Consultations in the US on dual nationality increase by 183% due to democratic erosion and the climate of terror of ICE

Only in the first quarter of 2025 did they skyrocket queries from US citizens about dual nationalities and alternative residences increased by 183% compared to the same period in 2024, according to a study recently published by Henley & Partners, a global advisory firm specializing in residency and citizenship by investment.

This jump reflects, to a large extent, the reaction of part of the citizens to the advancement of aggressive immigration policies such as those of ICE already gradual erosion of democratic guarantees in the United States under the Republican Presidency.

In recent years, the line between security and persecution has blurred for millions of people in the US: raids, arbitrary detentions and accelerated deportations are no longer something that only affects undocumented immigrants without resources.

Under a climate of extreme polarization, many citizens with legal residence – and even with US nationality – They fear becoming collateral victims of a ‘hardline’ immigration policy.

Los murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 years old, which occurred in January on the streets of Minneapolis at the hands of immigration agents remain very present in the collective memory.

The question that many are asking is not only “what rights do I have?”, but “who is going to defend me if the State decides to go against me?”

The logic of “it must be for a reason” has been installed in part of public opinion: If someone is detained by ICE, if someone enters a list, if someone is subject to surveillance, guilt is presumed.

Esa social presumption of guilt, backed by politicians who point out migrants, activists or journalists as “internal enemies”, erodes the core of liberal democracy.

Without checks and balances

In parallel, the institutional scaffolding that should act as a brake begins to show cracks.

The partisan colonization of the courts, the systematic attacks on the critical press and the delegitimization of electoral processes have left a part of the population with the feeling that checks and balances in the United States are no longer enough.

If a government decides to use the immigration, internal security or intelligence resources against certain groups, are there enough firewall to stop the abuse? More and more people privately answer no, and begin to look for an answer on another continent.

The obsession with immigration control It has been the perfect laboratory to test tools that can later be extended to the rest of society: biometric databases, mass surveillance systems, cooperation between agencies and militarization of daily life.

What began as a discourse against “illegals” has expanded to students, asylum seekers, DACA recipients, and even naturalized citizens. The subliminal message is clear: your status can change if the political power decides to rewrite the rules.

In search of the European ancestor

That climate pushes many European Americans to dust off family trees, birth certificates and parish records looking for an Italian, Irish or Spanish grandfather who will open a way out for them.

It is not just nostalgia or roots tourism: it is the deliberate construction of a legal plan B facing an eventual authoritarian hardening at home.

The European passport thus becomes for many a potential safe passage if the American political environment crosses lines that seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

Europain the eyes of these applicants, remains one of the few spaces where the rule of lawNo matter how stressed you are, preserves protection mechanisms more robust for the press, the political opposition and minorities.

Although The old continent is also experiencing its own reactionary waveit is perceived that the margins of action of a government vis-à-vis citizens are more limited than in a system where the National security and the fight against immigration have served to justify almost any excess.

economic fear

Fear is also economic, but linked to political decisions: the growing privatization of essential services, the corporate capture of institutions and the inability of the system to limit the influence of money in politics. They fuel the feeling that the vote is no longer enough to change the course.

If big decisions are made behind closed doors and the average citizen only comes into play as a polarized spectator on networks, Seeking another citizenship sounds less like betrayal than a survival instinct.

Added to this table is a generational factor: Young professionals, many of them progressives, who grew up believing in the narrative of the United States as a democratic beacon, now find themselves in a country where rights can be rolled back by court decision and where political disagreement is responded to with anti-protest laws and selective persecution.

In that context, work remotely from Lisbon, Berlin or Barcelona is not only an attractive vital project; It is also a way to withdraw from the front line of fire.

The result is a bitter paradox: While the United States presents itself to the world as the guarantor of the international liberal order, a growing swathe of its own citizens is silently considering how to cross the exit door if things go wrong.