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grahame
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« on: February 22, 2026, 07:52:44 » |
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From The Guardian‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK▸ tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks
Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’ From FacebookBREAKING: WTF? Trump's ICE goons shackled and threw a British grandma on a tourist visa in their gulag for SIX WEEKS!
Karen Newton, a 65-year-old grandmother from Hertfordshire, England with a clean record and a valid B2 tourist visa, thought she was heading for a dream two-month road trip through four Western states and Canada with her husband Bill.
What she got instead was a nightmare: six weeks in ICE detention after being shackled, sleeping on the floor, and locked in a windowless cell with no end date in sight. I won't be travelling to the USA any time soon. Both Lisa and I have family in the USA, but stories like the above, the overall political situation there, and our dislike of flying all combine into three strikes and we're out. There is little doubt in my mind that their current president is having a far greater changing effect on their country and the world as a whole than any previous president, but I feel he's doing so in a morally broken way, and the changes we hear about are far removed from being good ones for the most part. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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PrestburyRoad
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« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2026, 08:42:11 » |
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I enjoyed my previous visits to the USA. But now that the unpredictable psychopath is in charge I have put the USA on my blacklist of countries that I will not visit. I fear that I would be picked up by the thought police at the border; and moreover the nation contains a lot of his supporters and I think they are people that I would not want to meet.
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PhilWakely
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« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2026, 09:01:54 » |
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I was lucky enough to be able to take (very-)early retirement from my job with a finance company. In the following few years, I treated myself to some of the notable trans-continental rail journeys, including the Trans-Siberian and USA Coast-to-Coast.
In both cases, though widely different experiences, I would not have hesitated in recommending them. However, in today's political climate I would steer well clear for the foreseeable future.
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TaplowGreen
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« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2026, 09:11:13 » |
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I travelled fairly extensively through Eastern Europe with a friend in the dying days of communism, it was difficult at times and some of the regimes were pretty appalling, and border crossings were quite an experience.
I'm really glad I did it though as the people were invariably friendly, interested/interesting although often cautious as they were wary of the authorities, although starting to assert themselves as a new wind was blowing through.
The history was fascinating and the natural scenery undiminished by whoever happened to be General Secretary/Dear Leader at the time.
I also spent time in South Africa during the apartheid years as I have family there.
My message would be don't write off travelling to any country simply because you don't care for the incumbent regime. If I had, my horizons would have been considerably reduced.
Americans generally speaking are very well disposed to the British and your chances of coming to harm are minimal - probably safer there than in many parts of Europe in all honesty.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2026, 09:20:56 » |
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Regarding the USofA, my view is recorded at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=31237.msg369290#msg369290  Turning to South Africa, my own family experience there was brilliant: the politics and economy were rubbish, but we had a great time and met some lovely people. CfN▸ .  |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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grahame
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« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2026, 11:00:11 » |
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My message would be don't write off travelling to any country simply because you don't care for the incumbent regime. If I had, my horizons would have been considerably reduced. Agreed - and I *have* travelled to countries (and will be doing so later this year, I expect) where the regime isn't to my care. In the case of the USA, our family links are rather closer, and our visibility rather greater, than being tourists - a more complex set of decisions, and a deeper one too which effects family visits in the event of births, marriages, deaths, and seeing the son and grandkids. Americans generally speaking are very well disposed to the British and your chances of coming to harm are minimal - probably safer there than in many parts of Europe in all honesty. You are totally correct, where "your" refers to the general visitor. The current president is not doing very well, as I understand it, in the popularity stakes over there. The USA culture does differ from the UK▸ one - I've had a gun waved at me twice, and also had a family meeting sorting out custody issues where the person across the table came along armed. Those are the sort of things that won't happen to most people going to the USA. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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Clan Line
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« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2026, 15:58:55 » |
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To digress slightly........ I have always thought that US Immigration staff were recruited specifically for their rudeness and aggressiveness - and the shambolic system that the US seems to use. My most recent flight via Denver confirmed this. Miami is particularly bad - Phoenix the best.
When I was still working I made 3 flights to Boston (from LHR), I flew with Aer Lingus, via Dublin or Shannon (lot cheaper than AA & BA» ). Yes, it does add slightly to the overall journey time but this is more than compensated for by the fact that you clear US Immigration in the Irish Republic. On arrival in the US you are treated like a domestic passenger - pick up your bags and go. The Immigration officials seemed to be a mix of locally recruited staff or US citizens who were enjoying working in Ireland- very friendly and cheerful.
