I'll have a better look later at the methods and sources used, but given the US crack down on border policies from the previous minimal effort achieved by the Biden administration in securing our borders, this is to be expected. It's been less than three months from Trump taking office. Like the stock market this will swing back over the year. The US voted for change with borders being a top issue. It is going to take a while to come back to center from the actions to effect the change. Axios is not exactly a great objective source as rated by third-party media watchers as being left leaning, Soros funded. It would be great to see comparable stats from the UK and Canada and Germany where I'd expect the graph to be like the US Biden-era policies. Seeing how the UK and the others have been flooded with immigration this past decade, I'd expect to see similar "falling off a cliff" stats once they tighten their borders and policies. I see this as a necessary counter swing of the pendulum when you go from almost no scrutiny to normal scrutiny at the borders. It will stabilize to a norm, so I am not concerned. I had very bad border experiences in the late 80s in England and France, so I have some emotional experience to temper my opinion here. It sucks to be singled out unfairly or due to operator error in filling out forms, but how just how many Canadians have had this bad experience in the past 3 months compared to the 17 years of data previous? Was the reporting and SOPs of the border equivalent for statistical purposes?
Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
371–380 of 613 posts
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
I travel quite a bit, and there are only 2 places on Earth where I was close to a shooting happening in real time: São Paulo, Brazil, and Oakland, California. As much as the scenarios can be rare, there is an undeniable sense of everything hanging by a thin thread when traveling around the USA, which I've only experienced in Latin American countries in all my trips. Giving that I'm originally from Brazil even though…
I travel even more than you and only got robbed twice in 40 years on earth: in Johannesburg, South Africa and Stockholm, Sweden. You can claim it's rare, but it happened on 100% of my trips to Sweden. Therefore, I will never travel back to Sweden. It's just not worth it and I have no idea what could happen (stabbing? murder?). Nothing in Sweden is worth the absolute fear this country provokes.
> I travel even more than you
How do you know? It doesn't look like OP specified how much they've traveled.
> I only got robbed twice...in Johannesburg, South Africa and Stockholm, Sweden...it happened on 100% of my trips to Sweden
That sucks, I'm sorry that happened. It sounds like it happened once, and so that "100%" is just one trip by one person? Unfortunately, that result is within the realm of randomness, though I'd understand if, to you, it felt bigger than that.
That said, I don't think it compares to arbitrary (or worse, politically- and personally-motivated) government detainment (or otherwise harming) of innocent people.
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#373I see all these articles about Canadian and European hate for the US, and anti-US sentiment in general. They all sadden me. The US is made up of 350 million people. Only one of them is Donald Trump. Most of the country didn’t vote for him. We still value our friends and allies, even if the stooge Putin got elected does not.
The person you named did get 49.8% of the popular vote (77M people)
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#374Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the news feeds within the US may be approximately equal in their delivery of "this is good change" versus "this is catastrophic change", whilst internationally it's almost entirely "this is catastrophic change" with minor pockets of intolerance apologia. I'd be interested in alternate viewpoints since I may be in a bleeding-heart, empathetic, progressive, consequence-considering news bubble. My reasoning is t…
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"They" can be used as singular in the English language.
You seem to be focusing on what's obviously not the focus of the commentary. Which is an interesting data point in and of itself.
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non-punitive my ass. The German tourist was put for eight days in solitary confinement: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/ice-german-t...
This is nuts. > Brösche had her German passport, confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country, and a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin Sounds like all her paper work was good to go... > she was still pulled aside for a secondary inspection by a US Customs and Border Protection agent. Ok, that sucks but not too crazy... > Brösche said she then spent days detained in a cell at the San Diego border before…
Cases like this make me wonder how long it will be before the first "digital nomad" or simply workaholic gets detained, after admitting they might check the email and have a Zoom call during their vacation.
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think they were talking about ICE because they mentioned the cost of tourism? I don't think they were referring to risk of detainment with that comment.
It does count for me. The border crossing is the first experience that you get from a country. It has definitely gone worse. And it was not great to begin with. In the past, I had the ... pleasure ... of being put in the "back room" for 3 hours after a long transatlantic flight at SFO. I was not afraid then, just annoyed and tired. I would be afraid now and I would rather avoid it. There's many other places I can cho…
Interesting. If I have reservations of a government the cost of the trip isn't a consideration. I've forgone all-expenses-paid trips (for work-related conferences) to foreign countries because of the politics at the time.
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I think the news feeds within the US may be approximately equal in their delivery of "this is good change" versus "this is catastrophic change", whilst internationally it's almost entirely "this is catastrophic change" with minor pockets of intolerance apologia. Exactly. Americans generally don't understand the degree to which the rest of the world gets the CNN 5min recap of what's going on in the US, and it's very…
I doubt that seeing the Fox spin on US events would persuade many people that the US is currently a place of rationality and the rule of law.
Doesn't the crime rate go down when Republicans hold the power?
I think the crime rate is a major concern for every tourist.
Doesn't Florida have a much lower crime rate than California? As a tourist, I rather visit Florida than California.
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Americans do not understand how much press there is outside the US about tourists from Ireland / Germany / Canada getting locked up in ICE jails for weeks on end. From my point of view, if POTUS blathers about annexing Canada, then the US doesn't deserve my tourist dollars, neither my Netflix subscription, neither my Amazon prime subscription. I've cut back on purchases/subscriptions from US companies as much as it…
Most stuff on Amazon is made in China anyways. Might as well order directly from Aliexpress or the producer's website. Exactly the same items, but without the American middleman.
There's definitely going to be some sort of EU-China rapprochement now. Not that China is less oppressive - they remain more oppressive, and I wouldn't like to, say, get caught with weed going into China. But they're much less loudly annoying about it.
(another one to watch out for: opiate painkillers in your hand luggage into Middle Eastern states, including Dubai.)
Re: Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the nature of social media. If you see 10 examples of something happening in another country there is a good chance you will alter your behavior. The reverse scenario is happening too. There are americans that refuse to go to europe because of the examples they seen of immigrants committing crimes and ruining neighborhoods. As someone who spends a lot of time on both locations, I know that both scenarios are…
I travel quite a bit, and there are only 2 places on Earth where I was close to a shooting happening in real time: São Paulo, Brazil, and Oakland, California. As much as the scenarios can be rare, there is an undeniable sense of everything hanging by a thin thread when traveling around the USA, which I've only experienced in Latin American countries in all my trips. Giving that I'm originally from Brazil even though…
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