'Murica

[Kinky Tom]

We’ve binned off going to Florida later in the year.

My sister lives in Milwaukee, actually a very cool city, but under this administration I don't want to visit her, which is very sad.  She herself first entered with a student visa before realising she's gay, I'm sure they'd find a reason to deny her if she were apply these days. 

Luckily she's now a citizen and, importantly, white but she lost her job immediately after term 2 began, she was responsible for helping refugees settle, you can figure out what happened there I'm sure.

[Tails]

My sister lives in Milwaukee, actually a very cool city, but under this administration I don't want to visit her, which is very sad.  She herself first entered with a student visa before realising she's gay, I'm sure they'd find a reason to deny her if she were apply these days. 

Luckily she's now a citizen and, importantly, white but she lost her job immediately after term 2 began, she was responsible for helping refugees settle, you can figure out what happened there I'm sure.

Why not, out of interest?

I've been to America yearly since about 2017 and can honestly say it doesn't change from President to President. I'm going again for a month in the summer and don't expect it to be any different.

[RobertT]

This is chilling.  Social media vetting of foreign student applicants about to get underway.

US Halts Student Visa Appointments and Plans Expanded Social Media Vetting

They have always been able to do this, just that  they are making a thing of it now.

My Visa application process was months long when originally moving and having the wrong stamp in your passport can get you refused entry at the border (Cuba for example).

Usually, for all the grandstanding, very little actually changes in terms of numbers in the USA immigration process, because it is so heavily oversubscribed and it makes money.  While there are certainly some worrying applications of existing laws being used, and some likely less than legal use of laws as well right now, it's a small overall impact.  Mostly it is being done for PR right now, before Trump can claim some sort of victory and move on (even if not real).

[Leggett]

Best hope you've not been critical of the current regime anywhere online unless you fancy a few hours in a holding cell and an interview with their border agency...

[Batch]

Best hope you've not been critical of the current regime anywhere online unless you fancy a few hours in a holding cell and an interview with their border agency...

Has that ever really happened. Really

[Diesel]

I agree with this. Been coming to America every year for the past 25 years and never had any problems regardless of who’s in charge. I’m in LA at the moment after completing the Route 66 road trip from Chicago, some 2,500 miles. Went through some die hard Trump territory and everybody and everything was great. What does strike is the amount of poverty when you get off the beaten track. The boarded up stores and people living in RV’s and trailers is mind boggling. There is a very fine line between living OK or not living OK in America.

[Kinky Tom]

Why not, out of interest?

I've been to America yearly since about 2017 and can honestly say it doesn't change from President to President. I'm going again for a month in the summer and don't expect it to be any different.

In my mind it would feel like a vindication of the regime tbh.

Has that ever really happened. Really

They're asking comedians who have done gigs outside of the US, on return, if their set included anything anti Trump. That's definitely happening.

[Bennett]

Has that ever really happened. Really

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2jwk6gjp1o

[Tails]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2jwk6gjp1o

The guy that said America deserved 9/11...... I watched his interview and believed about... 20% of it.

[Batch]

Ok the odd higher profiler. Dangerous stuff

But your average holiday maker?

[RobertT]

Holiday makers, less so, because it's a Visa Waiver - but you still can see quite a few people shoved off to secondary processing and rejected.

Student Visa's and other work type Visa's - yes, there are cases right now of people being rounded up and threatened with revocation of their Visa and deportation because of "hate speech".  It's not many thousands, and is a small proportion of immigration still.  It's a few cases being used to trot out on TV so they can show how hard they are being, but it is a bit of a threat right now.  They have always been able to do it though, they just go through periods where they are better or worse at enforcing things.  Access to Social media has always been available as part of any Visa application - the change now is they have sent a memo to push for enforcement.  That just means it will take longer to review each case, hence the pause.

[Bennett]

The guy that said America deserved 9/11

I am not saying I agree, but the context to this is wildly different to the headline

[Legends-Lounge]

I am not saying I agree, but the context to this is wildly different to the headline

So was Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood. And Margaret Thatchers no such thing as society.

You can always choose the bits that suit your own or paid narrative.

[Bennett]

I agree, Tails is as evil as Thatcher

[Honkytonk]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2jwk6gjp1o

I agree with you Bennett but Hasan Piker is a notorious liar and shitlord. For those of you unaware, dude makes money off his stream claiming to be pro-palestine but gives none of it to actual agencies to help. Watches houthi propaganda and dances to it. Interviews literal terrorists on stream helping promote their cause, and frames it as him being a 'journalist' whilst asking not a single critical question. He's a poser, like the Piers Morgan of the left. In it for the monneeeyyyy. Almost as proof he actively supported Donald Trump during the election because it suited him at the time. Framed it as "Kamala=Israel" and that by voting for her you actively supported the murder of Palestinian babies. As opposed to trump, who, as we can see, has stopped the violence...

Him saying he was detained excessively is one of those things where I don't necessarily 100% disbelieve him (He's a non-white man and US border officials are notoriously racist), but he's probably exaggerating it for more engagement and more money. He probably got pulled aside for questioning but I think it was probably because he's arab-passing. Not because of his streaming.

#TailsisThatcher