"CBP also claims to have what critics say is broadly unconstitutional powers to search travelers’ phones — including those of U.S. citizens — at the border without needing a warrant. Last year, CBP searched 30,000 travelers’ devices — a four-times increase since 2015 — without any need for reasonable suspicion.
Complicating matters, the Trump administration in June began to demand that foreigners who apply for U.S. visas disclose their social media handles and profiles. Some 15 million are expected to fall under the new rule."
It contains quotes from immigration attorneys on how this has become very common place recently and how it targets Muslims more than others.
I agree that this story is probably only getting traction because of the Harvard name. But that makes you wonder how many times it’s happened to students at less famous universities.
It’s a long story, but the immigration people in Lebanon have been VERY difficult with my son. I had to get AUB involved at one point in order for him to get his student visa extended.
What do we think the NSA has been doing with all of the electronic data they have collected since 9/11/01? We have algorithms that electronically search all of contacts in the phones and laptops of persons seeking to enter the country. The first thing our special operators do when they “take down” a site is load all the cell phone and laptop data into the data base. It is like the Kevin Bacon game - if your email or texts are “six degrees of separation” removed from someone on the list, you are back on the plane headed home. This is not new. Harvard may be able to get this student into the country with their contacts and some additional research, but at the entry point - the data screen search said “no.” No doubt there are false negatives, but this is how our government screens folks crossing through our ports of entry. I am not saying it is “okay” - I am just saying it is.
I have a hunch that what to a Palestinian kid having grown up in Lebanon, possibly even in a refugee camp, feels like having friends and family with run of the mill political opinions, might appear to a US border official as associating with terrorists.
This is indeed happening all over, and is affecting diversity and the quality of life in universities as well as communities. Not only students but visiting professors and researchers. And once in, students who are from certain countries cannot go home, nor can their parents visit.
I have most certainly been screamed at by TSA. I am white and on the old side. I am not extrapolating but c’mon folks.
It happens all the time and I think it has to. The customs agents have, generally, a few minute to make a decision, thumbs up or thumbs down. Here they decided they needed more time so took more time. They probably needed even more time than the 5 hours but had to make a decision to admit or reject, and since they didn’t have the right information to admit, they had to reject. If everyone gets waived in, why even have the customs agents?
There were articles a few years ago about Americans coming back into the US and having their phones confiscated or being ordered to open encrypted material. One was journalist and the other was a government employee and he gave up his phone (unopened) because it had classified info on it. I used to have one of those government issued phones and if I lost it my first call was to be to the FBI.
I just read an article about this and if you claim you are a lawyer and have protected info on your phone, they have to get a warrant (but can keep you/phone at the port of entry for a LONG time waiting for that warrant).
I would assume this student needed a student visa to study in the USA. Wouldn’t it be prudent at the point that visa was getting approved to check him out, not waiting until he arrived at Logan?
^^yeah, you’d like to think so, but visas are handled by Dept of State in the local Consulate, and entry is handled by Customs at the airport/border, i.e, Homeland.
I understand that they are different departments, but it’s not like the Department of State in the local consulate is some easygoing agency giving visas away, quite the contrary.
^^actually, it can be, at least easier than Homeland. Homeland has access to different data bases. (For all kinds of security(?) reasons, many federal agencies are still silos.)
There’s an in-depth review to get a student visa. This student was vetted before he got that visa. If there’s anything suspicious the student doesn’t get a visa, period.
Something went wrong when he arrived at Logan.
Most people here know how difficult it’d be for a kid who grew up in a refugee camp to get the stats and achievements required for Harvard. That + prior vetting process makes me suspicious someone in CBP over reacted to something. Maybe with reason but odds are high it wasn’t (due to the prior vetting).
BTW, it could just be like what happened to the guy who brought back artisan honey from a trip to Jamaica. An agent thought it was liquid meth. They got it tested, the results showed it was honey. The agent/agency would not admit wrongdoing and sent it out elsewhere to “prove” it wasn’t honey. In the end, all analyses showed it was, indeed, honey. They guy was kept in jail forthree months. He was totally innocent. All because someone on an ego trip over reacted then refused to admit wrong doing. It happens.
No from what I read it came back as positive for meth. Unfortunately it was a false positive. These are the kinds of assumptions about people that fuel hate for someone just doing there job. I am far from a TSA fan but I treat individuals doing there job with respect and usually they do the same for me.
^ (no, it didn’t. The agency said the results came back negative but they were so sure it couldn’t be honey that they sent it to be tested elsewhere. Read a couple days ago in complimentary in-flight French conservative newspaper of reference. Longer story can be found in WaPo).
General point: at borders, one agent with a bee in his bonnet can cause a lot of trouble.
This doesn’t sound right. Government employees are never authorized to have classified info on a cellphone. If he did take classified info out of the country on a cellphone, I’m surprised he wasn’t criminally charged.
Even though student visas are approved in advance doesn’t mean that the investigation process stops. You don’t get to say “I passed, so now I can do whatever I want.”
