Molly Burke has spent her entire life in the United States. But no longer — after receiving her working holiday visa to New Zealand last month, she says she plans to move by September at the latest.
Burke, who has lived in Denver for the last 10 years, said she made the decision in part because her job as a preschool teacher doesn’t pay enough to live comfortably in the city. But the political changes happening under President Donald Trump since he took office on Jan. 20 have also pushed her to leave — and prompted worries about public access to Medicaid, abortion and gender-affirming care.
“The state of our country is terrifying right now,” Burke said. “I don’t get why anyone would want to stay, honestly.”
In Denver, interest in resettling abroad is burgeoning as Coloradans wary of Trump grapple with the realities of his second term and his quickly implemented new policies — along with their own anxieties. American citizens who spoke with The Denver Post explained their reasoning as including distress about women’s rights, transgender health care, economic uncertainties and attempts to slash federal funding under the Trump administration.
And some indicators show that across the U.S., which permits dual and multiple citizenships, more people are seriously considering following Burke’s lead.
After Trump secured his election win in November, the Immigration Advice Service, a United Kingdom-based immigration law office, reported that one in four Americans were researching potential relocations overseas, with countries like Canada, the U.K., Australia and Ireland ranking high as potential options.
By the year’s end, the number of Americans applying for Irish citizenship through its Foreign Births Register skyrocketed, Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann reported in February. Meanwhile, some others — particularly LGBTQ+ people — are looking to relocate just north of the U.S. border; North American charity Rainbow Road‘s spokesperson Timothy Chan said that, as of March 4, it had fielded more than 1,830 requests for help from Americans so far this year — a 1,121% jump compared to the same time last year.
But it remains unclear how many of those people will follow through and leave American soil. For decades, the outcomes of U.S. elections have prodded some dissatisfied citizens to vow they’ll expatriate.
As for Burke, she’s serious — and she’s ready to leave for New Zealand earlier than the fall, she said, if she perceives the political situation worsening under Trump. As a Medicaid recipient, she’s worried about losing her health care insurance under the new administration. And Burke is concerned that her basic rights as a woman are at risk at the national level, she said.
Her apartment lease in Denver expires in early July. Although she hasn’t lined up a job on New Zealand’s South Island yet, Burke plans to explore roles in early childhood education or tourism and hospitality once she’s there.
Her visa lasts for a year, and she’s considering applying for residency afterward, with Australia and Canada as backup plans.
Ultimately, she said, Trump has already wrought damage on her homeland.
“Even if it’s just for a year, I need a break,” Burke said.
Other Denverites are looking at countries closer to home as possible options for resettlement.
On Feb. 27, Denver’s Mexican consulate posted instructions on social media about how people of Mexican ancestry could apply for dual citizenship, citing in Spanish “the growing demand.” It announced that it set aside time that week to review visitors’ documents.
Andrea Loya, the executive director of immigrant-focused organization Casa de Paz, said she knows families of mixed legal status who have lived in Denver for years but are now exploring the idea of dual citizenships — “and are even looking at going back to Mexico.” Her group has also heard from people in Denver who expressed interest in migrating to Canada.
Several of the city’s law firms have fielded interest from hopefuls.
“I’ve had many calls from people wanting to move,” said Pascal Schunk, a Denver immigration lawyer. Because he practices U.S. immigration law, he usually refers them to foreign embassies.
But he, too, is looking abroad. He is trying to obtain German passports for himself and his children after filing in September 2023. Schunk’s mother is from Germany, though she held onto a green card for over 30 years before securing dual citizenship in the U.S. Schunk’s adult daughter already lives abroad in the Netherlands.
In a few years, he aims to move to Germany and open an immigration office there, working in Europe and Colorado — though Schunk said the process could take on more urgency if “it gets a lot worse” under Trump.
“The hope is that people still want to come here, even after this administration,” Schunk said. “Never thought a German passport might be better than an American passport, considering world history.”
Hans Meyer, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Denver, said, “I’ve had several people who have told me that they’re relocating abroad,” including to places in Europe. However, he also doesn’t practice immigration law in other countries, so he has to turn down those consultations.
“I feel pretty gloomy about things here”
In addition to Americans born here, new U.S. citizens in Denver are deciding whether to return to their native lands, too.
Although Susanne Lederer, 45, only just received her American citizenship, she is already looking at jobs in Europe: Switzerland, Austria, the U.K. and her home country of Germany.
“I work in health care, and I already see impacts of what the current policies are doing” under the Trump administration, Lederer said.
She works as an operations manager supporting ambulatory care and says she’s seen changes to medical treatment offered to transgender people under 19 years old, with gender-affirming surgeries halted and hormone therapy briefly paused because of federal directives.
And, Lederer added, “I may not want to live with this ongoing looming threat of, ‘Am I going to lose my job?’ ”
Her partner, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Bolivia, is handling employment concerns of his own. He’s an economist at the Colorado School of Public Health, and cuts to federal funding have affected his research grants, Lederer said.
“I feel pretty gloomy about things here — just because of this overarching power grab that’s happening where I no longer feel like we’re being protected,” she said.
Lederer worries about the well-being of her LGBTQ+ friends and about threats to women’s health care, including reproductive rights and cuts to Medicaid that will affect access to care.
“People are being targeted, and that feels very 1930s Germany to me,” Lederer said. “We’re not quite there yet, but I do see a lot of similarities.”
She lives in Denver after moving to the U.S. from Regensburg in southeast Germany. At age 24, she wed an American, and, though the marriage didn’t last, stayed here as a permanent resident with a green card. Lederer was granted dual citizenship in October.
She returns to Germany twice a year because her parents, brothers, godchildren and friends are still there. In the past, she’s casually considered moving back to be closer to family.
But now, Lederer’s plan is solidifying.
“Germany isn’t all roses either, but I do think we still have a pretty solid political process,” she said.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party ranks as No. 2 in the country after the German election on Feb. 23, but Lederer says she feels reassured that it doesn’t make up a majority in the government — winning only 21% of the vote. That’s because Germany operates on a multiparty system, while the U.S. is largely a biparty system.
For now, Lederer said, Americans are “sort of in this waiting pattern of what’s coming next.”
“I love our country … but it’s a Plan B”
One longtime Denverite recently secured citizenship in her ancestral homeland of Ireland — and after Trump returned to office, she viewed it as expanding her future options.
“I love our country and never thought I would ever leave it,” Colleen O’Brien said of the U.S., “but it’s a Plan B.”
O’Brien, 57, received her Irish citizenship in November 2024 after beginning the process in September 2023. Born in Maryland, she has resided in Colorado for decades.
Both sets of her grandparents hailed from Ireland — one side from Donegal in the northwest and the other from Cork in the south — and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s. One couple was spurred to leave by the end of the Irish War of Independence.
“It is pretty ironic that my grandparents did everything they could to feel safe by going somewhere else — and then I would even question leaving the place that they fought so hard to get to,” O’Brien said, adding that the thought saddens her.
But O’Brien, who works as a consultant, views her new foreign citizenship as an opportunity to conduct business outside of the U.S., particularly as the country’s potential looming economic problems worry her.
She was prompted to consider alternatives when a family member, who is a non-Irish U.S. citizen, relayed their fears about society’s negative reception of their culture in recent years. O’Brien declined to identify the affected relative or provide further details about their circumstances to protect their privacy.
Even before Trump took office, “there had been a cultural shift in our country where people were feeling more free to speak in derogatory terms of people with different demographics,” she said.
“I’ve had the privilege in lots of ways to never feel threatened in our country,” O’Brien said, “but not everyone around me feels the same.”
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