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Asylum applicants walk outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement family residential center in Dilley, Texas, on Aug. 23, 2019. (AP/Yonhap)

By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondent

“Will they let me in?”

This question we all have asked ourselves while waiting in immigration lines at airports will likely take on a new weight for anyone with plans to travel to the US in the near future. That’s because the Trump administration, unsatisfied with the results of its all-out efforts to deport “illegal” immigrants, has now cast an even wider net, broadening the scope of its deportations. 

The bar to clear is no longer entering the country legally, but holding a US passport. Even with a valid visa, anyone who lacks US citizenship can’t be sure they’ll make it past immigration at the border. After all, visas are merely pieces of paper that show that someone registered to enter the US in a foreign country. Proving that one is eligible to enter falls onto the person who files through the immigration gates. Allowing someone into the country is the responsibility of the Customs and Border Protection.

An increasing number of non-US citizens are being detained at airports or expelled from the country after failing harsh questioning and searches. Many are speaking up about having been subject to random checks, including searches of personal phones. The US Constitution and relevant laws stipulate that searches at the border can take place without warrants. While people are not required to unlock their personal devices when customs agents ask, they will likely be denied entry to the United States if they do not.

In 2024, there were about 47,000 device searches at US borders (less than 0.01 percent of all entries), but the number is expected to be higher this year. The Washington Post advised people traveling to the US to “delete social media applications, delete messages that could be misinterpreted and refrain from taking a wiped phone as that would, in itself, raise suspicion.”

Recently, France’s minister of higher education and research stated that a French researcher on assignment for the National Center for Scientific Research who was traveling to a conference in Texas was denied entry to the United States before being expelled.

“This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister said. 

The researcher’s phone contained messages railing against Trump and his policies affecting freedom of research. The CBP has the authority to deny foreigners from entering the country if they express hostility toward the US government. 

Even if one makes it into the country in one piece, it would be premature to celebrate or rest assured of your status, as we are seeing a spike in cases in which permanent residents are having their green cards revoked after being arrested and detained. Most of these cases involve permanent residents who participated in pro-Palestine protests. 

Despite the fact that permanent residents quite literally have the right to live in the US indefinitely, they are being threatened with deportation. Immigration lawyers are advising permanent residents to “refrain from leaving the country and soliciting a lawyer before one participates in a protest.” To think that this is happening in the US, the world’s foremost champion of free speech.

The Trump administration is shrewdly taking advantage of the gray area that lies between the US Constitution and the country’s laws. The First Amendment protects the people’s right to the freedoms of speech, of the press and of the right of the people to assemble peacefully. The US Supreme Court ruled that this amendment applies to everyone within the US, including citizens, legal residents and even undocumented immigrants. 

At the same time, US immigration laws grant the federal government broad discretion to deport aliens if it is determined that they would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the US,” which is in direct conflict with the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech.

What will it take to enter the US? Will we have to delete all of our social media accounts? Best to leave our Truth Social accounts active, though, where we’ll need to post our lavish praise and enthusiastic support of Trump. Would we be going too far if we wore Make America Great Again caps in the immigration line? These are dark and trying times for America, and for Korea as well. 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]