As a US citizen who was born in the UK, how risky is it to leave and reenter the US right now?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Lennnny@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

Until now this would have been a stupid question - this is my home. But we’re in a strange timeline. My background is I was born in the UK, met first husband, married, got green card, that went tits up, divorced, met husband 2, found forever love, married, naturalized in 2021. Have my passport and everything.

It’s my dad’s birthday, and he lives in the UK. I want to go back and celebrate, but I’m nervous about reentry into the US. I naturalized during the Biden presidency, and I am a Democrat, I feel nervous that I have a target on my back. I have a home and pets here. Am I ridiculous for worrying or should I be cautious about leaving right now?

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skisnow@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Consult the chart

Image

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- Taalnazi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Add queer to the list.
  
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  - johncandy1812@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Add “liberal” or even “critical of the president” to that.
    
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- riodoro1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hey, how did you get access to the official ICE guidelines video!?
  
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- starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You do realise they’ve also been disappearing white people, right?
  
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pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Are you white?

Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears

Those who are getting caught in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raids are being targeted because of their race or skin color, according to witnesses.

nbcnews.com/…/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-pr…

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- pureness@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  In all fairness they seem to be detaining plenty of white women too
  
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  - NotSteve_@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah there’s been multiple reports of white Canadian women being detained for weeks before being let go
    
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  - shplane@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s just what gets the most media because pretty white women getting harassed by ICE will get a lot more clicks than all the brown skinned people getting harassed by ICE
    
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  - starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    And white men. They detained a German guy and dragged him all over the country.
    
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- Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans
  
  Amazing. Where are they going to deport them to, the actual state their tribe were from before they were forced out of there and onto a barren reservation?
  
  I know that they’re probably deported to El Salvador because E.S. made bitcoin their national currency.
  
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  - pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    I know that they’re probably deported to El Salvador because E.S. made bitcoin their national currency.
    
    It looks like it no longer is because it was a failure. I bet they still have a way to launder bribes through their system though
    
    In December, 2024, El Salvador, in an agreement for a $1.4 billion loan from the IMF, agreed to reduce bitcoin purchases, removed the mandatory acceptance of Bitcoin requirement on merchants, will no longer accept tax payments with the asset, and will wind-down its involvement in the Chivo wallet.[77][78]
    
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_in_El_Salvador#Reac…
    
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gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This risky.

Don’t risk it. Also, try to make some contingency plans in the event they do kick you out.

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- pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The post was a person with a work visa not a citizen. This is not to say that the US is the safest place to be. My US citizen cousin very recently came to live in the US and they were born and living in a different country for most of their life.
  
  I would probably not come in during Trump’s rule when there are other countries but you do you.
  
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The administration is currently figuring out how to “deport” natural-born citizens to an El Salvadoran Supermax prison that’s notorious for having horrendous conditions. All bets are off, regardless of citizenship. But it’s PARTICULARLY risky if you check any of the following boxes while also not being a natural-born citizen:
    
    not white
    
    not male
    
    not cisgender
    
    not straight
    
    not evangelical Christian
    
    not racist
    
    not a vocal supporter of the regime
    
    There are real and concrete reasons that so many countries have started issuing travel warnings for the US to their own citizens in the last few months.
    
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- Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  An actual risk assessment would look at % not single incidents
  
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  - Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    We’re turning into trump supporters with our vilification and exaggeration of real life
    
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You’re ignoring the fact that these “single incidents” are essentially the administration testing what they can get away with. And there’s a lot more than just this one, if you bother to look.
    
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  - scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    And it wouldn’t tell a citizen they are at the same risk as someone on a work visa.
    
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Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
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- radix@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  bsky.app/profile/…/3lml5ctrmmc2u
  
  Some personal news: the Department of Homeland Security has given me, an immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts, seven days to leave the U.S. Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?
  
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  - Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Italy and Ireland were like the last two countries that you could claim citizenship through great-grandparents, but I think Italy just ended it this year.
    
    thanks for posting this, it’s the first I’ve heard of maybe a US citizen being deported.
    
    I’m looking into related posts to find corroboration and explanation for the term “parole” used here.
    
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  - Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts,
    
    I’m guessing they intended to send this notice to one of this lawyer’s clients, rather than the lawyer themself?
    
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- jeffw@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah as much as I like to shit on Trump, citizens are not really at much risk. Maaaaybe if you have a criminal record they could try some shit, but it would be a shift for the administration
  
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  - ParadeDuGrotesque@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not really at much risk… YET.
    
    Give it another 6 months or so.
    
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- db2@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Or brown.
  
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  - Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    not with regard to this specific situation, since white people have been deported or turned away due to their visa status, but under this administration anyone not white should feel way more targeted than they might be under other administrations.
    
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SolidShake@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why would you want to come back? Place is a 2nd world shit hole.

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meco03211@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As a citizen you should be safe. Are you white? That makes it a little safer. Probably wouldn’t hurt if you’re attractive and female…

…

…

…

fuck I hate this timeline

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- Lennnny@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I wanna be mad at these comments but they’re so true. I’m white and female, so maybe I’ll be fine. But it’s so fucking sad that this is the case. I’m not just worried for me, but for all the people who made this place home. A lot of minorities in that group.
  
