Should Visa-Holders Travel Outside the US?

If you are not a U.S. citizen, postponing all non-essential travel might be a good idea. With the recent surge in detentions and deportations, even for people with legal status and no criminal history, reducing the likelihood of encountering issues involves staying informed, consulting an immigration attorney, and carefully preparing for travel.

What Is happening?

1. Increased enforcement – ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement), CBP (Customs and Border Protection), and local law enforcement, because of orders from the federal executive branch, have stepped up inspections and random immigration stops which have increased the number of detentions and deportations.

• Certain stops and searches without a warrant within 100 miles of the border are legal. Remember that the border includes all oceans.
• Know Your Rights – If you are stopped by immigration officials, you can only be detained if they have “reasonable suspicion” that you have violated an immigration law. You can ask if you are free to leave or if they are detaining you, and you can ask what their reasonable suspicion is if they chose to detain you. You can only be searched or arrested if officials have “probable cause” or obtain your permission for the search. Your silence, on its own, is not enough to support “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause.” (Neither does your ethnicity.)
• Know Your Rights – Only nonimmigrants with a valid visa are required to show their immigration documents at random or targeted stops. Always Keep a copy of your visa or I-797 approval notice or I-797 receipt notice with you. Officers at a legal checkpoint (like an airport) have the right to see everyone’s documents and ask about your immigration status. You can remain silent but will likely result in being detained further. Do not sign anything that you do not understand and remember you can ask for your lawyer to be present. If you are a greencard holder, remember that only a judge has the right to take away your residency, unless you sign an I-407 document voluntarily.
• Know Your Rights – You do not have to answer or open the door at your home without a warrant. You can remain silent or ask the officer through the closed door to slide the warrant under the door so you can read whether the warrant was signed by a judge. An ICE warrant is not a search warrant.

2. Wider Interpretation of Immigration Violations – Many agents have increasingly broadened their range of activities that they consider violations, including activism or criticism of the administration. Upon reentry to the U.S., many visas are re-evaluated by border officials and can be canceled.
3. Phone and computer searches – a higher number of requests for invasive searches of electronic equipment at the border have been reported. Detention for immigrants is possible for non-citizens if consent is not given, and even though border agents cannot detain a citizen, they can still confiscate the device. If you have sensitive information on your phone, consider wiping it, encrypting it, or using a secondary clean phone for travel.

How can I prepare for international travel?

Consult an attorney before leaving the U.S. to make sure you understand the consequences and risks of leaving the U.S. and an attempt at reentry. Prepare documents ahead of time that you can show to an official at the border if necessary. These may include your immigrant documents, especially visas, approvals, and waivers, your travel documents and reasons for travel, your employment status, any criminal history documents, and any other corroborative documents related to your immigration and travel and showing your ties to the U.S. Know your rights, what questions you must answer and when staying silent may be a better option. Absolutely never lie or show false documents to a government official.

Who has been targeted?

• Student or other Activists
• Anyone with a criminal history
• Suspicious tattoos
• Suspicious content on phones
• Lengthy absences from the U.S.

Anyone with these or possibly other risk factors should postpone international travel.

Some egregious examples of people detained and/or deported recently:

• Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, was detained due to his protest activities. He is a greencard holder with no criminal history. He has a U.S. pregnant wife, was targeted at his home in New York and taken to a detention center in Louisiana.[i]
• Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor and doctoral candidate here on a J-1 student visa, and married to a U.S. citizen, has been detained for his ties to Gaza and opposing U.S. foreign policy, though a judge has ordered he cannot be deported for now without further hearings.[ii]
• Rasha Alawieh, a doctor and a kidney transplant specialist from Rhode Island, with a valid H-1B work visa, was deported back to Lebanon when she tried to reenter the U.S. after visiting family in Lebanon, despite a court order blocking her removal. She allowed officials to search her phone and officials say she had photos of Hamaz militants on her phone. If she had refused to allow the search on her phone, she would have likely been deported for refusing the search.[iii]
• Two German tourists were detained in a facility for several weeks when trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico and then deported. One of the tourists was held in solitary confinement for nine days. They were finally put on a flight back to Germany without ever being informed about the reason for their detention.[iv]
• A British tourist was detained in a facility for almost three weeks she tried to enter the U.S. from Canada. She had been in Washington state and was refused entry into Canada because she didn’t have the correct visa, but was taken into custody when she tried to re-enter the U.S.[v]
• Fabian Schmidt, and electrical engineer from Germany with a greencard was detained for several days when returning from a trip to Germany and is still in detention. His attorneys say he was strip searched and “violently interrogated” including getting shower in cold water before being questioned again. He was later hospitalized. Schmidt had an old misdemeanor drug charge and DUI which had been dismissed years ago. Officials claim he didn’t show up for a hearing, but he says he never given any notice about a hearing.[vi]

Conclusion

The rising number of cases of detentions, visa cancellations, and deportations highlight the need for careful planning and preparation, balancing necessity with caution. Several Eurpoean countries like the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, and Germany have updated their travel advisories for citizens traveling to the U.S., citing concerns over recent immigration policies and practices. If your travel is essential, be careful to ensure that all your documentation is in order and keep a close eye on any immigration policy changes. However, if your trip is not essential, postponing until the law, due process, and human rights are better defined for these types of cases, should be considered. Always consult an immigration attorney before making any major decisions, as they can provide you with an analysis on your specific details regarding travel risks.

Stay informed, stay prepared, and most importantly, stay safe!