Increased scrutiny at the U.S. border has led to increased anxiety and concerns for business travelers entering the country—and an increased need for companies to provide information and resources to address those concerns.
Global mobility specialist Vialto Partners earlier this month said it had seen a sharp increase in emergency calls related to U.S. entry issues, with the typical weekly call load of 15 to 20 per week doubling to 40. While media attention around some high-profile incidents of visitors being denied entry or detained undoubtedly contributed to that anxiety, that volume has not eased even as the media attention has, said Claire Pepper, Vialto's immigration partner and Europe, the Middle East and Africa business travel leader. Vialto, meanwhile, has expanded its emergency support line for business travelers to also offer support to a broader group, including individuals planning to come into the U.S. on a work permission, she said.
"It's people who are nervous—they may have [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] questions, they may have questions on whether what they are doing would be deemed as work or not," Pepper said. "It tends to be the employer who is the person calling us when there is an actual emergency, or if someone has been sent home, it may be an emergency to look at what we can do to support that person to avoid any adverse immigration history."
Outside of the emergency line, Vialto also has seen an increase in general inquiries about what to expect and how to prepare with reports of increased secondary screening and searches of baggage and electronic devices, said Manish Daftari, a partner at Vialto Law and a former U.S. immigration attorney. There also have been increased calls from travelers concerned when ESTA approval seems to be delayed, wondering whether there's a problem, Pepper said.
"There's definitely more anxiety when people are traveling, even when people are traveling in a couple of months," Daftari said. "A year ago, we weren't getting calls about that, but now we're getting more of those types of calls."
In some cases, Pepper said she's seen companies change policies, such as having employees apply for B-1 visas rather than relying on ESTA and visa waivers to be "super prudent." More widely, Daftari said he's seen companies increase messaging letting travelers know of potentially increased scrutiny, be it by targeted emails or general travel warnings on their intranet.
Bruce McIndoe, president of McIndoe Risk Advisory, reported a similar trend, emphasizing some of the points traveling employees should know. That includes having up-to-date documents, ESTA information that matches their actual itinerary and knowing that border officials have the right to inspect phones at the point of entry.
"The media hype is more than reality, but the reality is, they are feeling more empowered and more aggressive to do enhanced validation of people coming in, especially noncitizens," McIndoe said. "The companies are pretty uniformly doing more communications to travelers."
Joceyln Campanaro, co-chair of law firm Fisher & Phillips' immigration practice group, said at the recent Global Travel Risk Summit—which was presented by HospitalityLawyer.com and The BTN Group—that traveling employees should be mentally prepared for the possibility of secondary screening, which can be an intimidating experience. Having all necessary documents together beforehand rather than having to scramble when pulled into secondary is a good first step, she said.
The potential search and seizure of electronic devices is a particular sticking point for business travelers, given that their devices could contain sensitive company or client information for which access in a search would constitute a security breach. If border officials ask for travelers to unlock a device or for a password, they can refuse, but in the case of a foreign visitor, it heightens the chance they will be denied entry or detained, and for U.S. citizens, it can prolong the screening process or increase the chance the device is seized as border officials try to obtain a warrant.
That potential for search or seizure is nothing new—U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports for the 2024 fiscal year, it searched electronic devices of about 47,000 travelers, which represented 0.01 percent of all arriving international travelers—and McIndoe said companies should have already had guidelines in place for protecting sensitive data while traveling.
Campanaro said that some companies are taking steps such as having travelers remove biometrics authentications and removing social media apps from their devices or travel with burner devices to protect sensitive data.
As far as getting that as official legal advice, however, Campanaro said companies should be aware that law firms and other advisors also must be cautious with what advice they give, particularly in the political environment.
"It's a difficult time in terms of how to guide people on a wide scale," she said. "If I write an alert and say there's increased scrutiny at the border and recommend you scrub your devices or not carry them, how will that come out when you have a government that's attacking law firms or advocacy groups that they claim are aiding and abetting illegal immigration because of giving know-your-rights handouts? To be frank, it's a tenuous time in how we advise properly, stay within the guise of the law and advocate without going too far."
In the broadest sense, Daftari said among the best advice for international travelers right now is to be prepared and patient, as the increased scrutiny will likely slow down the process even if a traveler is not selected for secondary screening. And that likely will be the case for some time.
"We're probably not going to see any major changes anytime soon, based on offhand comments from the administration," Daftari said. "It just seems like this is part of their initiative to have more enhanced screening and vetting, so we'll probably just have to be prepared for this in the long run."
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