Tag Archives for immigration.
DHS is accusing Hilton-branded hotels in the Minneapolis area of canceling government-rate reservations and refusing to house immigration personnel, citing a “no ICE” email from a Hampton Inn franchise while activist pressure like “No Sleep for ICE” protests provides a motive for the cnacels.
Bali’s governor is pushing a “quality tourism” plan that would require visitors to show three months of bank statements before being allowed to enter. There may be no fixed minimum balance—just officials judging whether your finances fit your itinerary—which is exactly why I wouldn’t visit if this becomes policy: it invites arbitrary enforcement and turns private financial data into a security risk.
CBP detained a school superintendant for hours at Houston’s airport after a trip to Nicaragua, and he says agents told him he had no Fourth Amendment rights while pressuring him for passwords and devices. Now the U.S. citizen is suing DHS to curb border phone searches and challenge the government’s suspicionless device search rules.
TSA is sending ICE airline passenger lists multiple times a week, running everyone who flies through an immigration-enforcement match using the Secure Flight pipeline that was built for aviation security. It turns airports into chokepoints for law enforcement: broad roster surveillance first, detain-and-sort-out-later in the terminal, and a structure that invites mission creep beyond immigration.
The U.S. wants visa waiver visitors to hand over five years of social media plus more personal data just to get an ESTA — and to apply only through a mobile app. That won’t just hassle Europeans and other low-risk travelers, it risks driving them to other destinations, cutting flights, cargo capacity, and tourism jobs here at home.
More people are being kicked out of Global Entry than approved, and nearly 40% of those who challenge the decision get reinstated. DHS often won’t disclose the reason for a revocation, leaving travelers to appeal blind — and the high reversal rate suggests many removals never should have happened in the first place.
Leaving the U.S. no longer feels automatic. At more than 50 airports, passengers now face biometric exit controls—cameras scanning their faces before they’re cleared to board. And that’s about to grow.
Passengers scrambled off planes after Trump’s sudden $100,000 H1B visa fee—an illegal, counterproductive move that disrupted flights and drove skilled workers to stay put in the U.S.
Passengers flying from London Heathrow to Dallas – Fort Worth on American Airlines flight 51 and taking a connecting flight no longer walk to immigration, pick up their bags at customs, drop them back off to re-check them, and go through security again.
The Big Beautiful Bill has more and more warts that just keep coming out, including a new $250 “Visa Integrity Fee” for most foreigners applying for U.S. nonimmigrant visas. It’s a ‘refundable deposit’ that you’re supposed to get back for leaving the U.S. on time, though no one knows yet how refunds will actually happen. Implementing a cross-agency refund system is going to take… time. The fee amount will adjust up with inflation.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
