I can't believe we're at the point in history where criticizing our president is labeled "potential terrorism" and used to punish people.

Free speech is literally the first right granted by the bill of rights. Criticism of our president has _always_ been allowed.

I only bring a secondary, recently factory reset phone with a basic account setup overseas. But I haven't been overseas since prior to COVID. My primary phone stays at home, it's too potentially valuable to allow any country's airport security to paw through freely.

I used to buy a local SIM card when I got to the airport. Next time I go overseas I might have to buy a new phone and SIM card.

I’m no fan of the current administration at all, but I’m also weary of just accepting stories that confirm my bias.

I _feel_ like the administration would brag about blocking potential European terrorists or something of this was actually going on intentionally.

My gut tells me that the people getting blocked at the border are either running into extremely overzealous border guards OR are making some kind of ruckus anyway and complaining to the media after provoking guards somehow.

Still not acceptable behavior by border guards, but it’d be a far cry from a top down order.

I guess we’ll see how often these stories keep popping up.

I agree, to a point. If an order were coming from the top, it would be happening many times a day.

But it could also be that the overzealous staffers feel like they want to impress the higher ups. So it could well be happening bottom up. The administration certainly isn't jumping in to fix it when it happens. If so, that's something you need to take into account if you want to travel here.

Many are going to boycott us entirely anyway, just because of how hostile the administration is to our erstwhile allies.

Keep carrying that water, kid.

What's a good "dumb phone" these days to travel with?

Related threads,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43418059 ("French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found (theguardian.com)", 28 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43425841 ("French scientist denied entry into the U.S., French government says (reuters.com)", 118 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43416476 ("French researcher denied entry for a personal opinion on Trump administration (lemonde.fr)", 137 comments)

I'm afraid this one's no exception to the law of headlines.