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The US Border Patrol Is Checking Detainees' Facebook Profiles (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CNET: Border patrol agents are checking the Facebook accounts of people who are being held in limbo for approval to enter the U.S., according to a Saturday tweet by immigration lawyer Mana Yegani that was spotted by The Independent... Yegani, who is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told CNET that checking phones has been reported by other lawyers as part of the vetting process. "[G]oing through passengers phones from the seven banned countries happens when the individual is interrogated (put under extreme vetting)," Yegani said.

Yegani told The Independent that she and other lawyers have been fielding calls from people who are already cleared to live in America, but are getting stuck at the border regardless. "These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here," Yegani said in the report.

The EFF warns that "Fourth Amendment protection is not as strong at the border as it is in your home or office. This means that law enforcement can inspect your computer or electronic equipment, even if they have no reason to suspect there is anything illegal on it. An international airport, even if many miles from the actual border, is considered the functional equivalent of a border."

10 of 502 comments (clear)

  1. SCOTUS ruled , limited rights at the border by bongey · · Score: 4, Informative

    Aliens of any type have NEARLY ZERO rights at the border. Consular nonreviewability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... US Citizens have a reduced set of rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  2. Well, yes. As they should. by Etcetera · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently we've forgotten the folks (San Bernardino, etc) who had "clear evidence of ISIS sympathies" on their Facebook profiles and other public social media that we then asked why hadn't been caught when they were entering the country.

    As the SCOTUS has repeatedly stated, aliens have no Right of Entry to the US, and non-citizens have reduced guarantees (and certainly reduced privileges). Even a US citizen may be searched on entry if anything unusual is suspected, and is legally obligated to declare possessions in a way that basically happens nowhere else domestically (except agricultural goods going into California).

    This is a Good Thing. How is this not a Good Thing? That's what customs/border inspection is supposed to be doing.

    1. Re:Well, yes. As they should. by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Informative

      I like how you keep repeating this as "Trump's list of seven"...

      It's Obama's list of seven. See: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/01/29/news-bulletin-the-list-of-muslim-nations-in-trumps-socalled-muslim-ban-are-ones-obama-choose-n2278021

      Well Trump owns it now. He went much further than Obama and a Republican-dominated Congress did (albeit with Democrat support.) Trump is not just restricting visas granted to people from these countries. He's banning them from entering.

      You still haven't addressed how Trump's action would have stopped the San Bernadino shooters. Which it wouldn't. The list is a convenient one for Trump. He can use its prior existence as political cover, appear to be tough on Muslims entering the country, and not piss off his friends in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

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      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  3. Re:Brave new world by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean George Orwell's 1984. That was about a totalitarian society with widespread surveillance.

    Brave New World (by Aldous Huxley) was about a bio-engineered caste society. Individuality was discouraged, but the main theme was not surveillance.

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    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  4. Re: Trump is what he said he was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The political genius was that they knew that this was going to cause very public chaos and likely be initially ruled contrary to the constitution. So at the same time all this was going on, while the public and media were suitably distracted; and after speaking with his good friend Mr Putin; Trump has kicked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence off the National Security Council and installed Steve Bannon in their place.

    I hope you're all watching what happens next very carefully, because tomorrow does not always follow the same as today.

  5. Re:Better get started on that replacement... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Those countries NEVER had visa waivers.

    The change was that if you, as a citizen of a visa waiver country (eg Australia), has been to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya or Yemen on or after March 1 2011 you would no longer qualify for the visa waiver program. You would still be able to visit, you just need to get a visa first. And given that those countries don't have a huge western tourist trade that doesn't seem like a massive impost. What's more is it isn't targetting the people of that country, its people who are citizens of somewhere else that went there.

  6. Re:Reverse engineering by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Informative

    Regardless: the point of looking at Obama's signing off on a half-year ban in 2011 is simply to show how hilariously hypocritical the shrieking left is as they react to things like this.

    Obama stopped processing applications for refugee status. Trump has banned people who had already been granted visas and even green-card holders (i.e., residents of the U.S.), though apparently they've backed off a bit on the latter today after the huge backlash.

    but a national shortage of fainting couches the moment the same thing is ordered for a much shorter period of time now. Love the hypocrisy, and love how transparently it's on display. That's the best.

    Let's put this in different terms, shall we? If Obama were running a business, the equivalent of his actions would be to cease accepting new applications for jobs. If Trump were running a business, the equivalent would be to lay off people you had already said were hired, and to lock out of their homes longer-term employees who had relocated to join your company when they tried to return from vacation.

