Whatever happened to 'those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither', America?
That was just a feel good message like “All men are created equal” or separation of church and state
US demands social media details from visa applicants
161–170 of 355 posts
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#162So what prevents me from leaving the requested fields empty or even put wrong account names on it? What if I lie about my phone number? Will they call me to check wether it rings in my pocket? Will they write me an email to check wether I recieve it?
They corroborate your story with the data the NSA has stored and then permanently ban you from the USA for life for lying because Facebook was forced to give them your IP which is tied to the Gmail account Google was forced to disclose information about where your flight booking information was received.
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
My anecdotal experience is similar. Entering the US on a US passport is a breeze. Entering the EU on a US passport felt very hostile. I would imagine it's the same everywhere - it is the most fundamental job of a government to secure its own borders and maintain its own power.
I have found entering the US after visiting the EU (Schengen, technically) to be more hostile. The EU person typically looks at me for a second or two and then stamps. Maybe they ask me how long I'm staying, I say "a week" or whatever, and they stamp. The US people (EWR or JFK, maybe it varies) have an attitude that suggests that they think someone who visited Switzerland or Denmark is likely to be coming back from a…
Interestingly enough, I travelled to the San Diego two years ago and I was expecting a round of “premium questioning” because I had a (long expired) multi-entry visa for Syria in my (now expired) passport (I was in Damascus in late 2009), but the guy didn’t care at all, just asked what the purpose of my US visit was, spent a few minutes looking at my passport and checking his computer and then he welcomed me and sent me on my way. It was all rather painless and everyone was relatively friendly.
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you seen how many vacation days most americans get? It’s not a lot and most of it goes towards visiting family around the major holidays.
I honestly think that is one of the primary factors. That and how health care is tied to employment. When Europeans change jobs they tend to go on vacation for a while, Americans immediately scramble for a new job out of fear of getting sick.
> Americans immediately scramble for a new job out of fear of getting sick.
Or in fear of paying a tax penalty unless they buy some substandard marketplace plan (yes, I know the marketplace plans were sabotaged for political reasons in some cases, but that doesn't change the result)
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those just cover the gov’ts ass. Of course no one will answer yes, but if the govt finds out later you did commit a terrorist act, they have the power to boot you out.
But that circles back to my original question. How does the gov not have the power to boot you out (or jail) just from committing the terrorist act in itself? OR even just from finding out that said person has terrorist ties? I don't buy the answer of needing the question to boot someone out. You can already boot them out for committing crimes. And I'm sure there's a question along the lines "Do you intend to commit…
As per the previous comment, most of it comes from the way the laws were written. If immigration law says “members of a terrorist group can’t get citizenship”, then USCIS has to have a process for following it. In addition to background checks, they ask the question.
In terms of booting them out, the question makes it much easier. If they are a member of a terrorist group and they said “no”, well it’s an open and shut case of lying on an immigration application. If they didn’t ask the question, sure they could still boot them out, but it may be a prolonged process.
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a ridiculous argument. There is a huge demand for people to immigrate to the US and it has every right to screen people looking for visa’s however it wants.
This is a ridiculous argument. First, in theory any sovereign country can do whatever it wants, but it definitely shouldn't. Second, the comment is about simply visiting (or god forbid having a connecting flight in) the US, not applying for visas (which certainly deserve more thorough handling). Third, the richest and most powerful nation on Earth should be setting a high standard for humane treatment of all people,…
Asking for social media handles is inhumane?
It may be bad policy or intrusive, but calling it inhumane is hyperbole.
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nativism is a reaction to the decline of the middle classes prospects. Half of America is not doing well and has been overlooked. The better educated amongst us are blinded by their own progress and weren’t looking inward. We will see more focus on nativist policies in our lifetime as automation continues to eat jobs.
Correct. A lot of people wanted an "outsider" and to "drain the swamp". In other words they don't feel represented by their elected officials, or treated fairly by the government, and they want things to change. Despite this desire being co-opted and twisted by Trump's campaign and Fox News, the underlying feelings are valid for a lot of people across the USA. The Democratic party should have realized this back durin…
> As for the automation question, I think Trump, or his Republican successor, could pivot very easily to saying that robots are going to take Good Old-Fashioned American Jobs(tm) and a lot of people will follow that message.
I think this is interesting, because there's a Democratic candidate, Andrew Yang, gaining popularity because of this (relatively, considering he's coming out of nowhere). Though taking it with a different attitude. But I think this kinda goes to show that the message resonates across party lines (like with what you said about Obama and Trump).
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#168This seems isolationist. Why would we want to isolate ourselves? For a country that was founded upon immigrants, that extremely benefited (and continues to) from diversity of thought and ideas, why would we want to stop that? I'm just under 30 and I still remember growing up how I was told that a major part of what made America great was the melting pot. In academia and at labs I've seen this be a huge benefit. But I…
The US grants permanent residency to roughly a million people a year already. In the past we accepted anyone who would come because so few people were willing to come. Now too many people want to come, so the selection process has to become more rigorous.
I don't want to sound nativist, but there are hard limits on how many people a country can accept at once, especially one with an increasingly small pool of jobs to fill.
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those just cover the gov’ts ass. Of course no one will answer yes, but if the govt finds out later you did commit a terrorist act, they have the power to boot you out.
But that circles back to my original question. How does the gov not have the power to boot you out (or jail) just from committing the terrorist act in itself? OR even just from finding out that said person has terrorist ties? I don't buy the answer of needing the question to boot someone out. You can already boot them out for committing crimes. And I'm sure there's a question along the lines "Do you intend to commit…
I guess to kick people out who have terrorist ties even if they don’t commit any crimes while in the US?
Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants
#170[flagged]
Your reply was fine until you edited in that "woke" nonsense to try to make yourself sound clever. It might just be that YOY growth without a rolling average is always going swing wildly when a country has a lot of negative news cycles in a year and then goes relatively quiet. The US has been looking pretty bad, pretty consistently, for a long time now.
I don't care about sounding clever mate, especially not to internet strangers. The more obvious answer to me is the wealth of the globe has increased YoY as well, mainly thanks to capitalism, so America isn't the primary destination for opportunity anymore, which is a good thing.