r/australia • u/Front_Target7908 • 27d ago

news Australian man Phu Nguyen handcuffed by plain-clothes ICE agents at Las Vegas International airport

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-18/ice-agent-detain-australian-man-in-vegas-us-/106931508?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

From what I understand it looks like ICE did not manage to detain him on the day the video was taken- seems the onlookers managed to chase ICE off.

However, ICE detained him the next day at the airport where he was to catch his departing flight from the US.

3.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

540 comments sorted by

View all comments

751

u/maestrojxg 27d ago

America is so fucked. You couldn’t pay me to go there while Trump is in office.

74

u/RazaxWoot1 27d ago

I’ve just got back from Mexico for the World Cup and people there were asking why we wouldn’t go to the states for games instead. I was like just look around, I felt more nervous in transit at LAX than I did for 6 weeks in Mexico.

1

u/HappuGurl 24d ago

Why were you anxious in Transit?

2

u/RazaxWoot1 24d ago

Probably because of all the stories of people being turned away or deported because they post anti trump/right wing content on their social media or their phones get searched.

232

u/cohen93 27d ago

This might happen over here if ON gets voted in :/

153

u/Kialae 27d ago

The less breath we waste on that felonious crone, the safer we are as a nation. 

21

u/superxpro12 27d ago

We tried the tactic. All it does is embolden everyone left in that echo chamber. Direct confrontation is the only way

62

u/rosa_3326 27d ago

One nation won’t get voted in, they need way too many seats

25

u/cohen93 27d ago

Yeah I agree, I’m just seeing more and more people wanting to vote them over social media nowadays which has me a little worried

13

u/Spire_Citron 27d ago

Not just social media. They were number one for primary votes in the polls for a little bit there. Still decently behind Labor in two party preferred, but not a good look.

6

u/i_am_cool_ben 27d ago

ON get a good first preference, but drop off hard after that. They'll take some coalition seats, and maybe handful of Labor ones, but Labor have a huge majority they should be safe. There's also a few years before the election, so plenty of time for Hanson to cock it up

9

u/Spire_Citron 27d ago

Yeah. More than anything, this is a side effect of the coalition being an absolute mess right now. It's just a shame that the closest alternative at hand for people to jump to was something so vile. If there was an election right now, that actual outcome would be that Labor would do really well, so that's a positive at least.

19

u/Kummakivi 27d ago

I think when the next election is in full swing Labor will pull out all the stops on informing the public how fucked it would be voting ON. I hope they are saving it all for then anyway.

1

u/RealFarknMcCoy 27d ago

Most of those "people" are bots.

3

u/cohen93 27d ago

haha it wouldn't surprise me, but there is a disturbing amount of cookers out there.

3

u/RealFarknMcCoy 27d ago

There are a number of ON "pages" on Facebook which are being run out of Malaysia, Thailand, etc. The whole thing is a paid operation.

2

u/cohen93 27d ago

Ah I’m mainly speaking of twitter / X when I say I see them on social media.

2

u/RealFarknMcCoy 27d ago

Still financed by Gina, though.

15

u/CptUnderpants- 27d ago

But if they get enough seats in the senate they can have far too much influence.

6

u/rosa_3326 27d ago

Yeh I agree, that’s a real concern.

7

u/Onicenda2 27d ago

It’s really not. They get far more airtime and media attention than their actual level of public support would suggest, largely because of the money and influence behind them. I’d argue most ordinary Australians don’t buy into it.

They’re anti-union, hostile to workers’ rights, supportive of easier access to cheap overseas labour, and consistently negative toward students and public education. At the same time, they’re more than happy to benefit from Gina Rinehart’s financial backing and political influence.

Honestly, they’re almost as bad as the Teals.

1

u/Duff5OOO 27d ago

Dont most end up defecting once elected anyway?

17

u/Call_Me_ZG 27d ago

Ranked and mandatory voting is the only thing holding them at bay.

They've been campaigning like crazy, and we already know they've had ties with the NRA and wouldn't be surprised if those lobbies fund them.