    If you can't tell the difference between the severity of those actions, I don't know what to say.

  7. Re:Better get started on that replacement... by waynemcdougall · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cynic in me says they are looking for someone who can be implicated as a terrorist supporter to be used to justify the ban.

    Funny thing about that...

    Trumps actual order has an exception for immigrants who are already in transit, viz section (e): "[...] when the person is already in transit and denying admission would cause undue hardship -- and it would not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States."

    So holding people up at US airports just some ICE pricks trying to make a false narrative to paint Trump in a bad light.

    I'd say you hadn't read the article you linked to, but since you quote it, and seem capable of English comprehension, I can only assume you are deliberately trying to mispresent the case. The "ICE pricks" are doing exactly what Trump has decreed. You conveniently left out the start of the section, which includes as the beginning...the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis...[including] when the person is already in transit...

    So those 'ICE pricks' have no discretion. BOTH Secretaries of State AND Homeland Security must apply that "in transit exemption". AND they can't even do it by a class or group - they have to give approval for each individual. Before they can enter.

    AND this exception only applied to refugees. Not to tourists or people visiting their families.

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  8. Re: Trump is what he said he was by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since you can't seem to make an argument w/o resorting to name calling...

    Obama didn't demote the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence. In addition, previous to her appointment as National Security Advisor, Rice, among other things:

    1. served in the Clinton administration in various capacities: at the National Security Council (NSC) from 1993 to 1997; as director for international organizations and peacekeeping from 1993 to 1995; and as special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs from 1995 to 1997.
    2. was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 2008

    Steve Bannon worked at Goldman-Sachs, produced a few movies and ran a right-wing newspaper.

    The two don't exactly compare.

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  9. Re: Trump is what he said he was by Kiuas · · Score: 5, Informative

    Reality is countries who letting these refugees in are finding out the hard way how incompatible the cultures are, and some people are paying for it with their lives.

    The residents of the countries on that list have performed 0 terror attacks on US soil since 1975. And the source for this is not some 'libtard' site bit the conservative as Cato institute:

    Foreigners from those seven nations have killed zero Americans in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 and the end of 2015. Six Iranians, six Sudanese, two Somalis, two Iraqis, and one Yemini have been convicted of attempting or carrying out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Zero Libyans or Syrians have been convicted of planning a terrorist attack on U.S. soil during that time period. - -

    In addition to the visa restrictions above, Trump’s executive order further cuts the refugee program to 50,000 annually, indefinitely blocks all refugees from Syria, and suspends all refugee admissions for 120 days. This is a response to a phantom menace. From 1975 to the end of 2015, 20 refugees have been convicted of attempting or committing terrorism on U.S. soil, and only three Americans have been killed in attacks committed by refugees—all in the 1970s. Zero Americans have been killed by Syrian refugees in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The annual chance of an American dying in a terrorist attack committed by a refugee is one in 3.6 billion. The other 17 convictions have mainly been for aiding or attempting to join foreign terrorists.

    President Trump tweeted earlier this week that executive orders were intended to improve national security by reducing the terrorist threat. However, a rational evaluation of national security threats is not the basis for Trump’s orders, as the risk is fairly small but the cost is great. The measures taken here will have virtually no effect on improving U.S. national security.

    Meanwhile, Saudi-arabia is the largest propagator of Wahabbism which is both the state religion of the kingdom and also at the core of ISIS ideology. Saudis are also largely behind the funding of ISIS. 15 of the 911 attackers were Saudi nationals, 2 were from United Arab Emirates, 1 was Lebanese, and one was from Egypt, But is Saudi-Arabia on the list? Nope. And neither are Egypt or Lebanon. They're still considered your 'allies'. In fact Saudis themselves seem 'very optimistic about Trump.'

    So he's planning to combat radical Islam by maintaining military and financial support to its largest state sponsor in the world, while banning a list of countries that have done the US zero harm comparatively? So what, exactly is this 'fixing' outside playing right into the hands of your enemies by allowing them to trump up the rhetoric of 'holy war' and senseless persecution of muslims in an attempt to radicalize the american muslim population?

    Nothing. You're being played like a cheap fiddle. The ISIS commanders are laughing their beards off and Sun Tzu is rolling in his grave because of such utter strategic incompetence.

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    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead