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I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

theguardian.com

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Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#731

Post by apwell23 »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #702
transcriptase wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The specifics are seemingly irrelevant to everyone. She had her work visa revoked at the Canadian border because her company in California was allegedly making THC beverages in violation of federal law. She was told to visit a consulate to straighten it out. Instead she flew to Mexico and tried to enter there with new and obviously fake job offer. She was treated like anyone else would, but it’s international news be…

Hemp is not THC. And hemp was legalized in 2019 federally.

only if thc content is below a certain %

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#732

Post by kragen »

Tainnor wrote: post #640
kragen wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, it is observably true that many people take different positions on the issue and then demonize those who disagree with them, converting it into a partisan issue. Another commenter (now deleted) made the claim that, saying an issue shouldn't be partisan is “ just saying ‘everyone should believe what I do’ but in the lexicon of people who look down their nose at the general public. ” They added,…

> While I agree with you, it is observably true that many people take different positions on the issue and then demonize those who disagree with them, converting it into a partisan issue. Sure, but you have to draw a line somewhere. Even on HN, there are opinions that you can't express (repeatedly) without being banned, even though there are clearly people with such opinions. Otherwise it's the Nazi bar problem - eve…

I am not sure what opinion you thought I was trying to express. Evidently some sort of anti-censorship argument? To the contrary, my comment was explaining that the issue of US immigration has become highly polarized, and discussing highly polarized issues on HN is generally destructive, so probably we shouldn't attempt to discuss the issue here. This is closer to being a pro-censorship argument than an anti-censorship argument. (Later I added an illustration of how well a discussion can go without polarization, and how radically that differs from the current comment thread, but you may not have seen that.)

Your comment begins by signaling partial disagreement ("Sure, but") but then makes no argument tending to show that the issue is not highly polarized or that HN is a good place to discuss highly polarized issues. Instead, it discusses other topics relating to social group dynamics, but not in a way that is relevant to the comment you were replying to.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#733

Post by thegrim33 »

greggyb wrote: post #237

Why is this flagged? First of all, it's about an entrepreneur traveling to the US for a startup, which is directly relevant to a significant proportion of YCombinator founders themselves. Beyond its direct relevance to the core founding audience of HN, it is not clickbait or wantonly inflammatory, and is clearly of interest to many based on the comment activity and votes.

1) It violates the HN guideline that if it's covered by mainstream news it's likely off-topic.

2) It's too political in nature, and violates the HN guideline that political topics are likely off-topic.

3) It violates the HN guideline that the content should be things that good hackers would find intellectually satisfying. Raging partisan hate at each other about the latest political/social snafu is not intellectually satisfying. It has nothing to do with engineering, science, technology, etc., it's purely a social/political issue.

4) Such a submission only draws a mass amount of hate and partisan flamebait which, once again, does not belong on HN. You have every other site on the internet available to discuss political issues.

5) Your appeal to popularity, saying it has lots of engagement and therefore belongs here, has zero connection to the HN guidelines for what belongs here. I don't care if 1 person or 1 billion people engage with it. It doesn't change the fact that it's off-topic and decreases the quality of the site.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#734

Post by wraaath »

anonshadow wrote: post #570

This is the money shot : "Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts. The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these…

GEO Group also operates similar facilities in Australia, and is publicly traded in the US stock market under the symbol GEO. For the quarter ending 12/31/2024, they had top line revenue of 608M, but pre-tax income came in at 24M, and carrying debt of 2.3B. Somehow with such thin profit margins, their stock is trading at a 4B market capitalization and carrying a 128 P/E (by comparison, Google carries a 20 P/E, Meta 24), i.e. "richly overvalued". It would be a damned shame if Australia started re-evaluating those contracts. Oh - and some of the risk factors that GEO notes in their last 10-K annual filing:

Efforts to reduce the U.S. federal deficit could adversely affect our liquidity, results of operations and financial condition.

We partner with a limited number of governmental customers who account for a significant portion of our revenues. The loss of, or a significant decrease in revenues from, these customers could seriously harm our financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to the loss of our facility management contracts, due to terminations, non-renewals or competitive re-bids, which could adversely affect our results of operations and liquidity, including our ability to secure new facility management contracts from other government customers.

and also - this amazing level of self-awareness:

Adverse publicity may negatively impact our ability to retain existing contracts and obtain new contracts.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#735

Post by [deleted] »

thegrim33 wrote: post #733
greggyb wrote: post #237

Why is this flagged? First of all, it's about an entrepreneur traveling to the US for a startup, which is directly relevant to a significant proportion of YCombinator founders themselves. Beyond its direct relevance to the core founding audience of HN, it is not clickbait or wantonly inflammatory, and is clearly of interest to many based on the comment activity and votes.

