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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

#151

Post by coldtea »

Arnt wrote: post #121
coldtea wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obama didn't get blamed for such things because he clearly didn't want them to happen. If he "didn't want them to happen" it would have been trivial to stop them. Would not even need a new law, a presidential speech would be enough.

An example would be a great way to support that assertion. When I applied for... it doesn't matter precisely what. I've forgotten, actually, but it was some piece of paper that foreigners need, and only foreigners. Anyway, when I applied for that I chanced upon an official who didn't have much sympathy for foreigners. I got my paper in the end, but it wasn't because of his helpfulness. Can you describe, as an example…

>An example would be a great way to support that assertion.

An example of what? That the POTUS, who appoints the Homeland Security secretary, could, if they so wished, absolutely influence behavior and/or policy in the TSA?

>Can you describe, as an example to support your assertion, what should have been in the speech

How about something like: "Any malevolent behavior and unnecessary harassement to visitors from border officials wont be tolerated?"

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#152

Post by xutopia »

I realize this is exceptional but I've spoken to a few Canadian friends who aren't bothering to visit the USA anymore. Avid travellers and hikes a lot of them are going to spend more time within their country and Europe during this presidency.

The simple idea that we might have to give our social media passwords is revolting more than a few... this story just adds to this feeling.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#153

Post by rhapsodic »

timeu wrote: post #104

Something along these lines (although by far not that bad) happened to me when I traveled to NYC for vacation of New Years Eve 2016/2017(this was before Trump took office). At the border control I was asked to follow the officer and wait in a room. I was waiting with a couple of other people but most people there were only waiting because of small formalities with their passports and they could leave after a couple o…

> Something along these lines (although by far not that bad) happened to me when I traveled to NYC for vacation of New Years Eve 2016/2017(this was before Trump took office).

Incidents like this have probably happened hundreds of thousands of times throughout history, at customs checkpoints for many different countries. But now that Donald Trump is the president of the United States, a certain percentage of the ones that pertain to entry into the US will become international news stories that will routinely make it to the front page of HN.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#154

Post by wyldfire »

pier25 wrote: post #122

In 2007 I crossed the border on bus going from Montreal to NY. The girl I was travelling with was accused of illegal importation of fruits because she was carrying an apple for the trip.

It might seem silly to you but I think that the import controls to protect domestic agriculture make sense and preventing unintentional/incidental imports like this one is an important part of CBP's job.

They should spend more time on this and less time on rejecting visitors to the US.

Unfortunately government employees can be remarkably bureaucratic and power trip. They should quarantine or destroy incidental contraband like individual apples and let people get on with their business.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#155

Post by pjc50 »

brandonmenc wrote: post #149
pjc50 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently he's Jewish, and left Egypt decades ago due to anti-semitism there.

Left, or was expelled?

I was going by wikipedia "He emigrated to France with his family in 1956 due to the rise of antisemitism in Egypt.", but if we click through to the source for that statement we get

http://www.jta.org/2017/02/25/news-opinion/united-states/u-s... (caution, stupid modal) which says

"He and his family were forced out of Egypt in 1956 under anti-Semitic measures instituted by the Nasser regime."

NPOV working about as well as it usually does there.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#156

Post by jacquesm »

yread wrote: post #106
stereo wrote: post #87

This is nothing new, and the same thing happened to this American going to a conference in Europe in 2016: https://medium.com/@rachelnabors/wtfuk-73009d5623b4#.1079ksb... HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11876453

Scary story. But read this one from the comments: >I’m not going to apologise. I’ve been fighting this brutal nonsense since I was an MP’s assistant in the late 1980s. At the time the system was that a Member of Parliament could intervene on any deportation and by contacting the Home Office get it stopped until any questionable aspects were resolved. One evening I was the last to leave the office when a call came thr…

Give small people a little bit of power and the results are very predictable.

Real lives > paper, that's the bit that people in uniform the world over seem to instantly forget the moment they put on their work clothes in the morning.

I've seen so many examples of this in my life by now that it hardly surprises me any more but I still absolutely boil at it every time I see another instance.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#157

Post by infodroid »

afandian wrote: post #109
infodroid wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just wrong. In the original comment, "as" was used as a preposition and not as a conjunction. But it is grammatically incorrect to use the preposition "as" to draw a comparison instead of "like". See for example: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/as-o... .

Ah well. You win. Congratulations? I'm not here to argue over grammar. It seems like you have sufficient grip on the language to have understood the comment you quibbled with.

This isn't a competition. While I appreciate that you were only trying to be helpful, in reality proposing false theories doesn't add anything of value to a discussion, especially when the issue can be settled with a basic web search.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#158

Post by jacquesm »

cr1895 wrote: post #117
NoirDesir wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK is not Europe.

Yes, it most definitely is part of Europe, and it is currently still part of the European Union too.

The UK is a pain for Europeans to get into. It's trying very hard to be USA light when it comes to immigration.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#159

Post by jacquesm »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #137
NoirDesir wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Member of the European Union, not member of the Schengen Area... UK has always been whimsical and not reflecting the "European" values... thus, UK is not Europe. They're free to run things the way they like, but please don't keep telling that UK is Europe... especially after they chose and got the Brexit... not a single true european will endorse its mistakes.

the soviet union and eastern block were europe too, stop creating absurd distinctions.

Europe -> the EU, not Europe, the landmass.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#160

Post by udev »

xutopia wrote: post #152

I realize this is exceptional but I've spoken to a few Canadian friends who aren't bothering to visit the USA anymore. Avid travellers and hikes a lot of them are going to spend more time within their country and Europe during this presidency. The simple idea that we might have to give our social media passwords is revolting more than a few... this story just adds to this feeling.

In addition to that, I now place a premium on flights that don't have connections through US. They just seem more attractive, even if at higher price.

I realize I might need to go to US, e.g. for business, and that's fine. But for sure the random weekend hiking in the Adirondacks is now way less likely to happen.

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