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grahame
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« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2026, 19:20:18 » |
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To digress slightly........ I have always thought that US Immigration staff were recruited specifically for their rudeness and aggressiveness ...
Sadly, I've noted that at times. Immigration staff tend to come across like that, and much more so to people holding passports from other nations; it's not unique to the USA. Individual national language dialects / differences also make a difference between receptions at London and American airports. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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JayMac
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« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2026, 21:44:54 » |
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probably safer there than in many parts of Europe in all honesty.
Statistics, barring war torn Ukraine, suggest otherwise. |
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"Good news for regular users of Euston Station in London! One day they will die. Then they won't have to go to Euston Station ever again." - David Mitchell
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eightonedee
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« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2026, 07:47:31 » |
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Indeed, the USA considers it's a good year when the homicide rate is under 6 per 100,000. In Europe it averages 2.1, about 1.1 in the UK▸ .
Don't think you are safe on the roads either. The USA has a fatal accident rate of 14.2 per 100,000. In the UK it's 2.4.
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grahame
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« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2026, 08:01:54 » |
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Indeed, the USA considers it's a good year when the homicide rate is under 6 per 100,000. In Europe it averages 2.1, about 1.1 in the UK▸ .
Don't think you are safe on the roads either. The USA has a fatal accident rate of 14.2 per 100,000. In the UK it's 2.4.
Indeed. I have had a gun waved at me, threatening, twice by Americans in their late teens. And I have gone into a custody meeting with a rather older American throwing his weight around to make an impression, and clearly armed. Each case different and not tourist situations. I've never had such a situation in the UK. Of course, the USA has 5 times the population of the UK so these things will happen there more often  . |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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Mark A
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« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2026, 09:12:54 » |
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To this we have to add other risks, some in plain sight and others rather less so, but all, often casually and without a thought, exported to the rest of the world.
Mark
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Electric train
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« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2026, 15:54:03 » |
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I spent 2 weeks end of Oct begin of Nov 2025 in the USA, the holiday was planned before the golf player became president. I had a week in NYC, took the queue was an hour to get to immigration and took less than 10 mins to be allowed in. I took the train from Newark Liberty airport the NYC Penn Central, during my week in NYC I rode the New York subway and survived  The NYC subway is a tap a credit card type entry system no tap on exit At the end of the first week I used Amtrack from Pen Central to Washington DC▸ , I stayed with friend in Arlington and used the DC metro a number of time into DC central, the metro is modern, efficient and reasonably priced DC metro is a tap a credit card type entry system and a tap on exit. I would like to go back to the USA, but not while the current administration is in place |
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"The real source of danger, and the only one which there is any hope of removing, is in a complication of imperfections in a great number of the mechanical parts of the system"
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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ChrisB
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« Reply #13 on: February 23, 2026, 16:45:07 » |
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I would like to go back to the USA, but not while the current administration is in place That's me too..... |
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grahame
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« Reply #14 on: March 05, 2026, 05:12:21 » |
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"Would your travel to the USA - now or in the future?
Yes - of course - 4 (13.8%)
Yes - though not at present - 1 (3.4%)
Yes - but after careful thought - 0 (0%)
Maybe at some time in the future - 5 (17.2%)
Not in the forseeable future - 11 (37.9%)
No - 4 (13.8%)
Haven't thought about it - 4 (13.8%) My wife Lisa is a dual citizen - originally from the USA, but now more British than American. And some of my family too emigrated from the UK▸ to the USA some 60 years ago and are now more American than British. So we are an international family, and this question is about far more than a vacation - it's also about family events. Never the less, in the current climate we do not intend to visit the USA, even for those family events. We are somewhat "with" family - Lisa's and mine - online and the distance does not feel as great; for sure, we can't pop into the yacht club at Los Alamitos to catch up with my cousins, nor into Roanoke, Long Beach or Naples to catch up with Lisa's siblings, son and family but yet we remain in touch. Not *just* the political situation and what's going on in the headlined parts of the huge country, but also no desire to fly and as we get older the health issues so far from home, under such tension, and we have an alternative online too. We welcome family here to the UK and to Europe; I've posted pictures of my cousin and her husband at Dundas and on the Two Tunnels walk, and in a couple of months I'll be meeting up with my other cousin and her husband in the Low Countries. The world travel situation has changed even since I posted this poll though - so I never say "never". The changes, this week, are rather in the opposite direction and I am rethinking my late spring / early summer plans to go as far as I can by train across Turkey. Last year, the heatwave put me off, and I went to the other extreme of Narvik, and I've already been to Faro and Westport at the other extremes by train - Kars, Samsun and Van may need to wait to a future year. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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