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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

#161

Post by throwaway_374 »

nmeofthestate wrote: post #99
ritchiea wrote: post #83

For everyone on HN that's afraid of being harassed for their politics because of how Trump support was received, this story and worse ones to come are exactly what we were afraid of coming from Trump. This was never just about policy, the current administration is giving license to treating people who don't look "American" enough with suspicion and they made that intention clear in their campaign. If this was just ab…

>this story and worse ones to come are exactly what we were afraid of coming from Trump. To dial back the hyperbole for a second, we've seen this kind of story happening before Trump took office, and in countries other than the US. Crossing borders carries with it a non-zero chance that you'll be treated like total crap and even when you're lucky enough that the system corrects itself you'll almost certainly get no a…

To dial up the reality for a second, we've not seen this kind of animosity towards foreign cultures before Trump took office.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#162

Post by jacquesm »

monodeldiablo wrote: post #75
coldcode wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not come to the US for any reason. Also, request that your government treat all US visitors exactly the same as this. Until people start to see how awful treating people like trash is nothing will change, it will only get worse. My job depends (somewhat) on foreign tourists coming to the US, I would rather lose my job than read these embarrassing stories.

Please don't encourage ill treatment of US citizens overseas. Americans who travel outside her borders are not the people making these decisions, tend to be much more worldly than the average citizen, and are the first to be horrified at these developments. If you want to make the US change, speak the language we speak: lawsuits. Sue, sue, sue. Call your embassy and demand that they pressure the White House to retrac…

> Americans who travel outside her borders are not the people making these decisions, tend to be much more worldly than the average citizen, and are the first to be horrified at these developments.

They also most likely wield dis-proportionally large influence to get this nonsense stopped.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#163

Post by teddyh »

neves wrote: post #116
teddyh wrote: post #102

I wondered why a “French scholar” would have so much trouble. Near the end, he reveals: “ Maybe it's my birthplace, Egypt [..]”, which, if indeed he looks Egyptian and not French, goes a long way towards explaining it. Racism is a thing.

This guy looks like my grandpa: https://www.google.com.br/search?q=henry+rousso&safe=active&...

Huh. I guess my hypothesis was incorrect.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#164

Post by jacquesm »

the_cyber_pass wrote: post #73
coldcode wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not come to the US for any reason. Also, request that your government treat all US visitors exactly the same as this. Until people start to see how awful treating people like trash is nothing will change, it will only get worse. My job depends (somewhat) on foreign tourists coming to the US, I would rather lose my job than read these embarrassing stories.

That sounds a bit extreme. The US is bad, but it's not the worst place I have ever been. Also don't drag the rest of us in with you, it's selfish and petty that you would have people lose their jobs over what you perceive as a embarrassment from reading things on the internet.

I'd rather visit Panama, Colombia, Serbia or Romania at this point than the USA.

And that's based on personal experience, not based on things read on the internet.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#165

Post by jacquesm »

the_cyber_pass wrote: post #98
Kurtz79 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Do not come to the US for any reason." Many people are obliged to do so as part of their job. Personally I have entered about 10 times with zero issues, I'll probably need to go soon and I'm kind of curious if the general attitude is changing.

Literally almost nothing has changed in the real world at this point. Maybe it will change, but for 99.9% of people the US is still acting like the US always has when it comes to day to day affairs and I say this as someone who had family get hit by Trumps immigration ban.

Yes, that's the right attitude. 99.9% of the people are not affected so it doesn't matter.

/s

Really, don't we ever learn lessons from history?

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#166

Post by garyfirestorm »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #132
devmunchies wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These articles should have been written a decade ago. The media is being honest all of a sudden now that they don't like the government. These aren't new happenings.

Well, a lot of US people actually like it that foreigners are given a "special treatment". As I heard some respond to situations like this: Entering the United States is a privilege and not a right.

That's such an easy thing to say. People who are in US temporarily also need to rent apartments, rent/buy a car. Most of the H1B folks who are here for 3yrs don't live out of the bag for 3 yrs. If this attitude remains, the smart folks will avoid US entirely. You'll definitely see foreign companies competing and hurting the economy. Either you're with immigrants or against.

Edit - if people are uncertain about re-entry, how are they supposed to make daily decisions, as simple as leasing an apartment.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#167

Post by startupdiscuss »

clebio wrote: post #119
Rexxar wrote: post #48

For french speakers, here is the direct link : http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/henry-rousso/muslim-ban-donald-...

I'm curious how good the translation is. I could read the translated article (the English version), but there were clearly some weird words. Is there anything off in the translation at a higher level?

I was a few paragraphs into it when I noticed something was off.

To me, that is mind blowingly good.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#168

Post by startupdiscuss »

JeromeLon wrote: post #150
rocky1138 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the part where the policeman beat the woman for having a child running in all directions?

French version: "Une policière engueule une femme dont le garçon de trois ans court dans tous les sens". So, the policewoman bawled the woman out. No beating involved.

I was worried about that as well.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#169

Post by ghaff »

joncrocks wrote: post #59
laurent123456 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently not as the policeman told him > that the official who examined my file was > "inexperienced" and did not know that certain activities, > including those related to research and education, > enjoyed an exceptional regime and could well be carried > out with A simple tourist visa." From what he wrote at the end of the article it's not clear at all why they've decided to control him.

edited 'cos I was wrong. Seems you can get limited payment called an honorarium. There's some more details here: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/BusinessVisa%20Pu... I've travelled to the US quite a few times on different types of visas (lived and worked there for a few years). It's important to know yourself what is and isn't allowed, as some people will try and tell you "things are fine, we've done it lo…

That's my reading as well.

An honorarium is sort of a funny thing because it's not really a payment, or at least that's the fiction. The theory is that it's more like a thank you gesture, very possibly at below market rates. Who knows what he actually said to CBP. If it was something to the effect of "Sure, I'm being paid for my speech," it's not hard to see this raising a flag.

There really is a broader lesson here that has nothing to do with the current US president or the US in particular.

Countries in general have a lot of rules about visitors working and what constitutes "working" from country to country. And many countries have rules about just about any business activities if you're on a tourist visa.

ADDED: Furthermore re: "things are fine, we've done it loads of times"

I don't get paid when I speak at events. But it's also the case that when I travel to Europe, I'm not sure I've ever been asked that question. It's usually "I'm attending a computer software conference" "in XYZ city" "I work for such and such" etc. If someone were getting paid, I could see it not coming up for years and suddenly it does for some reason and it's a problem.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#170

Post by jacquesm »

wyldfire wrote: post #154
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 contra…

> It might seem silly to you

No, it IS silly. People carry little bits of food with them to eat while traveling, they've been doing that as long as there have been people.

Clearly this has nothing to do with importing apples at a level with which the border patrol needs to be concerned, it's just some lowlife official flexing his/her muscle.

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