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  - Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    pretty risky as even white canadians are detained.
    
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- idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That Canadian actress was white and attractive. The German held for several days without sleep was also white and attractive (also a man in a relationship with a man, but I don’t know how likely it is that CBP could have known that).
  
  It’s probably protective, but it’s not sufficient
  
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dhork@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You are now an American citizen, so you should have the rights the rest of us have. You should be fine. They haven’t gotten around to threatening to denaturalize people yet. When they do, they will concentrate first on people from countries they don’t like, that used old policies they have since rescinded. And they will have to use more due process than they are using on these non-citizens.

The one thing I would be cautious of, though, is the state of your cell phone. They are very thin-skinned when it comes to criticism lately, and may decide to look through your phone’s social media to decide if you are insufficiently loyal. They have broad powers to do that when you re-enter the country. As a US citizen they cannot deny you entry, but they can still make your life difficult on entry. And this group doesn’t exactly pay attention to laws, do they?

At minimum, you might want to shut down your cell phone before getting off the plane. Explain it by saying it is a long flight, and you wanted to save your battery for arrival. If they confiscate a phone and try to dump all its data, they are more limited if the phone has just rebooted. They would basically need the PIN to do anything. If you want to go further, you can also log out of all of your social media accounts and remove their apps before the flight, so they even if they force you to divulge the PIN they won’t find your social media history.

That may all be too paranoid, but we live in stupid times.

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- IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Just to add, even if they obey every law, they can still mess with you a lot.
  
  They can:
  
  Hold you for 48 Hours withiut any charges
  
  Confiscate all your belongings (and probably they will try to crack any encryption on devices)
  
  Put you on a no-fly list
  
  Conduct targeted surveillance on you
  
  Send Pegasus malware to your new phone
  
  Use cell tower triangulation, doesn’t matter if its Graphene OS, it still needs to connect to cell towers if you wanna make calls or use data.
  
  Randomly send agents to tail you make you feel scared, park in front of your house and constantly monitor your activity.
  
  In certain scenarios, use thermal imaging to see inside your house (even though some courts have ruled against it), and it would be difficult to even prove they were illegally using thermal imaging, since its passive.
  
  These are all legal and previous administrations could technically already do that, it’s just that they usually weren’t this crazy.
  
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Crackhappy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I think it really depends on how white you are. I’m 192cm tall, born in California, white as fuck with blue eyes, so I think that I’m pretty safe. However, I’ve cautioned my sister who was born on Java that she really has to take precautions. She’s lived here and been naturalized since she was 1 years old, but even so, she’s got brown skin, so she’s a target for this RACIST AS FUCK government.

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- A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Oh don’t worry. They’ll come for you soon.
  
  They’ve already gotten away with kicking people out to a south american torture prison.
  
  And they are actively and openly working on how to strip citizenship from people.
  
  So you are not safe. You just have lots of brown people infront of you to take the initial bullets.
  
  Which is why we all need to be stopping this shit now, because we all know how the poem ends.
  
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  - Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Hey I don’t disagree with your points but just wanted to mention that El Salvador is in North America (in a sub-region known as Central America)
    
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- starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They’re arresting white people too.
  
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  - Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    But less often.
    
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  - Crackhappy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s a valid point.
    
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- barneypiccolo@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I have a close friend who was born in Venzuela, and became a citizen in January. She feels much safer now, and thinks she’s in the clear. I’m still worried about her, but i don’t want to scare her with my own anxiety.
  
  These MAGA Nazis want to get rid of Birthright Citizenship, which every nation in the world recognizes. If they won’t even respect that, they aren’t going to respect anything else - including Green Cards or Naturalization.
  
  Bottom line - if you were born in another country, you are an enemy, and they want you out.
  
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  - NikkiDimes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    which every nation in the world recognizes
    
    Well, this is flat out not true at all 😅
    
    There are ~30-35 that recognize some degree of birthright citizenship under certain circumstances, but very few countries have unconditional birthright citizenship, particularly outside of the Americas.
    
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- JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also depends how much presence you have on social media, and how public you are avout your political opinions there.
  
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Professorozone@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why would you come back?

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The_Caretaker@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
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- IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Kinda depends.
  
  For OP, yes. UK is definitely better.
  
  But, if your other citizenship is like Taliban-Controlled Afganistan, North Korea, El Savador, or Venezuela,or some other unstable/dictatorial country, then maybe not.
  
  Despite the US becoming autocratic, there are still countries that are worse.
  
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  - starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They’ll merrily send you to El Salvador for looking at someone funny, though. Some disgraced sheriff didn’t like a gay makeup artist and claimed he was a Venezuelan gang member. He was picked up and has disappeared in the system in El Salvador somewhere.
    
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IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As a PRC-Born, Naturalized* US Citizen, I do not feel safe entering/exiting the US borders right now. I told my PRC-Citizen father and grandmother (who lives with us) to not do any border crossings.

