The teens claimed CBP targeted them because they hadn’t booked hotels for their entire stay in Hawaii.
“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”
There’s a significant amount of the US population who still don’t realise how bad things are, you really expect everyone outside the US to be any better?
I assure you, everyone outside of the US knows how bad the US is… the US is the laughing stock of the world right now. We get daily reminders how shit it is, how shit the economy is, how many mass shootings there were today. The world is fascinated by it, sometimes bored.
In this case with the young travellers, they have probably had the holiday booked for ages. Some people just think it wouldn’t happen to them. These sorts of checks would seem random anyway. These sorts of things appear on near every episode of Border Patrol (in Australia) where someone is being sent home because of lack of funds to sustain their length of stay etc…
Ah yes, the hive mind of all non US citizens sharing the same knowledge.
Which bit are you objecting to? If you don’t believe that the US is being portrayed by every news agency (worldwide) as a dumpster fire, you are deluded
You’d be surpised by how many people don’t follow international news.
It’s not just in the news. My husband is a lawyer. He was on a training conference today. Part of it was about how the rule of law needs to be followed and society only works when it is. They then discussed how important it was to upkeep that using America as an example of a government no longer following rule of law. This wasn’t internet memes. This was senior legal minds discussing how American democracy is failing.
Most people aren’t lawyers.
Whilst you’re absolutelly right that not everybody outside the US follows what’s going on in the US, it makes sense to expect that the universe of people who have the money and inclination to go spend a whole month travelling in the US AND are not at all aware of what’s going on in the US, is miniscule - if you’re a middle class person in a wealthy enough country (hence you can afford the plane ticket and the costs of 1 month worth of accomodation and travelling around the US), who can speak English and who is interested in the US that you want to spending a whole month travelling there, you’re almost certainly paying attention to all things America and since what’s has been popping up in the news all over the World, you’re almost certainly aware of that.
I mean, I can understand how poor people in Latin American who would want to immigrate to the US by walking all the way there might not be up to date with what’s going on in the US or at least fully understand the implications, but that doesn’t make sense for actual European tourists who can afford to and chose to fly there and spend an whole month there.
I get that. My point is that in arenas that have usually nothing to do with the USA, it’s being talked about as fact that the USA is in a failed state at the moment.
It doesn’t have the dramatics of things like 9/11 that changed the world irrevocably. However, it’s a similar feeling for those not in the USA. The world has changed and won’t be the same. You don’t have to follow the news to be aware.
… don’t use social media, and don’t talk to anybody that does those things (because it’s basically impossible for it to not enter normal conversation).
Yeah, there certainly exist some people like this. But I doubt they are the ones booking international trips.
Oh, they definitly on social media and talk to people. But that still doesn’t mean you’re exposed to US politics. People have their own domestic politics to talk about. What happens in the US really isn’t as relevant to the daily life of the average foreigner as you might think.
I would guess we as outsiders think it’s worse than it is, hearing only the bad stuff. We’re not hearing about great new sales at bed bath and beyond or whatever, we’re only hearing about the heavy handed deportations and human rights violations. Which is obviously bad but its easy to confuse “probably not as bad as it sounds” with “probably not actually that bad”.
I don’t think I’m communicating the point i was trying to make very well but whatever
I think you’re saying that we/I in the USA still see/have the trappings of normalcy: ads for BB&B, our Amazon packages are still delivered, we still have our treats.
Y’all outside of the USA don’t care about our treats. Y’all’s news is showing all the human rights erosions and ignoring that I got new prescription glasses by mail just 2 business days after ordering them (what a successful and stable country this must be/s!).
(sidenote, maybe prescription glasses aren’t treats, but I’m very excited because my prescription has changed and maybe I will stop with these eye strain headaches)
I assure you, most don’t. Message boards don’t contain mist people