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How a French scholar was treated at US airport

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Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#91

Post by efaref »

afandian wrote: post #63
infodroid wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Though, as the original author... Do you mean to say that you are the French historian Henry Rousso?

In English you can say "as X, Y", for example "as Google, Microsoft releases code, "as last time, I was late" or "as the author, I love the US". It doesn't mean that "Microsoft = Google", or "I am last time" or "I am the author". Google's dictionary (wherever it comes from) has > conjunction 2: used to indicate by comparison the way that something happens or is done I think you're thinking of > preposition 1: used to…

In this case, "as the original author" would be taken by a native speaker to mean the person is speaking with the authority of being the original author, i.e. they are the original author. "As" is only used for comparison when it is clear from context that that's the case. The idiomatic way to express what I think is intended is "like the original author".

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#92

Post by tartuffe78 »

krzrak wrote: post #82
monodeldiablo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will other countries begin to reciprocate? Will other countries/institutions begin demanding compensation for wrongful detention/deportations? Perhaps my biggest concern is this: How long until this pushes someone over the edge? It's precisely this kind of persistent harassment that can convince an angry, disaffected young man that, yes, the system really is rigged against him.

> Will other countries begin to reciprocate? We shouldn't. A trait of civilized society is that it doesn't reciprocates on the barbarians with their methods.

Historically I don't think that's ever been true.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#93

Post by geodel »

coldcode wrote: post #65
staticelf wrote: post #27

I am about to visit the US soon. I am planning not to bring my personal phone and computer. It feels like I am going to visit China, not the US. I would probably not personally pay for a trip to the US now.. I don't want to pay a lot of money in order to be rejected at the border.

Do not come to the US for any reason. Also, request that your government treat all US visitors exactly the same as this. Until people start to see how awful treating people like trash is nothing will change, it will only get worse. My job depends (somewhat) on foreign tourists coming to the US, I would rather lose my job than read these embarrassing stories.

Practically speaking, some first world countries might be able to hold US citizens in disdain. But for much of the third world the US tourists are big source of revenue and non tourists are usually important people on government or private business. So most nations can't afford to treat US citizens badly whether they want or not.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#94

Post by coldpie »

d_theorist wrote: post #81
coldpie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of a worthless article. What's the solution, then? Just accept that all of your private data will be copied by the government? Don't travel at all? Edit: Also, the same guy explicitly encourages lying about your social media accounts two posts prior to that one. Which is it, chief?

I don't think it's worthless to point out that a number of strategies are bad, and likely counterproductive. It might just be the case that there are no good foolproof methods for getting through the US border without any negative effects on your privacy or convenience. The only real solution is to change government policy.

The evidence seems at odds with this guy's suggestions. We've heard lots of stories about people being stopped and required to hand over devices. I'm not aware of any stories of people being stopped simply for not having devices.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#95

Post by devmunchies »

wazoox wrote: post #70

I just decided not to go to the US this year. I should have this April but really, I don't feel like it anymore.

These are practices that have been going on for a few years. Everybody is thinking this is a new Trump-era thing, which is not true. It is large scale confirmation bias. Making life decisions (not visiting the US) based off a knee-jerk reaction from reading a huffpo article is not helping.

I understand that for foreigners to see trump sworn into office and then all of these stories pop up would make them think america has changed so recently, but its not true. It like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#96

Post by teddyh »

Arnt wrote: post #25
skocznymroczny wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably it's been like that always at the US border, it's just now it's popular to showcase such stories as an example of "look what Trump did to our country". I heard of horror stories at the US border way before Trump took office.

Obama didn't get blamed for such things because he clearly didn't want them to happen. They happened, can't tell how often, but he didn't want or intend that. I didn't have the impression that Dubya wanted to harass random foreigners either. Trump, OTOH, is the kind of person who wants to throw out all the Yemeni in case one of them is another Timothy McVeigh.

> Obama didn't get blamed for such things because he clearly didn't want them to happen.

“If only the czar knew!”

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#97

Post by devmunchies »

fowlerpower wrote: post #58

The article gives me anxiety. It gives me anxiety that people can be held at our borders for hours and sometimes days (in my country non the less). All because some junior border officer did not understand the visa type well enough. How can they not even apologize? How can they not even acknowledge these types of errors. Will they do this to us when we travel abroad on a tourist visa?

These articles should have been written a decade ago. The media is being honest all of a sudden now that they don't like the government. These aren't new happenings.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#98

Post by the_cyber_pass »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #80
coldcode wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not come to the US for any reason. Also, request that your government treat all US visitors exactly the same as this. Until people start to see how awful treating people like trash is nothing will change, it will only get worse. My job depends (somewhat) on foreign tourists coming to the US, I would rather lose my job than read these embarrassing stories.

"Do not come to the US for any reason." Many people are obliged to do so as part of their job. Personally I have entered about 10 times with zero issues, I'll probably need to go soon and I'm kind of curious if the general attitude is changing.

Literally almost nothing has changed in the real world at this point. Maybe it will change, but for 99.9% of people the US is still acting like the US always has when it comes to day to day affairs and I say this as someone who had family get hit by Trumps immigration ban.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#99

Post by nmeofthestate »

ritchiea wrote: post #83

For everyone on HN that's afraid of being harassed for their politics because of how Trump support was received, this story and worse ones to come are exactly what we were afraid of coming from Trump. This was never just about policy, the current administration is giving license to treating people who don't look "American" enough with suspicion and they made that intention clear in their campaign. If this was just ab…

>this story and worse ones to come are exactly what we were afraid of coming from Trump.

To dial back the hyperbole for a second, we've seen this kind of story happening before Trump took office, and in countries other than the US. Crossing borders carries with it a non-zero chance that you'll be treated like total crap and even when you're lucky enough that the system corrects itself you'll almost certainly get no apology. Having said that, there is no reason why this kind of thing should be tolerated.

Edit: somebody else remembered the similar story from last year.

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