make the claim then it means your claim stems from perception. It doesn't mean what you're claiming is not true.
      - spiderfarmer 2y ago
        You claim it’s a perception issue. We say it doesn’t matter if it’s perception. Even one wrongful detention is too much. And people should avoid going to the US in this climate. My past tweets would probably be enough to get me detained. Am I sure about that? No. Can anyone be sure nowadays? Is that just perception? Maybe. Will I avoid going to the US anyway? Yes. If you’re still looking for a trend, here’s one: We don’t trust the US anymore. And there’s nothing their government does or says to reassure us.
  - nolok 2y ago
    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.
    - Almondsetat 2y ago
      Train derailments were all the rage on the right a couple of years ago even though their numbers were in the norm.
      - nolok 2y ago
        I don't see how that relates to what I said and I don't know why you go political with "on the right". I'm not american, and this conversation is clearly about how non american countries see the situation, and for us being detained that way is not a left or right wing political wish or dream or nightmare, it's just a "does it happen in that country or not". And as an aside, if you think train crash are not a matter worth talking about, or that they're political, again .. That's a hell of a point of view that I don't share.
        Almondsetat 2y ago
        >it's just a "does it happen in that country or not". If your threshold is "it happens > 0 amount of times" then it has happened before to Europeans to face detention by the ICE >if you think train crash are not a matter worth talking about, or that they're political that's a big and unwarrented "if"
        nolok 2y ago
        I'm honestly not sure what or why you are arguing, if you say it happened before then yes no one said the contrary, several countries are now saying the threshold to go from "a bit longer interrogation" to "straight up detention like a criminal" has become much lower and thus we are much more likely to be impacted, and if you disagree with that when then again it doesn't really matter because it's a travel advice by a non US gov to their non US citizen based on their evaluation, feelings and online rhetoric don't matter into that, though you are of course free of having your own opinion
- drstewart 2y ago
  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 2y ago
    People are now targeted for speech, not for breaking the law. Open your eyes. The US is becoming like Russia, China and Turkey.
- PieTime 2y ago
  Next year it will be rated electoral autocracy instead of democracy if nothing changes. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7486317 https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7486317
  - refurb 2y ago
    [flagged]
- fabian2k 2y ago
  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 2y ago
    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.
Freak_NL 2y ago
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 2y ago
  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.
  - kpmcc 2y ago
    It certainly would be cheaper, but then how would the people running the arbitrary detention centers get paid?
  - TomK32 2y ago
    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-usa/ 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?
    - tim333 2y ago
      One of the scariest aspects is them refusing to tell you what you did wrong. From that link >...there was another unspecified issue that they refused to disclose. I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role... So it's not just following set rules. Maybe you tweeted Trump is a jerk once and they checked your twitter? Or maybe not. If they won't tell you how can you know?
netsharc 2y ago
White, from Canada, and even female: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney 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-re-wrong-it-s-the-right-thing-to-do/article_29bdbe60-fb3d-11ec-9c6c-0f21c9fd7b19.html https://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/opinion-admit-you-r...
- baybal2 2y ago
  [dead]
- vkou 2y ago
  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 2y ago
    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-stephanopoulos-settlement-00194391 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...
TomK32 2y ago
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-prisons-immigrants-detention-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/private-priso...
pembrook 2y ago
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.
- pjc50 2y ago
  > 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.
  - pembrook 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - refurb 2y ago
    Saying “it would be worse under Trump” seems entirely subjective? I mean if you want common sense immigration it actually “got better”?
- chneu 2y ago
  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 2y ago
    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.
piva00 2y ago
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.

spiderfarmer 2y ago

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.

