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?

  • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    update: Blue sky users are apparently receiving threatening letters using the phrase their “parole is terminated” despite being us citizens; I can’t confirm anything, but I’m looking into it now.

    so far naturalized citizens are not being harassed or detained.

    everyone i’ve heard about being turned away or deported so far has a green card, visa or is in the US illegally.

    it’s certainly a terrible situation and a slippery slope, but as far as I’m aware naturalized citizens are not facing that treatment yet.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        9 days ago

        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?

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        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.

        • kersploosh@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          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.

          https://archive.is/20250411190043/https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/05/us-citizens-deported-immigration/

        • couch1potato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 days ago

          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.

          • starlinguk@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            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.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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      9 days ago

      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

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    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.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 days ago

      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.

      • starlinguk@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        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.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        You’re ignoring the fact that these “single incidents” are essentially the administration testing what they can get away with. And there’s a lot more than just this one, if you bother to look.

        • Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 days ago

          …no, I’m not. They’re very serious, and should be taken as such. But that doesn’t make them an accurate risk assessment in it of an individual incident, you need to look at numbers, for a real risk assessment

  • Evotech@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    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

  • Crackhappy@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    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.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      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.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        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.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      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.

  • iowagneiss@midwest.social
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    8 days ago

    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.

  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    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.

    • badelf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 days ago

      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”.

      • smokingpistol@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        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

          • smokingpistol@lemm.ee
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            7 days ago

            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?

              • smokingpistol@lemm.ee
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                6 days ago

                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

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    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.