Donald Trump delivered the speech after his inauguration as 47th President of the United States. Video / JCCIC
Those crossing the US border are facing added scrutiny according to a travel industry veteran detained twice;
New travel advice is being developed by the government for New Zealand travellers to the US;
Journalist David Farrier said he prepares an emergency alert before entering the US in case he gets detained by officials.
A travel industry veteran has twice been detained for questioning by United States’ border officials this year, and she’s warning others to think twice about travelling there.
“I’m really nervous about going back and it’s only my job that has me going back,” she told theHerald.
The experience has already prompted the New Zealander to detour through Asia later in the year rather than pass through the United States again.
The woman’s story comes as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) prepares to issue new travel advice for New Zealanders heading to, or through, the United States.
A New Zealand woman told the Herald she had been detained and questioned twice at US airports this year, the second time in a holding room with about 50 other people - some crying. Photo / AFP
It follows MFAT’s confirmation that eight New Zealanders had been detained at the US border in the first four months of this year - and President Donald Trump‘s announcement there will be mass deportations of people living in the United States.
A spokeswoman for the US Embassy told the Herald that under the Trump Administration, the United States was prioritising the reduction of passport and visa fraud, and human trafficking to protect the integrity of US borders and prevent illegal immigration.
Two detentions: January and April
The Kiwi travel industry veteran flew for work to the United States in January and again in April and was stopped on both occasions.
On the first occasion she was questioned closely by border officials, then on the second she spent more than an hour in a holding room with about 50 other people, she said.
President Donald Trump has said under his leadership the United States' border would become tougher to cross.
On that second occasion, she said she watched officials humiliate and ridicule others who had been detained - some for days - as travellers sobbed in distress and fear.
After the second detention and questioning she claims she was told the reason for them: “because your name sounds like someone on a no-fly list”.
The Herald has agreed not to name the woman but can report her name is not distinctive and dozens of others in New Zealand carry the same name.
The woman’s concern was such heading into the US in January that - even though she describes herself as “not political”, she “cleaned” her phone as stories spread online of border officials demanding to view travellers’ social media accounts.
The concern appeared justified, she said, after she was first pulled aside and quizzed at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The second detention, at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, was more intimidating, she said, with border officials guiding her into a holding room containing 50 people.
She told the Herald the “veneer of civilisation” was stripped away, with those held there sobbing and upset as they waited to be processed.
She said she watched border officials quizzing people with loud voices - sometimes shouting - in what she considered to be a demeaning and insulting way.
“Interviews were going on ... Very aggressive ... walking around and asking to go into people’s phones”.
A man sitting alone next to her pulled his phone out only to have a border official start “screaming at him to get off his phone” she claimed.
At times, she said it appeared officials were trying to goad detainees into “kicking off”.
In the 90 minutes she was detained, she said she watched two people being refused entry to the US. She said it reminded her of the tense scenes at airports which followed the September 11 attacks but “feels worse than that.
“I love America. The country is a very different place from what it was last year. I wouldn’t be going to the US for a holiday or anything right now” she told the Herald.
She said she believed the reaction at the border differed between states. “I’ve been advised not to fly into any Republican states right now” she told the Herald.
MFAT has previously warned electronic devices may be taken and studied for those wanting to cross the US border.
New Zealand film-maker and journalist David Farrier - now based in California - raised travel concerns on a recent episode of his Flightless Bird podcast.
He said recent incidents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials seizing people for detention and deportation had concerned him sufficiently to have a default alert message keyed into his phone ready to send.
It read: “I am being detained by ICE.”
Among those seized and deported inside the US were people who had protested over Israel’s actions in Palestine following the October 7 terror attack, Farrier said on his podcast.
In the podcast episode, Farrier said his own vocal opposition to “genocide” in Gaza now weighed on his mind when he travelled into the US.
“I’m now thinking about that a lot when I come through Customs coming in and out of the United States in a way I never thought about it before.”
A spokeswoman for MFAT said it was in the process of updating travel advice for the US as part of a regular review.
The spokeswoman said “long-standing advice” for travellers to the US warned about its “strict entry and stay rules” and recommended seeking advice from a US embassy or consulate for specific advice that might apply to their own situation.
MFAT’s travel advice already tells travellers electronic devices could be searched at the border. It also contains a warning posted in November 2024 about the increased chance of a terror attack.
“There are more significant safety or security concerns than you would usually find in New Zealand, particularly because of terrorism and civil unrest,” MFAT had advised.
A spokeswoman for the US Embassy told the Herald the US visa policy continued to allow certain countries to travel visa-free but travellers had to meet US legal requirements, which could include the Electronic System of Travel Authorization (ESTA) and showing proof of income, among other requirements.
“A region that is stable, safe, and prosperous supports Department efforts to advance President Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Together we can strengthen trade ties, create partnerships to deter illegal immigration, and enhance our security and prosperity.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
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