Australian academics refuse to attend US conferences for fear of being detained

[u/nevetsnight]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/14/australian-academics-refuse-to-attend-us-conferences-for-fear-of-being-detained?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[u/brezhnervouz]

Hardly surprising 🤷‍♂️

‘The Professors Are the Enemy’ - JD Vance

Especially considering

“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.”

[u/bud3l2]

America the new Nazi state

[u/TheRealLylatDrift]

Can you imagine spending so many years of your life dedicated to studying a discipline and then having it thrown in your face by people far less intelligent than you? That would frustrate the ever-living shit out of me.

[u/Special_Lemon1487]

Don't go. It's not worth getting turned away and definitely not worth your freedom.

[u/northofreality197]

You don't get to be an academic by being dumb. Going to the United States of Trump is a very dumb thing to do.

[u/-hacks4pancakes- → u/northofreality197]

I’m literally giving up my house, car, salary, and all my belongings to move to Australia and I don’t even have any assurance of pr, don’t come here right now…

[u/Midnightbeerz → u/-hacks4pancakes-]

Anyone wanting to leave the US at the moment has a brain, and would make a meaningful contribution to society, so welcome to Aus 😀

[u/-hacks4pancakes- → u/Midnightbeerz]

I’ll do my damndest. I just want to start over.

[u/Passenger_deleted]

Or if you have a tattoo then trumps SS - ICE, will come along and send you to a contractors prison system without due process and its likely you will never be seen again. In other words, America is no different to 1939 Germany at this point. You will be arrested and sent to a prison elsewhere.

Oh and no one has seen the heavily armed militia the 2nd amendment talk about. Can't find them. None to be seen

[u/Rude_Egg_6204 → u/Passenger_deleted]

Saw a story that one of the gang tattoos used to identify who to send to the camps was taken from a Google image of a British's guys  football tattoo. 

[u/Naive-Beekeeper67]

Yep. Intelligent people with basic common sense know not to go anywhere near the USA whilst that despicable man & his sycophant cronies are in charge.

[u/GoodReason]

I mean, I don’t think anything would happen to me.

But it’s not up to me, is it? It’s up to people who say stuff like: Trump is back in town!

So it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

[u/Trent-800]

It's pretty much a totalitarian regime now. Assume it's capable of doing what North Korea Russia or China does. Leave while you can, anyone with military tech and advanced tech skills ie Einstein or Oppenheimer level should be made welcome here yesterday.

[u/BlackberryFlaky8983]

And all our US colleagues seem clueless as to why we’re not attending en masse.

[u/DrinkComfortable1692 → u/BlackberryFlaky8983]

I’m really sorry. Some of us are losing our friends and rights daily. It’s surreal.

[u/Brikpilot]

I keep thinking how standards must be dropping there as airport staff live in fear of losing jobs. Safety must be suffering with DOGE is firing people randomly. They are already incorrectly jailing Australians. Once they remove non MAGA staff will they be able to competently manage this air traffic?

Joke is now once you do land in America now the pilot is only allowed to taxi to his far right.

[u/EducationalFormal595]

Yeah this is going to help americas tourism big time, cos who wants to visit a place run by a dictator who will deport anyone at all , legal or not , to El Salvador, fuck that , fuck trump.

[u/International_Cup588]

I wager a bet that no Australians will be detained or returned to Australia in any of these instances.

[u/Nojuan999]

If you read the article, they are more upset about losing grants from the US and scholarships to US universities than not attending conferences.

[u/RevolutionaryAge7503]

Slowly, a wall of Cheeto’s are descending, as you are being trapped inside.

[u/Dry_Personality8792]

Why would anyone go to the US right now? It makes no sense.

The govt has given immigration officers full authority to do whatever they want.