Niemöller and the Dangerous State of American Tourism
The border between Canada and the United States is nearly 9,000 km long without bayonets or guns.
A border where neighbours in British Columbia and Washington state, Ontario and Michigan, Quebec and Vermont, New Brunswick and Maine, cross back and forth.
A border that cuts right through a library and opera hall. What a powerful symbol of shared values and traditions.
It's just a line between neighbours—no big deal.
But no more.
Consider the treatment of Jasmine Mooney, the co-founder of a drink brand. The young entrepreneur was looking to renew her American work VISA. It should have been simple and straightforward. Instead, she was arrested by ICE and dragged to a detention cell. She was held in chains for the first three days without even a blanket to keep warm.
And then there is Becky Burke, a young British student who was backpacking in the United States and made the mistake of trying to cross into Canada without the proper paperwork. She was turned back, and United States officials had her immediately arrested as an illegal alien. She has been held for weeks in a brutal detention centre.
Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old German, was arrested while trying to head to see friends in Los Angeles. She was held in an ICE detention centre for six weeks.
As reports of nightmarish encounters between tourists and US border guards mount, it is sending a severe chill for those considering travel to the United States.
In January, the US Travel Association tried to warn Donald Trump to tone down the rhetoric about Canada as an enemy threat because American industry is heavily dependent on Canadian tourism dollars. They reported that even a 10% reduction in Canadian visits to states like Florida and Arizona would cost the travel industry $2.1 billion in lost revenue and 140,000 lost hospitality jobs.
Trump ignored them, and the hostility toward Canada only increased.
Canadians have responded in kind, with a 40% drop in flights from Canada in February. Stories of people being dragged off to ICE detention centres will drive down travel even further.
And the boycott is no longer just for Canada. Europeans have seen the ugly face of MAGA and are making alternative plans.
The Rise of Border Fascism
So how did we get here?
In the run-up to the November election, Donald Trump was sending a loud and bold message about what he had in mind if re-elected. It's just that nobody really thought he would follow through.
Like when he accused people coming across the border of "poisoning the blood" of America, it was language right out of Mein Kampf.
But many thought the so-called poisoning of the American blood was just colourful Trump language to show he was serious about dealing with "migrants" from El Salvador, Mexico or Somalia.
Surely, he didn't mean Snowbirds or white European backpackers in his blood hatred?
Or when he promised, like Hitler, to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."
It was total Hitler language, but that just meant more cops on the streets. Right?
But Trump was signalling the militarization of society and the suspension of civil liberties. And good luck if the Canadian Consulate can help you if you are caught up in the dragnet while visiting Disneyland.
Even before Trump came to power, the Canadian government was quietly warning our citizens about travel to the United States because of the growing legal attack on women's, trans and queer rights. With Trump, the threat of being pulled out of the line at an airport is much more serious and frightening.
As I read these nightmare stories, I can't help but think of Pastor Martin Niemöller's powerful 1946 poem First They Came.
Niemöller provided a devastatingly simple explanation for how self-confident people became complicit and then victims of the fascist playbook. His poem is not just about Germany under Hitler; it is a timeless warning about our obligation to be vigilant when the powerful beat down on the marginalized.
The fact is that backpackers, visitors and the thousands of Americans working in the travel industry have become collateral damage in a broader ideological war being launched by MAGA. And it could signal worse things to come.
In a previous Substack, I wrote about Trump's fascination with the Nazi economy ideology of autarky – closed borders. However, we need to consider the broader implications of how that applies to travel.
Known as "border fascism," the term comes from Brendan O'Connor's book Blood Red Lines, where he analyses the rise of an ugly new face of American nativism.
Fear of the foreigner has deep roots in American history. The modern version has been bubbling up in the swamps of the far right since the 1970s.
Groups like the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) have been actively working in the political backrooms and the courts for years. They have been pushing for a hostile, all-or-nothing approach to ending immigration and eliminating civil rights protections for those caught up in the snares at the border.
Felipe de la Hoz, writing in The Nation, explains:
"Ethno-nationalism has been weaponized as part of a broader effort to convince people that the only way they will prosper or even survive is to police borders created by economic and social elites."
This is Project 2025 in a nutshell.
It means the brutal and arbitrary application of the law. And it includes those who mistakenly think they can visit the United States without worry or fear.
Let's be clear: Trump's agenda is not haphazard and chaotic. His right-wing think tanks have been scouring the law books for a very long time to find ways to push the expansion of arbitrary state power.
Take, for example, Trump's recent attack on Venezuelan and El Salvadorian criminal elements through the exploitation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. This 227-year-old piece of legislation was only meant to apply in wartime. Trump is using it to erase longstanding legal provisions.
The courts have ruled that Trump's administration has completely overstepped the law. He is ignoring them. One can always hope that the courts and common sense will prevail. However, complacency is a dangerous luxury in these times.
Fascism is not just a creed; it is a pattern that can be followed.
Americans and the rest of the world must work full out to keep Niemöller's terrible prognosis from coming true.
At the very least, change your travel plans.
Excellent commentary. It is also not lost on me that your three examples of illegally targeted people are women. When Trump first came to power I instinctively felt a chill. I felt then and now that horribly my premonition is fully realized. Women were always going to be victims in Trumps American as our realized equality has progressed, so has the misogyny. We are the easy target and women every where need to wake up!
Some days, I can hardly breathe as I sit here reading the unthinkable. Thank you for continuing to tell us the truth through logic and wisdom, all without the rhetoric of "fake news" and other such nonsense that is so rampant here. RESIST, RESIST, RESIST.