An award-winning Australian comedian has cancelled a planned trip to the US after receiving legal advice that she could be stopped at the border due to her previous jokes about the Trump administration.
Alice Fraser, who has appeared on Australia’s ABC and the BBC and toured internationally, was due to head to New York in the first week of May to promote her recently published book.
She planned to apply for an O-1B visa, which permits comedians to live and work in the US if they demonstrate “extraordinary ability” in the arts. But after widespread reports of people being denied entry to the US and travellers being detained, Fraser sought advice from an immigration lawyer.
“I asked [the lawyer] what I thought was a ridiculous question – that I do political satire and have a fair few jokes floating around on Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and whether that would be a risk,” Fraser told Guardian Australia.
“I thought I was being paranoid, but she said it might [pose a risk] and they’d almost certainly Google me. She said while the vast majority of people will be able to travel in and out … they’re definitely doing increased scrutinising.
“If I didn’t have two children, I might be more open to taking a risk, but the vision of me being there with a baby strapped to me and held up and hassled, or worse … I’m not up for that.”
According to immigration law group Reeves “the US government is relying on social media screening more and more during the vetting process to gather extensive information”, noting an online presence offers insights into “interests, associations and potential security concerns”.
Foreigners have had their devices searched at the US border and been denied entry, including a French scientist who had messages on his phone critical of Donald Trump.
Travellers have been incarcerated in Ice detention centres and held for weeks, including Germans Lucas Sielaff, Fabian Schmidt and Jessica Brösche; British graphic artist Rebecca Burke and Canadian businesswoman Jasmine Mooney.
Fraser has been a regular critic of Trump as a contributor to political podcasts and radio shows, telling the Sydney Morning Herald in 2020: “I wouldn’t take an IOU from Trump if he wrote it on the money he owed me.”
She appeared at the Melbourne International comedy festival this week as part of the satirical political podcast A Rational Fear – billed as a “federal election special” or a “how to evade deportation” special.
Fraser lived and worked in the US on an internship visa more than a decade ago. She said the planned May visit was a “real opportunity” to promote her book, but travellers now “don’t know what to expect”.
“There’s a sense of unreality, this country which has presented itself as very stable, in terms of freedom of speech, is now behaving very unpredictably,” she said.
“People who have always been OK will probably still be OK but people on the margins will be discouraged – and that’s disappointing. You lose the voices around the edges.”
According to Smartraveller, which provides advice on behalf of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, an ESTA or valid visa allows travellers to board a US-bound plane or request entry at a land border but doesn’t guarantee entry to the US.
Smartraveller notes customs and border protection have strict requirements and “broad powers” for temporary detainment or deportation when assessing eligibility.
“Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry,” it states.
“You may be held at the port of entry or a nearby detention facility. The Australian government cannot intervene on your behalf, and our ability to provide consular assistance in these circumstances may be limited.”
Even if granted entry, the US may keep devices for months if a traveller refuses to unlock them.
Fraser said she wouldn’t stop making jokes but she also wanted to return to the US.
“I will go to the America that will have me, when it’s no longer reasonable for a visa lawyer to say I should purge my social media before I go there because a joke about Elon Musk might be considered hostile to the nation,” she said.
