Travelers heading to the United States currently need to apply for a waiver called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). This process involves submitting various personal details.

The required information includes phone numbers from the past five years, email addresses dating back ten years, IP addresses, metadata from any electronically submitted photos, and details about family members such as names, birth dates, and places of residence. Additionally, biometrics like fingerprints, facial recognition, DNA, and iris scans, along with business contact information, are also part of the requirements.

An expert noted, “If someone is attempting to enter the US with malicious intent, such individuals are typically already flagged by the US government due to more advanced intelligence methods.”

In the first seven months of the current administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported nearly 200,000 individuals. This pace sets the agency on a path to potentially reach its highest deportation figures in a decade, according to a senior official at Homeland Security.

There remains uncertainty about whether social media accounts must be set to ‘public’ or if lacking social media presence altogether might raise suspicions.

It’s unclear if social media accounts will need to be set to ‘public’, or if having no social media at all would be considered suspicious.

What should I be worried about on my own social media?

Kitchen alleges he was detained and interrogated twice about his views on the conflict in the Middle East due to blog posts he wrote about the encampment protesting against the war in Gaza at Columbia University in New York. He was also instructed to hand over his phone and passcode to the authorities.

Australian writer Matthew Kitchen wrote blog posts about the Columbia University encampment that was set up in protest against the war in Gaza. The encampment lasted for two weeks in April last year. Source: SIPA USA / Michael Nigro

In a statement to the ABC following the incident, the US homeland security department denied that Kitchen was arrested on the basis of his political views, although it did not deny he was questioned about them.