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Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

cs.jhu.edu

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Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#81

Post by mhurron »

l33tbro wrote: post #20
weego wrote: post #10

Are we going to trawl up and link every single case of someone being denied re-entry to the US? It's just getting rather tedious. Though as the constant karma farming off similarly tedious and usually poorly researched and written blog posts of the last week continues unabated perhaps I am in a minority of readers who gets their news from decent sources and likes to come to HN for interesting technical articles.

Hmmm, I think HN is pretty great for interesting news from decent sources (usually Atlantic, NYT, New Yorker, etc). I also think people getting questionably denied entrance to the US is pretty newsworthy given the bomb that has been dropped in the last few days. Maybe don't click if it doesn't interest you?

They can deny you for any reason. Very literally any reason. It's not newsworthy, they've been able to do this since the US started to control immigration and it is not related to what the NSA has been doing since basically the NSA has been in existence.

People are trying so hard to find tangible evidence of someone doing something with info the NSA has collected that they are latching on to anything that could be construed as such if you look at it believing you found that evidence.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#82

Post by mikeash »

Spearchucker wrote: post #79
mikeash wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the "some computer" comment a bit odd, because Nelson Mandela most certainly did have ties to terrorist groups. He co-founded one. This is not a swipe against Mandela in any way. It's just an example that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and how rigid systems can end up giving you politically inconvenient results. If you make a blanket rule that people with ties to terrorism cannot enter t…

Mandela didn't found anything. He started out as a militant leader in Umkhonto we Sizwe (translates as "Spear of the Nation"), which was the military wing of the ANC.

Wikipedia says that Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe. I welcome correction if they got it wrong, of course.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#83

Post by Jacqued »

TylerE wrote: post #19
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #12

I wonder if this is one of those vague "security" problems. It seems like if people get denied for normal stuff (overstaying, violating their visas, etc) they're told and can at least fight it a little. But when you get a black mark against you it seems like you get stuck in an administrative blackhole where nobody is authorised to tell you WHY or they themselves don't know. It was the same way with the no-fly list f…

It's actually good security practice. If the terrorist's find out they got flagged because of X, now they know not to do X any more.

It's actually bad security practice, because terrorists do not exist. I mean, there are so few of them that they are basically irrelevant. Yes, every few years a terrorist event will occur somewhere in a western country, and that is quite unfortunate. However it is very minor and I don't believe it is worth the effort to fight it with a significant part of the nation's budget. Even less so to restrict civil liberties.

This whole narrative that there is a prevalent terrorist threat against our western countries is both a product of irrational fear and general government megalomania. I'm not even sure there's malevolence behind it.

Osama Bin Laden really won the very first time the terms "War on terror" were pronounced - I don't think he could ever have dreamed of such a wide and lasting success

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#84

Post by genwin »

lmgftp wrote: post #17
forgotAgain wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely there was a legitimate reason Why make that presumption?

Simply because the vast majority of cases regarding visas/entry into the United States are determined by strict procedure and in accordance with the law. So most likely, as in the majority of cases, there is a reason we're not able to see here, for national security or one-sidedness.

With no public oversight there's no guarantee the procedure is in accordance with the law.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#85

Post by amasad »

The bit about the flight staff tearing up his ticket is a real problem. Flight staff act like they're Border Control. I'm a Jordanian with an O1 and they usually give me hard time when I try to board a plane to the states. I once almost missed my flight because they made me buy a ticket back in the same year, even-though my visa was valid for three years.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#86

Post by astrodust »

morganwilde wrote: post #57
gilgoomesh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless you walked through Alaska on a land bridge, you too are an immigrant. Uh... isn't that also immigration?

To extend this line of thinking - you are (possibly) not an immigrant only if you were born in Africa - our place of origin.

Even "origin" is a misnomer here. It's not clear if the neanderthals were wiped out, or simply assimilated. Many were already living in modern-day Europe.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#87

Post by astrodust »

genwin wrote: post #75

My taxes pay for the expensive university education of foreigners, without guarantee they can stay? Great.

Many, if not most developed countries do this. Don't be such a jackass.

The idea is that these students enrich the university, and there's a chance they'll stay on as professors.

Billions are spent chasing foreign students that can throw a football and you chose to save your rage for this?

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#88

Post by Spearchucker »

mikeash wrote: post #82
Spearchucker wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandela didn't found anything. He started out as a militant leader in Umkhonto we Sizwe (translates as "Spear of the Nation"), which was the military wing of the ANC.

Wikipedia says that Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe. I welcome correction if they got it wrong, of course.

We have to assume that the author of the Wikipedia article is more informed than I am. I stand corrected.

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#89

Post by cema »

lquist wrote: post #22

America when will you be angelic? When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? America when will you send your eggs to India? I'm sick of your insane demands. From Ginsberg's "America" ( http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html )

Uh... what?

Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU

#90

Post by cema »

genwin wrote: post #80
xanmas wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PhD students, especially in the sciences, don't pay tuition.

Nice to know my taxes pay for the lofty education of people who may have no intention of working in my country.

They may have an intention. But few means, since there is no easy way from graduation to the citizenship.

A positive side effect may be more foreigners having good will towards Americans, having studied and lived here for several years. However, incidents like this one (denying visa) are not working towards developing the good will but very much in the other direction.

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