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?
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.
I’d imagine it was like 0% risky.
There’s A big difference between legal immigrants and actual us citizens.
But id probably rather live in the UK if that’s an option
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.
only going after overt political dissidents and brown immigrants
They seem to have detained some white tourists lately as well.
It’s still a stupid fucking question, You’re an American citizen point blank period.
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”.
First off I’m a history major, and a huge history buff. This is why I left reddit because of people with your crazy mindset comparing Trump to Hitler. You guys are nuts
So when they give you the books in your major classes, do you actually read them?
I will save this message for the next four years and then I will message you and I will ask you how many Americans did Donald Trump kill Nazi style like it was a holocaust? And you will sit there with your mouth shut like a fucking idiot because you won’t be able to answer the question. Matter of fact How many Americans did he kill in a holocaust type of way his last presidency?
If you are right I will buy you a drink. If I am right, I will see you in hell
lol fair enough, in four years I will message you with my Venmo account that way you can send me 17 bucks to go get a drink
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.
You’ve still got a British passport? Consider staying out of trouble, I.e. the US.
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.
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 they can disappear anyone to the south american torture prison.
So you are not safe. You just have lots of brown and hispanic 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.
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)
edit: unless there are additional South American facilities they’ve been building that I’m unaware of
No, I just brain farted and said south instead of central.
Proper call out. Gonna leave my post unedited, so your callout remains relevant.
Also depends how much presence you have on social media, and how public you are avout your political opinions there.
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.
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 (for example, having a parent that has citizenship), but few countries have unconditional birthright citizenship, particularly outside of the Americas.
They’re arresting white people too.
That’s a valid point.
But less often.
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 before border crossings, 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, or 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).
Edit: So if you natualize in January 1, 2021, I’d wait till January 3, 2026, to be extra safe.
But remember, this administration is gonna try to find every legal justification they can if they really want to get you.
Why would you come back?
My advice is if you have citizenship or a visa in another country and you can leave the USA. Run and don’t look back. The USA is a place to be escaped from. Consider yourself lucky to have a place to go.
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.
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.
Welcome back to the Stasi.
Ppl are saying it’s fine if you aren’t brown but i still wouldn’t ive read about Canadian Americans (who are white) 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
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…
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fuck I hate this timeline
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
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.
pretty risky as even white canadians are detained.
so far naturalized citizens are not being harassed or detained.
everyone you’ve heard about being turned away or deported so far has a green card, visa or is in the US illegally.
Or brown.
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.
https://bsky.app/profile/nicolemicheroni.bsky.social/post/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?
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?
On the one hand, it has to be a mistake, right?
On the other, malicious harassment of an immigration lawyer with a “foreign” sounding name is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect right now.
Absolute best case scenario for this administration is that they are prone to making stupid, dangerous, embarrassing mistakes that will end up getting someone hurt or worse. And that’s giving them way more benefit of the doubt than they’ve earned.
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.
From what I read itsly “ended” it, but it’s not confirmed permanent yet, there will be a vote 60 days after march 28 to make it permanent. Their new restrictions are pretty extreme though. I would expect the vote to not pass, but some other version of this will get passed at some point.
It’s literally a fascist government, what do you expect. They were fairly moderate until Trump’s election basically gave them permission to go nuts.
oh shoot I just thought they got rid of the “great” part and you can still become a citizen if you have italian grandparents, what are the new restrictions?
https://www.boccadutri.com/italian-citizenship-by-descent-decree-law-36-2025/
Some resources. There’s a whole new list of requirements.
got it.
as far as I’m aware, it’s just the “great” part that changed. it’s not so much that Italian immigration laws have become overly restrictive as they were so broad before as to proving Italian heritage.
The current Italian citizenship restrictions are still a great deal easier than most other countries.
basically, as long as you have a parent or grandparent who is an Italian citizen or became one, you can become an Italian citizen also by filling out a form.
You should read the first link
it’s the first I’ve heard of maybe a US citizen being deported.
It’s been happening for years. From the Washington Post:
The U.S. government does not release data on how often ICE wrongfully detains or deports U.S. citizens. But investigations by media outlets, research institutes and oversight agencies have revealed that ICE has arrested, detained, deported and issued detainers — requests to local jails to hold a person in custody — for thousands of citizens since the agency was created in 2003. One 2011 study estimated that roughly 1 to 1.5 percent of deportees are U.S. citizens.
Thanks, I meant intentional deportations of US citizens.
Nothing says they weren’t intentional.
nothing says they were.
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
Not really at much risk… YET.
Give it another 6 months or so.
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.
U will be completely fine. U have the same risks that have always existed such as disable biometric auth for u phone etc.
