When returning to the United States from her spring break trip to Curaçao, Keylin Rivera’s worst-case scenario came true.
Rivera, a U.S. and Colombian dual citizen, had flown into Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday for a layover before heading back to Boston. She was passing through the border control Global Entry line at the Charlotte airport. But when she put her passport in the kiosk, it flagged her to see an officer. This has happened before, but officers usually just glance at her document and let her through, so she didn’t think much of it.
But this time she was led into a back room where she was questioned about her trip, and her bags were searched – under what they told her was a random search. Rivera asked for her passport back and resumed her journey home, but she still feels unsettled by the incident.
“There’s so much uncertainty, we don’t know what could happen, and I’ve been really anxious about traveling in general, about getting stopped, which I did get stopped,” the Harvard graduate student and former political appointee under the Biden administration told USA TODAY. “I was bracing myself already for that.”
Before she landed in Charlotte, Rivera “prepared for the worst” by deleting all her social media apps and removing Face ID from her phone. She mass-texted her friends when she got flagged, just in case something serious were to happen.
“I guess my question is: Why wasn’t anyone else? Why was I the only one?” she said.
Amid news of detainments, deportations and higher immigration scrutiny under the Trump administration, Americans are feeling increased anxiety about crossing U.S. borders. Even those with valid visas to lawfully study, work and live in the country feel the pressure. Travelers are rethinking any upcoming international travel out of fear of being stopped – or worse.
“Officers are being encouraged by this administration to not leave any stone unturned and to make sure they’re asking questions and gathering information, so I think people who previously had not encountered any issues might see that change,” said Glenn Schieck, an immigration lawyer at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP who works closely with foreign nationals with permanent residency or on visas. “We are, overall, just going to see more going on at the border.”
