Award-winning Australian comedian Alice Fraser has cancelled her trip to the United States after getting legal advice that she might be stopped at the border. The concern comes from jokes she has made in the past about former US President Donald Trump.
According to a report by The Guardian, Fraser has often spoken against Trump through political podcasts and radio shows. In a 2020 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, she joked, “I wouldn’t take an IOU from Trump if he wrote it on the money he owed me.”
She appeared this week at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with the satirical political podcast A Rational Fear. The show was described as either a “federal election special” or a “how to evade deportation” special.
Fraser lived and worked in the US more than ten years ago on an internship visa. She had planned to visit again in May to promote her book and apply for an O-1B visa. This visa allows artists with “extraordinary abilities” to live and work in the US. But after hearing reports of travellers being denied entry or held at the border, she sought legal advice.
“If I didn’t have two children, I might be more open to taking a risk,” she said. “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.” reported Guardian.
Fraser’s decision reflects wider concerns about US border checks. According to immigration law firm Reeves, the US government is using social media more and more to screen travellers. Posts online can reveal a person’s views, friends and even possible “security concerns”.
There have already been cases of people being stopped at the border over critical comments about Trump. A French scientist was denied entry after border agents read messages on his phone. Others, including Germans Lucas Sielaff, Fabian Schmidt and Jessica Brösche, British artist Rebecca Burke, and Canadian businesswoman Jasmine Mooney, were held in US immigration centres for weeks.
Fraser said the US trip would have been a “real opportunity”, but added, “Travellers just don’t know what to expect anymore.”