I'm a Brit who has lived and worked here for over 16 years and at no time have I ever experienced any issues with entering or leaving the US
There are these days - stuff to do with fingerprinting and giving away more than enough information for identity theft and having your baggage searched ... and that's just to change planes without even entering the USA.
And that's assuming that you're comfortable around men with guns who look like they're just itching to use them, which I'm not.
We've decided to go the other way round the world for our trip to the antipodes. And as the Americans obviously don't want us that's a win all round.