Advice for Crossing the US Border

Please note: this advice has been put together by CSWIP, in collaboration with the APA Committee on Women and Gender, PSWIP, and other groups that choose not to be named. We are philosophers, not lawyers. This should not be viewed as decisive, but rather as helpful pointers to places where you can find the views of experts, as well as some key suggestions we have gleaned from the work of those experts. For legal matters, you should always consult a lawyer.

UPDATE: The Canadian government has issued a warning that bearers of passports with an X gender-marker may have difficulty at the US border.
Before you go:
- Tell someone when you’re about to cross a border, and make arrangements to call/text them when you are safely through.
- Bring paper copies of full information about what you are doing and where you are staying. (So that you don’t need to turn on a device to look this up.) Also bring copies of travel and citizenship documents, to be sure.
- Memorize a contact number for someone you can call if you are detained.
Know Your Rights
- ACLU outlines your rights at an airport border here.
- ACLU on your rights within 100 miles of border here. Note that many unexpected places are within 100 miles of a border– including the entire state of Michigan, for example.
- Rights once WITHIN the US. You can download and print “red cards” in multiple languages here.
Digital Security: An article in Wired with the basics.
- Your devices can be inspected, and social media can cause problems for you at the border. Your devices can also be taken from you, for long periods of time.
- Consider bringing a burner, or tem
- porary, phone. If not, most sources advise that you remove social media and email from your phone before travelling, and log out of cloud services. (Some sources worry that not having social media on your devices will be viewed as suspicious.)
- Some non-US universities are issuing loaner “clean” laptops for academic travel. Ask yours about this.
- Do not configure your phone so that facial or fingerprint recognition may be used to unlock it. Instead, use the strongest passcode your phone will allow. For numeric codes, use the maximum length and do not use an obvious pattern.
- Turn off cell and wifi service, and turn off your devices before going through the border.
Social Media for visa applicants: As of June 18, 2025, the US has announced that it will vet social media of a wide range of visa applicants. It will require profiles to be set to ‘public’. For more see here.
Legal ContactsConsult with an immigration lawyer before travelling, especially if you have reason to think you are at particular risk (e.g. due to immigration status, brushes with the law, protest, social media posts, skin colour, gender)
- Ask allies for pro bono legal support in response to ICE in your area and come up with a list.
- Good to know about the National Lawyers Guild. They have chapters all over the US. They may not provide individual legal support on immigration issues, but they do for protesters. (Given that protesting international students and faculty are the target these days, the two groups intersect, but you’ll have to figure out what the chapter near you provides.)
Preclearance Airports
- Preclearance airports allow you to go through customs while in another country. This can offer desirable additional protections, which is why this is frequently recommended for Canadians, as in the article here. (Amongst them: you can decide that you don’t want to travel, and simply walk away, if you don’t like the way things are going.) This may also be desirable for those reassured by EU protections: preclearance is also possible in Dublin. However, some writers argue against it for those who live in America, worried that it may prevent reentry to the country where they live, as in this article.
- Airports with preclearance:
  - In Canada:
    - Calgary International Airport
    - Edmonton International Airport
    - Stanfield International Airport (Halifax)
    - Trudeau International Airport (Montréal)
    - Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (Ottawa)
    - Pearson International Airport (Toronto)
    - Vancouver International Airport
    - Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport
    - Alaska Marine Highway System Ferry Terminal (Prince Rupert, British Columbia)
  - In Europe: Dublin Airport, Ireland
  - Bahamas – Nassau Preclearance, Lynden Pindling International Airport
  - Bermuda Preclearance, L.F. Wade International Airport
  - Aruba Preclearance, Queen Beatrix International Airport
  - Abu Dhabi Preclearance, Abu Dhabi International Airport
- Travellers from other countries may (or may not) want to consider transferring at a preclearance airport, to avoid dealing with immigration on US soil.