To attempt to be somewhat balanced in reacting to this, the article is, as it states in the title, about "fear of being detained", it's not about actually being detained.<p>As some people point out, what makes the news is the exceptions, not the norms.<p>I'd like to know some statistics around the frequency of being questioned, detained, deported from the last few years, to the last month, two months, three months. What characteristics can be sliced up in different ways to determine what, if any, emerging patterns are?<p>However, perception is reality, so even if nothing has actually changed in behaviour of border security, the media messaging has definitely changed which already seems to be causing a slowing down of international travellers coming to the US - there was a good article about that on the front page of HN not long ago.
First-order effects are bad, but second and third order are going to be amazing.<p>If people don't want to cross borders to come together, there'll be more hybrid conferences. More hybrid conferences will spur development of more remote-presence technology. And more remote-presence technology will allow inclusion of people who can't travel for financial, mobility, or even family reasons.<p>In other words, this will lead to more participation in human progress by more people from more countries with socioeconomic status as less of a barrier.
The effects here are chilling for America. Fewer academics, fewer internaional students, a decline in the quality of education, less revenue from those students and tourists... There is just no upside here.