Exercise increased caution in the United States due to crime and terrorism, both domestic and foreign. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory.
Do Not Travel to:
Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Gilroy, San Francisco; and Southaven, Mississippi, recent known targets for domestic terrorism and hate crimes against minorities.
Reconsider Travel to:
Other major American cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles as domestic terrorists continue plotting possible mass shootings and other attacks in urban centers and schools, using the internet and social media to spread their xenophobic ideology that seems to be encouraged by the nation’s top government official.
The number of mass shootings across the US so far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA). That puts 2019 on pace to be the first year since 2016 with an average of more than one mass shooting a day.
In two of the most recent incidents, at least 31 people were killed in back-to-back shootings within 24 hours in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. One was in a crowded department store where seven of the 22 shot dead were foreigners; the other was at a popular night spot.
The shooter in El Paso used an AK-style semiautomatic rifle; the one in Dayton used a AR-15-style rifle. Both were angry young white men with no love lost for foreigners, and both struck in “soft” targets that are heavily populated and difficult to secure.
On any given day, there is a roughly 60 percent chance that there will be at least one mass shooting in the United States. And there is a 17 percent probability that there will be exactly two shootings.
Despite this situation, national and local authorities are unwilling or unable to ensure the safety and lives of their own citizens, much less those of foreign visitors. No reasonable limits on the types of firearms available for purchase have been established.
As a result of the foregoing, travel to the United States should best be avoided.
Read the Safety and Security section on the country information page.
The advisory above is a fictitious one, but sadly based on true and accurate data. It is the type of travel advisory the United States usually issues about the Philippines and about the lack of security in this country. The irony—that it cannot keep people in its own cities safe—is inescapable as it is tragic.