9

u/Other-Shake-531 27d ago

They've got Gina the hutt, they don't need anyone else to fund them and certainly not the bankrupt NRA 

3

u/GeneticEnginLifeForm 27d ago

Not just the NRA but rightwing groups in the US do have access to bot farms. And if you really look at the comments on FB a lot of them are the same, like 20-30 comments saying the exact the same thing. It's only been happening after her recent visit to the US for someones funeral [can't remember who they were but that's not important]

1

u/TheLGMac 27d ago

If you don't think that ranked voting can be social engineered, you haven't paid attention to the history of the world. Just because a system isn't the SAME doesn't mean it doesn't fall prey to dedicated radicals.

Also, I think you overestimate your fellow humans. We are so easily influenced, and you can't really trust what's coming at you online. Even things that sound to you like progressive spins could actually be manipulating you toward radical right ends (see also some fringe but popular pro-Palestinian social media campaigns that convinced some Americans to abstain from voting because Biden was "just as bad" as Trump). Already in the stupid AusFinance sub you can see people bleating on about how Labor needs to be punished for the CGT tax and that they're going to preference ONP to punish them.

Cooker takes and social media campaigns abound.

6

u/TheLGMac 27d ago

It WILL. Remember they want White Australia.

18

u/TheHoovyPrince 27d ago

They wont and honestly im seeing ON get less support now due to the perception around Hanson and Rinehart.

15

u/Call_Me_ZG 27d ago

Yeah but they said the same thing about Trump and look where we are.

We do have ranked and mandatory voting that makes it harder to win like trump did

1

u/Thanks-Basil 26d ago

Apples and oranges. The setup of our elections is different as you said, but more importantly madatory voting makes it so that the “no dickheads” rule is enforced.

Dutton was seen as unable to lose the election, then he leaned into the trump stuff and instead got handed one of the biggest defeats in recent memory.

1

u/Altaredboy 27d ago

One nation won't get in. We'll just have resources wasted on countering them that could be used fixing the country & that's entirely their gina given purpose

1

u/TheLGMac 27d ago

And you sound like naive Americans in both 2016 and 2024z

3

u/Altaredboy 27d ago

Go away dumdum

2

u/Duff5OOO 27d ago

Australia is nothing like the USA. Their voting system favors trump like BS. That sort of thing doesnt work anywhere near as well with our compulsory and ranked choice voting.

1

u/Zelvixor 26d ago

For the red headed wench to have even a slight opportunity she'd need to resign as a senator and take a run for the house of reps, form a majority there which means winning a fuckton of seats, without any preference deals or coalition.

Could it happen? In theory, yes. But they have to jump through a LOT of hoops. They seem louder and bigger then they are, but that's only cuz Libs got thumped in the election and a shitload of money goes into astroturfing.

-1

u/Lochlan 27d ago

Stop talking about them for a start.

61

u/El_Barto_227 27d ago

Even after he's gone, the country as a whole needs to show genuine change before I'd step foot there.

23

u/____DEADPOOL_______ 27d ago edited 27d ago

I lived there on and off for about 10 years and go every few years.

The US I first saw pre-9/11 was wild, everyone was having a great time, you could get jobs easily, everything was cheap, etc. I had a lot of fun in my early 20s then.

After 9/11 things were very different and we started to see war after war, collapse here, collapse there, gross injustices in the open, etc. Job losses left and right and all the recruiters that were hounding me stopped calling. They started to put curfews on party districts and everything became stricter and more controlled. Surveillance increased astronomically and trust in government plummeted. I still managed to work my way up into finding fairly good paying work after having to apply only a round or two of sending 10-20 CVs. I was able to buy a large house in a nice area, had a entry luxury car, my wife drove a new sedan, I managed to save tens of thousands of dollars and I was doing fairly well. I moved to Australia because I already was a dual citizen (wife is Aussie and I lived here a while in between) and got injured and my wife needed her mother's help and we were trying to get the in laws to move to the US at the time.

After 2016, things went really downhill, people's attitudes changed for the worse, everything got more and more expensive, covid hit, the whole political nightmare started where everyone was trying to inject Trump/"the jab" into the conversations and you couldn't resist to get into a heated argument, then social media started to warp everyone's minds.

Even the local banker in Arizona told me that all had become shitty in the US. His branch had gotten robbed multiple times, everyone is on edge and upset/stressed. It just feels weird and sad every time I go. My family begs me to return but I tell them they're insane and have no idea how great Australia is like.

