How important exactly are your Facebook posts? Well, if the claims of a US immigration lawyer can be believed — they are important enough to have a substantial impact on your entry to that country. Yes, this isn’t a bad joke but the stark reality.
As per Houston-based lawyer Mana Yegan, a bunch of green card holders were stopped at American airports by border agents — merely hours after President Trump’s legislature banning immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries kicked into action. The ban extends to seven middle-eastern countries and according to the Department of Homeland Security, affects immigrants as well as the people already authorized to live and work in the US.
The seven countries that are covered under the ban include Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. According to Miss Yegan, the executive orders have initiated a sequence of actions that are totally unwarranted. Some of these incidents include people with the proper green card (that allows them to legally live and work in the US) being held up at airports, interrogated about their political views for hours on an end, and even forced to hand over their Facebook accounts so that the border patrol guards can go through it looking for something that could betray them.
Well, national security certainly is of the paramount importance but detaining people who have already received the authorization to live and work in the US, who have already been in the country for years, and who own vehicles and have intentions of making it their permanent abode, is simply pointing fingers at the efficiency of your own vetting and screening system. It’s like saying “Hey, we weren’t thinking straight when we gave you the green card. Let us check your Facebook and make sure that your head is in the right place,”
The ban has already been challenged in several courts by people originating from the seven countries, who were held up and questioned for hours despite having been in the US for years and in several cases — even holding positions within the government. Nevertheless, what is happening is happening. Many international airlines have keyed into the situation as well and are not allowing passengers from the seven countries to board flights to the US.
Well, personally I don’t see the logic of the order. If you are discriminating against a particular religion — and that is what it seemed like when the government said that it was considering allowing Syrian Christians in — you might as well call it that. Is the US realy oing to discriminate on the basis of religion? And use Facebook profiles for judging if the people being granted entry are terrorists or not?
Don’t get me wrong, national security is of course very important. However, you cant just point your finger at a particular country or religion and declare them to be the root cause of your problems. This new ban goes beyond terming terrorism as “Islamic Terrorism” and is a few short steps from discriminating against immigrants from one of the largest communities of people across the world on the basis of their religion.
And that discrimination is something that has not gone down well with Americans. The last time large scale discrimination took place, it led to one of the bloodiest civil wars in the history. The country is formed of immigrants for heaven’s sake, and as so many corporate executives and tech honchos have been pointing out — they have had a significant role in making US the superpower that it is today.
According to the the International Organisation for Migration, which has spoken against the move:
The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world,
The longstanding US policy of welcoming refugees has created a win-win situation: it has saved the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have in turn enriched and strengthened their new societies.
Well, let’s see when and if, the newly anointed US president explains the reasoning that led him to effect this move, in greater detail. Meanwhile, the next Friday will see him attend a meeting with some of the US’s biggest tech executives — many of whom have vehemently spoken out against the ban. Lets see if something comes out of that meeting as well.