Fear of detention: Researchers at the US border crossing ensure travel designs
Fear of detention: Researchers at the US border crossing ensure travel designs
An immigration operation in the United States is worried by the global research community. High profiles of arrests and deportations of academics fuel fears, even among travelers with valid entry documents.
International researchers who have spoken to Nature are rethinking their planned trips to the United States for conferences and research. Scientists in the United States who are not citizens also consider their own travel plans for fear that they may no longer be allowed to return to the country when they leave.
"Fear is noticeable," says Jonathan Grode, Managing partner of the immigration law firm Green and Spiegel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Grode receives at least 20 calls from clients every day who ask whether it is safe to travel.
high profiles of incidents
The print has been built up for months, since The new government of US President Donald Trump , who started to tighten border security, assumes shape.
Many scientists have been alerted by several incidents in recent months. In one case, a kidney transplant specialist from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, was deported to Lebanon after a valid visa when he tried to return to the United States. Later it was reported that images on your phone linked you to the HISBOLLAH, which were linked by the US authorities as foreign terrorist organization is considered.
In another incident, US border officers were hard-faced with a French scientist who traveled to a scientific conference at Houston. The French government said he was deported after the border officials searched his personal devices and found messages about "personal opinions" on US research policy. The Ministry of the Interior states that the scientist had had confidential information from a US national laboratory on his devices, "in violation of a confidentiality agreement", and that "any statement that his dismissal is based on political beliefs is completely wrong".
The researcher is a planetary scientist who has worked with NASA about Mars science, confirmed several sources compared to Nature. He did not take part in the conference.
Andrea Liu, a physicist of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says that she was "shocked" to hear about the experience of the French scientist. "This makes me think that if you really want to come and want science, it is safer-bring a prepaid phone and an empty laptop with you so that it doesn't happen to you."
US border officers have the right to search telephones and laptops of people who enter the country, even by citizens, explains Carolina Regales, lawyer at Klasko Immigration Law Partners in Philadelphia. Since 2019, people who apply for a visa for the United States also have to state their social media users' names, although messages have been rarely used in these accounts in the past, she explains.
grode says that most travelers in the United States do not have to worry: Despite some top -class cases, hundreds of thousands of people enter the USA every month and do so smoothly.
If someone has no perfect criminal record, Grode advises special caution. An expired visa or an examination of the law, even if it is apparently minor, could be a problem in the current administration that is "as strict as possible," he explains.
Consider security
The concerns regarding the trip have increased in particular for researchers who are from the opposition of the Trump administration against Transgender-Rights , Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs (dei) and specific research topics such as Climate change and misinformation feel affected. A geophysicist from Canada, who spoke to Nature on the condition of anonymity, now rethinks a planned trip to the United States in May to meet with colleagues and do research. The researcher, who is a trans woman, says that she does not know what information the US border authorities have from previous visits in the country when she had ID documents under another name.
"It seems that in the current political climate, any kind of irregularities or discrepancies is taken immediately," she says.