The Trump administration plans to make NZ visitors submit sweeping personal data, including social media, family details and even DNA, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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A bigger net for visa-waiver travellers
New Zealanders travelling to the US could soon be required to hand over a far broader set of personal information under a proposal lodged by US Customs and Border Protection last week. The plan targets 42 visa-waiver countries – including New Zealand and Australia – and would make disclosure of five years’ social media history a mandatory part of the Esta process. It would also add a suite of “high value” data fields, including phone numbers used in the past five years, email addresses used in the past decade, extensive family members’ details, and biometric information such as facial images, fingerprints, DNA and iris scans. The proposal is subject to a 60-day public comment period, but it seems likely to pass.
Announcing its new requirements on Wednesday, the Trump administration said the restrictions would ensure visitors to the US “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”.
What border agents might look for
An immigration lawyer tells the Australian Financial Review officials are scanning not just for evidence of illegal behaviour, but also for political or security red flags. “Typically, they’re looking for anything that is anti-American, anti-Israel or anything that could be considered inciting terrorism or unrest.” The official statement about visitors with “hostile attitudes” is deliberately vague, writes Alistair Kitchen, an Australian journalist who was deported for reporting on pro-Palestinian protests. “The policy is designed to produce an atmosphere of self-censorship. The end result, the administration hopes, will be a monoculture of approval – a world in which dissent has been sufficiently discouraged.”
Nik Dirga’s RNZ explainer published earlier this year, amid a spate of reports about travellers questioned or turned away after device checks, notes that border officers have wide authority to search phones and laptops. Crucially, deleting apps or posts before travelling may not be enough. Cached data can remain on devices, and information may already be held elsewhere, including by US government-friendly data-mining companies such as Palantir. As one anonymous telecommunications expert told Dirga: “I suspect if you’ve been online telling everyone what you think about Donald, it’s too late” even if you delete information from your phone.
Government unwilling to get involved
So far, New Zealand’s official response has been muted. Deputy prime minister David Seymour said the US had the right to set its own policy, adding: “All I’d say is Kiwis are a pretty friendly bunch, don’t pry too hard on us.”
That’s weak sauce, says NZ Herald business columnist Fran O’Sullivan (paywalled). She describes the proposed data collection as “broad and deeply intrusive” and argues New Zealand and Australia should push back together, particularly given the potential economic impact. New Zealand is sending a team to the 2026 Fifa World Cup, with the All Whites set to play Iran in Los Angeles on June 15, and preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are already under way. O’Sullivan recently visited the site of New Zealand’s planned hospitality base and “what is in store is impressive”. But, she adds, “it is also a large investment that needs folk to show up and not be scared off from going to the US in the first place”.
Goff: my ‘hostile attitude’ could get me banned
Former UK high commissioner Phil Goff, who was fired earlier this year after criticising Donald Trump, has been more forthright. Speaking to RNZ, Goff says the proposal reinforces his suspicion that he could face difficulties entering the US because of his public criticism of the Trump administration.
He also points to the contradiction between the Trump administration’s criticism of European countries for restricting neo-Nazi speech, and its willingness to deny entry to those opposed to US policy. It’s not just hypocritical, but undemocratic, he says. “It’s almost like we’re going back in history to the 1950s, the days of McCarthyism, where if you had ever been a member of the Communist Party you were banned from getting into the United States.”