Almondsetat 2y ago
Can you show these numbers are significantly higher than the previous years' average? If you can't then it's perception
- lifeinthevoid 2y ago
  Too early for stats I think. But yeah, keep on denying the light of the sun.
  - Almondsetat 2y ago
    If it was the "light of the sun" you wouldn't have to "think" and there would be stats.
    - spiderfarmer 2y ago
      Stats coming from ICE itself would probably be cooked. https://prismreports.org/2024/10/31/ice-has-been-lying-about-its-racial-data-collection/ https://prismreports.org/2024/10/31/ice-has-been-lying-about... I’ll wait for stats coming from the EU or my own government.
- _fizz_buzz_ 2y ago
  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.
  - Almondsetat 2y ago
    If you cannot prove it and yet you make the claim then it means your claim stems from perception. It doesn't mean what you're claiming is not true.
    - spiderfarmer 2y ago
      You claim it’s a perception issue. We say it doesn’t matter if it’s perception. Even one wrongful detention is too much. And people should avoid going to the US in this climate. My past tweets would probably be enough to get me detained. Am I sure about that? No. Can anyone be sure nowadays? Is that just perception? Maybe. Will I avoid going to the US anyway? Yes. If you’re still looking for a trend, here’s one: We don’t trust the US anymore. And there’s nothing their government does or says to reassure us.
- nolok 2y ago
  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.
  - Almondsetat 2y ago
    Train derailments were all the rage on the right a couple of years ago even though their numbers were in the norm.
    - nolok 2y ago
      I don't see how that relates to what I said and I don't know why you go political with "on the right". I'm not american, and this conversation is clearly about how non american countries see the situation, and for us being detained that way is not a left or right wing political wish or dream or nightmare, it's just a "does it happen in that country or not". And as an aside, if you think train crash are not a matter worth talking about, or that they're political, again .. That's a hell of a point of view that I don't share.
      - Almondsetat 2y ago
        >it's just a "does it happen in that country or not". If your threshold is "it happens > 0 amount of times" then it has happened before to Europeans to face detention by the ICE >if you think train crash are not a matter worth talking about, or that they're political that's a big and unwarrented "if"
        nolok 2y ago
        I'm honestly not sure what or why you are arguing, if you say it happened before then yes no one said the contrary, several countries are now saying the threshold to go from "a bit longer interrogation" to "straight up detention like a criminal" has become much lower and thus we are much more likely to be impacted, and if you disagree with that when then again it doesn't really matter because it's a travel advice by a non US gov to their non US citizen based on their evaluation, feelings and online rhetoric don't matter into that, though you are of course free of having your own opinion
drstewart 2y ago
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 2y ago
  People are now targeted for speech, not for breaking the law. Open your eyes. The US is becoming like Russia, China and Turkey.
PieTime 2y ago
Next year it will be rated electoral autocracy instead of democracy if nothing changes. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7486317 https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7486317
- refurb 2y ago
  [flagged]
fabian2k 2y ago
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 2y ago
  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.

Freak_NL 2y ago

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 2y ago
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.
- kpmcc 2y ago
  It certainly would be cheaper, but then how would the people running the arbitrary detention centers get paid?
- TomK32 2y ago
  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-usa/ 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?
  - tim333 2y ago
    One of the scariest aspects is them refusing to tell you what you did wrong. From that link >...there was another unspecified issue that they refused to disclose. I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role... So it's not just following set rules. Maybe you tweeted Trump is a jerk once and they checked your twitter? Or maybe not. If they won't tell you how can you know?

netsharc 2y ago

White, from Canada, and even female: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney 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-re-wrong-it-s-the-right-thing-to-do/article_29bdbe60-fb3d-11ec-9c6c-0f21c9fd7b19.html https://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/opinion-admit-you-r...

baybal2 2y ago
[dead]
vkou 2y ago
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 2y ago
  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-stephanopoulos-settlement-00194391 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...

TomK32 2y ago

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-prisons-immigrants-detention-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/private-priso...

pembrook 2y ago

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.

pjc50 2y ago
> 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.
- pembrook 2y ago
  [flagged]
- refurb 2y ago
  Saying “it would be worse under Trump” seems entirely subjective? I mean if you want common sense immigration it actually “got better”?
chneu 2y ago
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 2y ago
  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.

piva00 2y ago

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.