CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Compares Traveling to the U.S. to Traveling to North Korea Amid Stricter Immigration Rules

British-born CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour revealed on her podcast The Ex Files on Wednesday that she felt afraid to travel to the U.S. due to increasingly strict border policies under the Trump administration.

Speaking with her ex-husband Jamie Rubin, a former State Department official, Amanpour recalled giving a speech at Harvard Kennedy School last month. Despite her prominence as a media figure, she expressed fear that she might be stopped or questioned by border security.

“I must say I was afraid,” Amanpour said. “I’m a foreigner. I don’t have a green card. I’m not an American citizen. I’m fairly prominent, and I literally prepared to go to America as if I was going to North Korea. I took a burner phone. Imagine that. I didn’t take my mobile phone, not my iPad, nothing. And I had nothing on the burner phone except a few numbers.”CNN's Christiane Amanpour afraid to travel to America as a foreigner, says it's like going to North Korea

She added that before her trip, she spoke with CNN security after hearing multiple stories about fellow British citizens being detained for hours or turned away at the border. However, upon arrival, she was pleasantly surprised by the kindness of the immigration officer she met.

“So, huge sigh of relief I breathed, but wow, can you imagine if I’m afraid, what do others think?” Amanpour said.

Rubin argued that President Donald Trump’s attempts to restrict foreign students from attending Harvard were just the latest in a series of attacks against the country itself.