Live data from Hacker News

U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

bloomberg.com

111–120 of 439 posts

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#111
post #96

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

Doesn't the 5th amendment make those questions impossible to answer? (If you plead the 5th on them, you're.. probably a terrorist...)

5th amendment only applies in criminal cases: "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself". Doesn't cover border crossings or visa applications.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than your contribution of idle parroting of the current trend of creating division between the sexes and races. Why does an opinion need to be masculine or feminine?

These people are calling their ideological opponents cuckolds and yet I'm the one creating sexist divisions?

which people?

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#113

"Sir, we have reviewed your git commit history of the last 5 years and come to the conclusion that you would be gravely endangering the code quality of this country."

That, uh. That just might be reasonable grounds. This is an agenda that quite a few programmers might get behind.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#114
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is: Both Democrats and Republics have been complicit in allowing these kind of activities to continue. And the American public would sooner blame the other "side" in this political dog and pony show, than take responsibility for this being what America's fear based society has brought. Stop pushing this "both sides are the same" narrative. It's part of the damn problem. While the Democratic administrations…

> You will have to pardon us if things like visas aren't at the top of the agenda right now. I'm a lefty Democrat, but this is a cop-out. We've been shit on drone strikes and mass surveillance long before the Trump emergency was even a hint over the horizon. There's extensive bipartisan cooperation in Congress on intrusive surveillance via the NSA, ICE, etc.

Democrats at least have a large faction who are willing to complain about things like drone strikes and mass surveillance even when it is their guy doing it. Unfortunately that faction isn't yet large enough to get Democratic politicians to stop doing that kind of thing, but there is some hope that if that faction consistently shows up in primaries for a while they might eventually be able to get some change.

Republicans who are willing to keep complaining even when there is a Republican president are practically non-existent so there is little hope of change ever coming from Republicans.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#115
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While the Democratic administrations may have continued these kinds of policies (and I will challenge you on whether they as bad as the Republican ones) It is the same question, on a different immigration form. See this article from 2016: http://fortune.com/2016/12/23/us-customs-social-media/ The proposal (and public comment period) came much earlier in 2016. This wasn't the result of legislation, the executive bra…

The 2016 one was an optional request for people from 32 countries. The new version is to be required and for people from all countries. Going by the numbers from the article, that's a 2.4 orders of magnitude expansion. Are you really equating the two?

[deleted]

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#116

>The department estimates it would affect 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and 14 million non-immigrant visa applicants, including those who want to come to the U.S. for business or education, according to the documents. this will hurt business. this will hurt american companies. this will hurt the country. this will not catch any terrorists. this will not catch any serious drug traffickers. this will not be sociall…

I couldn't disagree more - this focuses on giving Americans a chance to get employment before anyone else. What's wrong with that? I'm a Brit and would love the same policy here.

It does absolutely nothing of the sort and you know it.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's a part of _your_ problem but I don't think it's a part of _the_ problem. What OP said is correct. Democrats continue to escalate and promote legislation that is deeply invasive.

This article and this discussion is about this action, not all the other actions that everyone has ever taken. It's a distraction, often an intentional one, to start talking about all the others.

> not all the other actions that everyone has ever taken

We're talking about this same question (list social media profiles) being added to a different immigration form two years earlier, seems disingenuous to conflate that with "other actions that everyone has ever taken."

I'd go as far as to call the change in 2016 a test case for making it mandatory in 2018. And I'd go so far as to predict that it will be mandatory for all tourists entrants at some point in the future (even visa waiver holders), no matter who is in power.

We need to be discussing how we stop sliding down this slippery slope, and blaming whoever happens to be in charge today isn't a constructive way to do that unless the other side has committed to stopping it (which neither side has, nor have they historically).

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#118

"Sir, we have reviewed your git commit history of the last 5 years and come to the conclusion that you would be gravely endangering the code quality of this country."

I'm OK with making spaces (instead of tabs) a visa requirement.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#119
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the 5th amendment make those questions impossible to answer? (If you plead the 5th on them, you're.. probably a terrorist...)

5th amendment only applies in criminal cases: " nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself ". Doesn't cover border crossings or visa applications.

Also, the United States hasn't historically always given constitutional rights to non-citizens living in the United States.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#120
post #96

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

Doesn't the 5th amendment make those questions impossible to answer? (If you plead the 5th on them, you're.. probably a terrorist...)

If you refuse to answer, they just don't let you in. Someone who doesn't already have some kind of legal status in the US has no right to enter, so they can turn you away for any reason at all.
Post reply on HN