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Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

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Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#261

Post by bayesianhorse »

In the long run, there will be no border controls or limitations on immigration in the world.

Why? Well, for one thing these controls hardly work at all. Look at the population of illegal immigrants in the US to see how a long fence with vicious patrols and vigorous immigration enforcement still doesn't stop the immigration.

Secondly border and immigration controls violate human rights, without due justification. And no, "too much immigrants are inconvenient" is no proper justification for hunting, arresting, detaining and deporting actual human beings.

Thirdly cross-border trade and immigration is too valuable for both the poorer and the richer countries.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#262

Post by surge »

monksy wrote: post #105

Is this a repost? I could have sworn I've seen this before. I'm not sure if it was on HN or r/truereddit.

It was on truereddit on the guys blog: http://dasmag.nl/why-i-will-never-return-to-the-usa/

His crack about a major tragedy (levees breaking) probably is what did him in.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#263

Post by smileysteve »

Spooky23 wrote: post #214
NateDad wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're wrong, and I'm sorry that people like you are the ones working on the border. He was obviously travelling all around the world sight-seeing. He had tons of proof of that. The border patrol were paranoid and idiotic. Keeping random people out who "seem" like they might be dangerous is not going to prevent any problems. It's just going to make the rest of the world hate us more.

The Border agents are paid to be paranoid. You don't talk to police like you talk to a friend -- you keep the scope of the conversation limited to the question asked. You don't introduce the topic of Al-Qaeda. You don't go into political/religous discussions. Once you do that, you're putting the border agent/cop in a position where he needs to apply subjective judgement. You avoid that by not inserting unrelated nois…

That's a horrible way to greet visitors - or to make them feel like they need to research the police before visiting a country.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#264

Post by aet »

gress wrote: post #243
thomasz wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, one problem is that publications like the wsws are not news in the strict sense. They do not have the staff and the founding that's necessary to engage in traditional reporting. What those publications are doing is to interpret secondary sources. The article in question does little else than showing us the authors reactions after watching [0]. Some people might find this reaction of the "International Committee…

How is that different from mainstream news outlets publishing articles sourced from Reuters or AP?

Reuters and AP are reputable and have reporters on the ground. AP has won 50+ Pulitzer prizes. See http://www.ap.org/company/pulitzers.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#265

Post by dragonwriter »

igravious wrote: post #258
kaybe wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do however find it slightly irritating that no ID at all is needed to fly from Germany to Sweden. Repeatedly, the only thing needed at all was the number on the e-ticket. Not even a check of whether the ticket was in my name.

Do you need ID to travel from L.A. to Phoenix?

> Do you need ID to travel from L.A. to Phoenix?

By commercial air, yes; in the US, you need ID and a matching boarding pass to enter the secured area of an airport, which is an essential prerequisite to boarding an airplane.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#266

Post by surge »

NateDad wrote: post #23
bsdetector wrote: post #19

> When I'm supposed to watch my words, I tend to say the wrong ones. No kidding. Volunteering that he was in Al Qaeda territory... to take pictures of plants. Saying he's a nihilist. Suggesting that the levees in New Orleans might break again while he's visiting. Having Jewish ancestry, but denying being Jewish because not religious. Also appears he was also traveling alone to many of these places, without any busine…

I think you're wrong, and I'm sorry that people like you are the ones working on the border. He was obviously travelling all around the world sight-seeing. He had tons of proof of that. The border patrol were paranoid and idiotic. Keeping random people out who "seem" like they might be dangerous is not going to prevent any problems. It's just going to make the rest of the world hate us more.

So his crack about levees didn't in anyway color or piss off the border patrol? I mean when I'm entering a country, I too like to crack wise about their recent national tragedies to get into the border officer's good graces. He should have followed that up by saying he was taking the train because he heard planes tend to fly into buildings here.

Sorry, but it sounds like this guy is a bit of an idiot who didn't help his case, even if the border patrol was overly critical. Trust me, I'm no fan of the TSA or their "SPOT" nonsense, but if I said the things he said, I would expect to get denied just out of spite.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#267

Post by mncolinlee »

crusso wrote: post #57
jballanc wrote: post #33

I don't think it's ever been easy to get into the US. A tour through Ellis Island will tell you as much. The difference is that, in the past, the US needed its immigrants. They built its cities and its railroads and much of the US's early industry. Later the US's immigrants were its main source of scientific advancements...but the US's relationship with its immigrants has, I think, always been strained. The differenc…

US immigration is broken on so many levels. A lot of our immigration problems stem from a political desire to increase voter rolls for one particular party. The Democrat party benefits greatly from illegal immigration from Mexico, so they refuse to do anything whatsoever to control that flow. That's great for Democrats to win elections and all, but it creates a backlash against immigration in general. Ironically, the…

This is pure groupthink with no evidence. The facts are quite the opposite.

The administration of Barack Obama has locked up and deported more undocumented immigrants than any President in American history. [1]

Now, I would agree that "the Democrat party" would benefit more if they did the opposite, but our President has not chosen that path. Militarization of the border is at an all-time high because of ignorant blather like the parent post that only harms our country and its workforce.

[1] http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/actually-obama-h...

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#268

Post by auggierose »

I remember when I entered the US for the first time in 1999 through the JFK New York airport on my way to San Francisco. I would be studying there, but had all documentation for that, including some necessary documentation for entering the country, in my suitcase. Which was already in the US, while I approached the airport border control. A friendly border control woman walked with me to my suitcase, let me obtain my documentation, and then let me into the country.

Could that still happen today? I sincerely doubt it, I would just be sent back straight away.

What a shame.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#269

Post by lewaldman »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #229
eshvk wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From what I've read, the Israelis make border checks less problematic. It is hard to scale their solutions to US? The Israelis are clear that what they do is racial profiling. Kind of hard to pay lip service to equality and all that bull shit and still just harass only brown people, isn't it?

This is misinformation in the extreme. 60% of Israeli Jews are from Arab countries, or their parents and grandparents were, and they are very similar in appearance to Arabs. There are also thousands of Ethiopian Jews with even darker skin. The European Jews with fair skin constitute only a part of the population, maybe half or less than half (there is a lot of intermarriage). Israeli border agents can't do racial pro…

> 60% of Israeli Jews are from Arab countries, or their parents and grandparents were, and they are very similar in appearance to Arabs

Sorry, but you are wrong regarding the impossibility of do a "race" profiling. I'm a Jew and lived for 6 year in Israel. You can spot in a fraction of a second an arab jew from an arab muslin, from an arab christian.

They can look alike phisicaly, but the behavior, cloths, accents, body expression, etc... Are completely diferent.

Re: Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States

#270

Post by blei »

Anyone have statistics for admittance/denials for different categories of travelers?

I keep seeing these anecdotes get lots of attention on Hacker News, and all the comments just respond with more horror story anecdotes. But I worry there might be an echo chamber effect, where people who like to comment on articles of this topic are also the people who are already accustomed to, or feel confirmation bias satisfaction at, hearing about these kinds of horror anecdotes.

It's definitely a terrible problem; I'm just wondering if Hacker News commenters are overstating the prevalence of the problem.

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