*technically it’s Derivative Citizenship, Green Card holders under the age of 18 automatically become a citizen if one of the parents become a citizen

If I were a cis-gender white person born in the US, I would probably feel okay crossing borders if I don’t have tattos and don’t have a high-profile anti-trump publicity. I would still wipe any phone tho, load it up photos of my cat, and random nature photos I’ve taken. Zero political content on the device.

You said you naturalized during Biden’s presidency, which means you’ve been citizen for less than 5 years. During this time period, if the government believes you are a terrorist of a member of a “communist” or “totalitarian” party, they could revoke your citizenship. So maybe wait till 5 years + 1 day after your naturalization just to be safe.

But consider permanent emigration to UK, in case things get worse in the US (I’m not saying to do it now, but keep in mind the possibility).

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- themaninblack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&req=gr…
  
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BilboBargains@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That depends what colour your skin is or if you wear any non christian headgear, symbols, etc.

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BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It honestly seems very unpredictable. Anecdotally the worst behaviour seems to have been at the most republican states but not exclusively.

For example the Australian who had a work visa and lived in the US for years flew in to Texas where it was arbitrarily nullified. There are plenty of stories of people crossing southern and northern borders and being detained by ICE. Thats included British, German, Australian and French cirizens that ive seen in the UK press coverage anyway.

As a US citizen you shouldnt have an issue but I’d probably travel through a major hub like JFK in New York to be safer. I wouldn’t re-enter through Republican states like Florida, Texas, nor probably Washington DCs airports. Obviously travel on your US passport.

You should he OK as a US citizen but it does look like there is a breakdown in the rule of law in the US. People imagine that means riots and the police not able to keep control, but in this case its the government and government agencies doing whatever they want and the legal system unable to stop them.

I’m a UK citizen and am not intending to travel to the US - I often cone for a major conference but having seen what happened to the French scientist who had his phone searched and then was denied entry for criticising Trump I won’t be risking it. I’m sure a lot of other UK and Europeans feel the same way.

Sasly the only 100% safe option for you is to not leave the country. Its madness as youre a US citizen but at this point things are still going through the courts and its not clear where this will stop.

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JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The scary thing is we have no clue. But they do seem to be racist in their targeting, so if you look white, I’d imagine you’d have a much lower risk.

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RecursiveParadox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
FWIW, I have multiple things I should go to in the USA coming up, and neither I nor my family are willing to risk it. My two (young adult) children and I have dual USA - EU country citizenship. My wife had a green card when she lived with me in NYC for over a decade, but turned it in when we moved back long ago. These facts (let alone what my posting history is like) are just too much for us. We won’t risk it.

It’s kind of like a plane crash: very unlikely to happen but you are equally unlikely to walk away unhurt.

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Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’d imagine it was like 0% risky.

There’s A big difference between legal immigrants and actual us citizens.

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JcbAzPx@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
At the moment they’re only going after overt political dissidents and brown immigrants. As long as you haven’t penned an oped criticizing Trump you should be fine. Though, I would advise buying a burner phone for the trip. Set up a new account and put a bunch of games on it so it doesn’t look suspicious.

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- CandleTiger@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  only going after overt political dissidents and brown immigrants
  
  They seem to have detained some white tourists lately as well.
  
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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You’ve still got a British passport? Consider staying out of trouble, I.e. the US.

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HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My coworker who grew ip in the soviet union and just moved here from a country trump hates had no problem recently

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ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I came back from China without issue.

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Blaze@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
!AskUSA@discuss.online

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Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you’re not brown, then you’ll be fine.

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- HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  should be fine
  
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smokingpistol@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s still a stupid fucking question

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- badelf@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Trump is already looking at how he can deport US citizens to El Salvador. You’re ignorant of history. Hitler killed citizens, including Catholics and anyone he didn’t consider to be a “pure Arian”.
  
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  - smokingpistol@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This is why I left reddit because of people with your crazy mindset comparing Trump to Hitler. You guys are nuts
    
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iowagneiss@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I only have the context of a somewhat informed person in a college financial aid office. It’s really the illegal or refugee/asylee population that has to worry right now unless you’re here as a permanent resident and have protested against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza (or as the republicans are calling it, “antisemitism”) on a billion dollar campus.

They don’t have a strategy yet for de-naturalizing naturalized citizens (they are discussing this), but if you’re white and not Muslim, you’re probably not drawing their attention.

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bluegreenwookie@bookwormstory.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ppl are saying it’s fine if you aren’t brown but i still wouldn’t ive read about Canadian Americans who couldn’t reenter.

While risk is much higher if you aren’t white it’s just not a good idea to leave for anyone if you want to return

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TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’d probably consult a lawyer.

They can’t (legally) deny you entry into the US, but they might make your life hell when re-entering. Bring a burner phone with you in case they take your phone. Don’t keep anything even remotely political saved on there.

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aceshigh@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My parents just came back from Jamaica without a problem. They had no issues but they’re white, have no social media, they don’t have anything negative about Trump on their phones and they’re legal. As long as you fit the right demographics you should be fine.

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HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
yes

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muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
U will be completely fine. U have the same risks that have always existed such as disable biometric auth for u phone etc.

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