Comment by toss1
8 months ago
THIS
The risk of gun violence is incredibly low, especially in venues like you might find traveling to a conference.
The real risk is the Immigration and Customs people. They are insanely unpredictable right now, and are taking wildly unexpected actions against any targets, usually on a political basis. Visitors from Canada, Britian, France, Germany and others have been detained in unpleasant conditions for days to weeks.
If you come, take at least these steps:
* scrub all social media accounts of political content, especially anything critical of right-wing policies
* Bring a digitally clean phone and laptop, preferably one you can afford to lose. Stare with a clean install, make sure there is no social media history or documents or images related to any kind of protest action. It may be wise to have a sanitized social media account with only work-related posts and likes.
* If your friends or family are involved in any kind of protests or actions (including against Tesla), be sure they are at least not referenced in any of your accounts or content you have on your devices.
It really looks like ICE are trying to make examples of anyone to discourage visitors, especially visitors who might be activists. If you are an activist, do not come, or be sure to scrub well to hide it fully.
If you can make it through the gauntlet, we welcome you and hope you have an enjoyable visit! (and deep apologies for this administration most of us do not want; they did not win by a majority)
This reminds me of the list of steps journalists should perform before travelling to North Korea.
Yes, that is a great reference — I should probably have included that! I'm even expecting to do the same for my next trips abroad a US citizen, to avoid trouble on returning.
My understanding is the French scientist was deported on arrival because he had a text complaining about the new administration's defunding of science. So, an even innocuous complaint about policy is politicized to an insane degree.
(and yes, I fully understand the implications of the North Korea reference. Unfortunately, it does not appear we can take it as a joke or exaggeration. All signs are this administration is doing everything possible to convert the form of govt from a democracy to a dictatorship)