The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants has a whole other group of people scared to come to the U.S: tourists.
Federal statistics show that overseas visitors to the U.S. dropped 2.4 percent in February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s presidency, compared to the same time last year.
And some experts fear a permanent chilling effect that could displace the USA’s decades-long status as a hub for both business travel and vacations.
“It’s already happening,” one Canadian resident visiting California for the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which draws nearly 30,000 industry professionals from across the world, told The Independent.
“[My friend] didn’t come because they were afraid. There’s not a single person I know who didn’t waffle. Random people in my building told me to be careful… nobody who’s paying attention is going to trust the U.S. for another ten years.”
They only felt safe traveling to San Francisco, they added, because they hold dual U.S. citizenship.
Since Trump took office, there have been many stories of temporary visitors with innocuous itineraries being imprisoned for days or weeks. Some had minor visa issues that would normally have seen them simply turned away. Others insisted they had done everything correctly and were victims of misunderstanding.
Jasmine Mooney, a 35-year-old Canadian actor and entrepreneur, was kept in detention for 12 days after simply presenting herself at the U.S. border and requesting a new visa.
Rebecca Burke, a 28-year-old comic artist from Wales on a backpacking trip across North America, was detained for three weeks because she had done chores in exchange for accommodation. Her father said she had been led onto the plane in chains “like Hannibal Lecter”.
Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Germany, was shackled and detained for 16 days while vacationing in Mexico and the U.S. with his American fiancée, allegedly because he answered a question wrong due to a language barrier.
Another German tourist, 29-year-old Jessica Brösche, was detained for six weeks because she planned to tattoo her American friend in exchange for some clothes, while a British punk band set to perform in Los Angeles were detained and turned away for unclear reasons.
That is why the governments of Canada, the UK, Germany, Denmark, and Finland have all updated their travel advice for citizens visiting the U.S. The latter four urged extra caution to transgender visitors in light of Trump’s plans to deny anyone deemed to have “misrepresented” their birth sex.
“I am here today to say to Canadians to avoid travel to the United States if at all possible, and to call on our government to stand up for our Canadian citizens who are being denied their rights by arbitrary detention,” said Canadian MP Charlie Angus last week.
The industry research firm Tourism Economics predicted a 5.1 per cent drop in overseas travelers to the U.S. for 2025 as a whole, where previously it had forecast an 8.8 per cent gain.
