I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

I traveled to the US (from my country -France- and many others) for 12 years. About a trip every month. The last time was 10 years ago.

I never had any problems (outside the horrible behaviour of border officers who show you that you are not welcome). I was stopped once by a policeman when I did an illegal car maneuver (which is tolerated in France), and when he realized I was a tourist with family, he just said, "Be careful, have a nice trip."

Today I am seriously considering never going to the US anymore because it looks like it is not a good destination anymore. I may be wrong though, I hope.

I've already made the decision not to go to the US again for the foreseeable future.

Same has being happening in UK for quite sometimes post 911. The facilities looks very similar. Some one line Cornell Correction must be making a killing in US.

Same. The president is repeatedly threatening to annex my country. I was already avoiding the US because TSA is creepy, but now I'm actively divesting from it.

Same, will not risk my mental health for a trip to the US.

"Seriously considering"? Êtes-vous fou ? Restez en Europe !

Same for me as well. I've also gone as far as moving any paying business away from the US. I have completely moved off paid US services as of about a month ago to Canadian or EU equivalents.

> outside the horrible behaviour of border officers who show you that you are not welcome

They've always (in my life, which is largely post 9/11) done that to US citizens too. Going into Canada it was "where are you going to? the beach, eh? have a nice day!", coming back seemed to be performed under the suspicion that our passports were fake and our car was made out of drugs. Despite doing nothing wrong, we were always afraid of getting in trouble because a border agent felt like it.

As a Canadian travelling throughout much of the world, border controls aside from the US always seem much more concerned with imported goods (tax collection and protecting agriculture, etc) than imported people.

I cancelled a vacation to Arizona last month. It makes political AND economic sense. Now I just need a reliable source of winter greens...

never experienced this as a us citizen and I travel often. usually it is a polite "welcome home", otherwise it's a bored "ok you're good"

I got a light interrogation as a US citizen. For the record, I have Global Entry, NEXUS, and TSA Pre-Check.

I handed the border agent my US passport and the conversation went like this

"why are you entering the country?"

"I live here"

"do you have legal status in the US?"

"I'm a citizen, you're holding my passport"

"have you ever overstayed a visa in the US in the past?"

"I was born here, so no"

"do you intend to do any work while you're in the US?"

"yes, I'm a US citizen and I have a job"

I didn't get pulled off to the side or anything, it was just standard questioning at entry processing when flying in, but it was just bizarre

the border agent kept looking me up and down suspiciously like I was hiding something, but he had my passport the whole time

even when I got questioned on my way to Canada (I would've stopped me too), they were much nicer about the whole process, it's an air of "we're just double checking cuz making a mistake here would be real bad, but as long as everything's legit, no worries, I hope you have a nice stay in Canada"

entering the US the vibe is "you're a violent criminal and it's my job to ask you questions until you slip up and admit that fact, the US is magnanimous for allowing you to touch our great country's land with your disgusting feet, and you should remember that every day you're here or we'll detain you so you won't forget again"

I'm a little surprised you've only had positive experiences.

That is indeed quite bizarre. Most of those questions literally don't matter for a citizen, and if you were somehow falsely claiming to be a citizen, the other questions also don't matter because a false claim to US citizenship is punished more harshly by US immigration law than the other things they were worried about. (Such false claims make one permanently ineligible for permanent immigration to the US, with no waiver available, and require a waiver for any kind of nonimmigrant admission.)

Are you flying or driving? These were at land borders in Michigan, maybe they're more strict when you try to bring in a whole vehicle instead of a few suitcases that have gone through inspections.

You travelled to the US every once a month for 10 years? 10 years ago? and now you’re considering not going back buddy you already stopped coming

thank you. curious whats making you so emotional about it though ? why so angry?

No, I took a break with extensive travelling and now that my kids are older I am getting back to that.

Spending money in a country that obviously is not happy to see me is not likely to happen. We went for the rest of the world for now.

> I'm a little surprised you've only had positive experiences.

I was talking about the experiences within the country. The border is horrendous, exactly like Russia. Same vibe of "we hate you, kneel before stepping into my country"

For a foreigner, even one that knows the US pretty well, there is a background feeling of "if it goes bad, it will go vey bad". This is mostly because of movies and news like this article but the everyday life was more or less friction free. I did not get into anything serious, though.

The U.S. is great. It's probably not apparent from Europe how crazy the situation got in the U.S. The number of illegal border crossings on the EU in 2023 was about 380,000: https://www.statista.com/statistics/454775/number-of-illegal.... The last few years, we have been having 150,000-300,000 per month: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jp4xqx2z3o. And the EU has a much bigger population (330 million versus 450 million).

In 2017, Pew estimated that the EU had peaked around 5 million illegal immigrants: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/11/13/europes-unauth....

IN 2018, a Yale study estimated the U.S. had around 22 million illegal immigrants: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/yale-study-finds-twic....

France during the same period was estimated to have 300-400k illegal immigrants: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/11/13/four-co....

We have 10 times as many illegal immigrants per capita as France does.

YMMV on so many factors. Which border, how you look and carry yourself, your vehicle or airline, etc.

I'd be careful comparing statistics like this between jurisdictions. What might be counted as a "illegal immigrant" is likely different between the EU and US.