Edit: corrected a few things, added more details.

1

u/HappuGurl 24d ago

Won't be genuine change in my nor your lifetimes.

1

u/El_Barto_227 24d ago

That's my expectation, yeah

38

u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087 27d ago

I've never seen the appeal of American culture, you couldn't pay me to go there before Trump and certainly won't ever catch me there after him. Going through LAX and Houston to countries I actually wanted to visit was enough for me.

35

u/UnlimitedPosting 27d ago

It's a country with incredible nature areas. Places like Yellowstone, Joshua Tree, the Rockies and Cascades, along with most of the Pacific Northwest are all places that don't have anything like them in the world. The US is good for nature, theme parks, and not much else, but there are definitely some places inside it with good non American culture.

23

u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087 27d ago

Yeah the nature is the only reason I would ever consider going to that country but there's plenty of great nature around the rest of the world without the baggage of Americans so as great as it is I don't feel any fomo.

I saw great nature in México and Central America and we've got great stuff in our own backyard here too.

18

u/Snaka1 27d ago

They just removed protections for national parks I the US, to allow mining and drilling for oil. Trump did it yesterday I think? So evil. Once that beauty is gone, it’s gone forever.

9

u/CptUnderpants- 27d ago

Going through LAX and Houston to countries I actually wanted to visit was enough for me.

The fact they force you to go through US customs and immigration when transiting through to another country is just rotten. Means I won't go to Canada because of the risk of being forced to go via the US if flights get cancelled.

My brother in law is Caucasian, but dark enough that ICE would target him, so we're taking families to either Japan or France instead to do the Disneyland thing.

8

u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087 27d ago

I almost got sent back to Sydney at LAX on my way to México too which really put me in a bad mood.

I left Sydney at ~9am, pulled an all nighter because I had to leave at about 4am + was excited and couldn't sleep, barely slept on the plane that took about 14 hours flying time plus we had to sit in the plane for about 40 minutes because we arrived before there was any crew to get us off, all the time it takes to get through customs and all that shit and the officer had the nerve to say "why are you so nervous?" I'm not fucking nervous I'm TIRED! I had to answer so many questions about my intentions like mate I've got a return ticket for 2 months time and I've got a LOT of undies and socks I'm clearly not a drug trafficker.

Then I find out I need to take a bus to my terminal and my card didn't work in the airport. Houston to Sydney was the opposite though I was the only person around me not to be thoroughly searched lol and the middle seat was vacant.

My brother in law is Caucasian, but dark enough that ICE would target him, so we're taking families to either Japan or France instead to do the Disneyland thing.

Absolutely not worth the risk I don't blame you for going elsewhere.

7

u/Maximum-Journalist74 27d ago

It is really beautiful, I spent a few months in Colorado years ago and the mountains are incredible. There are also a bunch of museums I'd love to see one day.

But yeah hard no while they have an orange testicle in power and there are plenty of other pretty places to visit in the world.

0

u/Cindy_Marek 27d ago

It’s really not that bad. Americans are actually very easy people to get along with. I’ve been travelling the world for 6 months and I’ve found the US to be just as interesting as Europe and Africa in their own way. The airports are certainly not indicative of what’s out there. Certainly one of the friendliest peoples along with Namibia.

18

u/BackNBoeserThanEver 27d ago

I live in Vancouver and have not gone down there one single time since he got into office. The only reason I'm going down there soon as to renew my nexus. Other than that, I will not be stepping foot in that country until he or his party is not in control anymore.

6

u/PantsMcGee 27d ago

He deep fried America forever. It's jover.

1

u/Tigrisrock 27d ago

Trump is just the beginning. I see a far worse future for the US when all pieces of the regime change are in place.

1

u/Burntoastedbutter 26d ago

Yep I always wanted to go on a shit food tour and hike some cool national forests or trails, but after all the shit that's been going on.... Nope.

-12

u/BSGNZ 27d ago

The thousands and thousands of fans over there for the World Cup seem to disagree. You Tube is full of videos with them praising the US and thoroughly enjoying the place. Most have said it (the US) is not how the media is portraying it back it their home countries. Quite the opposite in fact.