1) It violates the HN guideline that if it's covered by mainstream news it's likely off-topic. 2) It's too political in nature, and violates the HN guideline that political topics are likely off-topic. 3) It violates the HN guideline that the content should be things that good hackers would find intellectually satisfying. Raging partisan hate at each other about the latest political/social snafu is not intellectually…

[deleted]

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#736

Post by LastTrain »

djohnston wrote: post #329
LastTrain wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that impacts you on a daily basis exactly how? Think long and hard about why that would even begin to bother you. Not to mention is was barely a passing side issue for Harris

Are you implying that people should only vote on things which they encounter in their day-to-day lived experience? That's silly and not how the world works. Why are you mad about Gaza? You aren't getting JDAMs dropped on your roof, are you? How does Gaza impact you on a daily basis? Harris failed to distance herself from positions that are deeply unpopular with the majority of Americans (e.g. sex changes for illegal…

I tend to care about policies that don't impact me personally when they harm other people. I'm a natural born citizen, I'm not going to get deported with out process, but I still care about that. I'm not in grade school, so I'm not going to be a victim of a school shooting, but I still care about that. If it is a policy that doesn't impact me personally, but benefits someone else, yeah I tend to not give a shit. Why would I be against a position that has no impact on me whatsoever when it only meant to help someone else as in the case with civil rights?

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#737

Post by shirro »

mateus1 wrote: post #400
greggyb wrote: post #237

Why is this flagged? First of all, it's about an entrepreneur traveling to the US for a startup, which is directly relevant to a significant proportion of YCombinator founders themselves. Beyond its direct relevance to the core founding audience of HN, it is not clickbait or wantonly inflammatory, and is clearly of interest to many based on the comment activity and votes.

Musk, Trump and DOGE topics are all being flagged, even if they are relevant… The tech world has blessed this regime.

HN has never been unbiased. It is funded by a tech VC company and targeted at tech entrepreneurs. It has always promoted crypto and AI scams to an eager audience and pumped up one useless company that added nothing of value to the world after another.

Despite that there has been a general interest in "tech" and clever things and intelligent discussion here that appeals to a reasonably broad community so the place works.

The massive wealth concentration and power amongst a very few, the Paypal mafia, Andreeson etc has led them down a path that puts them at odds with the rest of us. Regardless of our diverse politics regular engineers aren't going to have more individual or economic freedom in a world controlled by a small group of oligarchs. They care about us about as much as we care about ants.

I wouldn't say the tech world has blessed the regime but many unquestionably revere the financiers of the tech world. We (techies) for all our talk of individual liberties have a problem with cult like thinking. Most of us aren't stupid and we can justify our positions, any position. And while some flagging of discussions might be sock puppets or bots, the truth is a lot of people still thoroughly believe the hype.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#738

Post by ok_dad »

kragen wrote: post #683
ok_dad wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes things get messy discussing important topics, we should err on the side of sunshine rather than darkness for these discussions. HN has a lot of powerful and wealthy people who have a responsibility to protect the system they relied on to become rich and powerful, but instead these people ignore the discussion because it doesn’t mesh with their ideas that America is the greatest. See my connect from a few co…

I deeply regret that you are providing such a perfect illustration of my point.

I regret that you think that, but I’m not explaining to you why you’re wrong, it’s as pointless as you trying to convince me that I’m demonizing anyone with that comment.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#739

Post by kdmtctl »

neves wrote: post #422
vlovich123 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was traveling to the US that fraught before 9/11? I think people forget just how much 9/11 damaged the national psyche which to me honestly explains things like Trump.

Does it mean that Al Qaeda won?

That was my first thought. The goal was fear. Here it is.

Re: I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

#740

Post by stubish »

ethbr1 wrote: post #583
aendruk wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Each time I traveled up there for work, the border guards were polite and professional. Each time I traveled home, I got pulled aside […] Interesting, it was the opposite for me, US citizen with CA work permit circa 2016. CBP seemed to not care while CBSA was often irrationally aggressive and suspicious. The closest thing I got to an explanation once after being freed was “We just like you” with a grin.

My experiences with CBSA were pretty bad too. I was grilled in Vancouver about whether the purpose of my visit was work or pleasure, after I helpfully told the officer that my dad was attending a work conference and I was traveling with him but sightseeing. "Well which one is it, work or pleasure?!" I don't know, dude. I just explained the situation: you're supposed to be the expert!

I believe making you flustered is a deliberate part of the procedure. If you don't act 'normal flustered' or panic, it is a signal for more advanced screening.
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