7 ms·

I want to joke that CBP might be looking for referral bonuses by referring great candidates to tech companies. However, if it's really true, it is depressing.

I want to joke that CBP might be looking for referral bonuses by referring great candidates to tech companies. However, if it's really true, it is depressing. He was actually given an A4 sheet to balance a BST. Wow. What if he failed the test? I assume that CBP cannot deny you entry because you didn't brush up on your algorithms and data-structures during your flight. But, they can still keep you detained for secondary screening.

tacostakohashi 10y ago
I'd speculate that they're really just looking for any indication of understanding the question, rather than a complete and correct answer. To the extent that's true, it's not entirely unreasonable.
- alphonsegaston 10y ago
  Hey instead of speculating, I dunno, why just not listen to what happened from the person it happened to? He says in the same thread that he was asked 10 questions and only the "wikipedia answers" were acceptable. Americans elected a racist who has empowered racists to act as they see fit. This is the world now.
  - oh_sigh 10y ago
    You certainly lend a lot of credulity to something which is essentially a series of tweets right now. I'm not sure how this story could be confirmed, but it seems like you've already made up your mind as to the what, how and why of what happened.
    - colemickens 10y ago
      Do you actually have some other interpretation or take on this event? Or are you just desperately looking for any reason to not admit how incredibly fucked up this is?
    - alphonsegaston 10y ago
      Yeah, I mean it's not like they did the same thing two weeks ago: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821 http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stori... Or harassed and intimidated a 70-year old children's book author: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-childrens-author-mem-fox-detained-by-us-border-control-i-sobbed-like-a-baby https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-c... Or almost deported a visiting Holocaust scholar: http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holocaust-scholar-482609#article=6017ODBEQzY5MUVERUNDMjc2NDYxMUMwN0Q5RUQzODNBNjY= http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holoc... Or maybe, just maybe, I come from a family of immigrants who has seen people around him treated this way even before we elected a racist reality tv star as POTUS.
      - pfarnsworth 10y ago
        Stuff like this happens all the time, the press never picked up on it until Trump came into power. I posted a story of a close friend who got denied entry at the border and banned for 10 years. I've heard other stories where friends of friends )I met them and talked with them) were accused of being strippers or hookers flying to Vegas and being banned for 10 years as well. All during Obama's time, so it's not new. Border guards are facists. And all 3 of those stories you provide are non-Muslims, and 2 of them are white Australians, so it's not directly a "racist" event.
        nikdaheratik 10y ago
        There was also Mohammed Ali, Jr. this past weekend who was a US Citizen but still got detained. A schoolteacher from England who was refused entry, a Canadian Student-Athlete was was refused entry two weeks ago, all three of these are Muslims. Also, at least two US Citizens who were denied global travel cards even though they were businessmen who travel frequently, both Muslims. And it doesn't have to be a "racist" event. The administration literally said they wanted to "ban Muslims", this could be exactly the policy they wanted when they passed the Executive Order. And the only way to tell is to get Congress to do more digging.
  - nilkn 10y ago
    Do you have any evidence that this just started ~30 days ago after Trump's inauguration? It's entirely possible -- likely even -- that this has been going on for quite some time and the media is just more interested in reporting on it right now because they know it'll play into the Trump narrative. That doesn't justify the actions in any way, but it shows you how powerful the media are at forming narratives -- and how easy it is to fall for the trap.
    - alphonsegaston 10y ago
      There's no trap to fall into, I can literally pull up YouTube clips of Trump scapegoating immigrants at a moment's notice. Awful shit that happened under Obama (of which there is no shortage) is on Obama. Now? Trump owns it.
    - nikdaheratik 10y ago
      I don't know, and neither does anyone else because the people who are able to look into this are either running the show (the administration) or don't want to investigate (the Republicans in Congress). The best that the media can do is collect anecdotes and submit FOIA requests to see what they can find out.
    - tomlock 10y ago
      I think Trump may have kickstarted that narrative, because of that whole thing about Mexican immigrants (and some of them I'm sure are nice people), and how he banned the citizens of 7 countries from returning or entering the US. I think its fair to say this kind of treatment of people is nothing new - but to say the media is "forcing" a narrative here is hard to swallow. Trump has made it, at the very least, incredibly easy to create a narrative of racism for his detractors and the richard spencers of his supporters.
      - briandear 10y ago
        Let's back up a second: "Mexican Immigrants != Illegal Immigrants" One is a subset of the other and Trump's rhetoric was directed at illegal aliens and not "Immigrants." Allowing an innacurate narrative to propagate is part of the problem.
  - umanwizard 10y ago
    The guy appears to have successfully entered the US (his tweet was sent from Manhattan), so apparently he passed their test. He also explicitly stated that he refused to answer the BST question and they moved on to other questions. Meaning it's not even speculation to claim that they weren't requiring an accurate answer to the BST question for entry: it's demonstrably true fact.
raggi 10y ago
Ask Maher Arar what CBP is allowed to do, or better just read up on the case. Don't assume the laws in this area have any relation to what you would hope they are. They're not.
nevi-me 10y ago
This is what happens when you have a populist president, people start disregarding the law and listen to the President even if he/she is wrong. Imagine this happening at the time when companies are starting to accept that you can't interview candidates solely by asking them to solve algorithms on a whiteboard, then some inexperienced staff go to Wikipedia and expect people to be able to recite it. The question's what happened as he said he was too exhausted, does he get flagged for secondary screening? The travel ban is suspended AFAIK. We are witnessing self-division at sad levels. We had a flare up of xenophobic attacks in South Africa last week. In an earlier incarnation of such attacks in 2008, mostly Zulu people would ask you what certain things are in Zulu, and if they perceived that you don't know what they are, they would accuse you of being a foreigner, and anything could happen to you. An example that became popular was "what is an elbow or knee in Zulu?". I'm not making this up, and this happened in a country with 11 official languages. The point I'm getting at is that this lawlessness started because a populist president and other leaders started shooting from the hip, making inflammatory statement and playing political football with our lives. Trump is worse IMHO as he signs an Executive Order and things go crazy until the courts can act. You should worry when your first citizen is not well-acquainted with your Constitution like our dear Jacob Zuma and your Donald Trump are. The country ends up being run through the courts, and the courts don't act expediently.
- umanwizard 10y ago
  Is there any evidence that this guy was specifically singled out for being non-white, or that this has anything to do with Trump at all? Border guards are allowed to ask you questions to see how you react and to corroborate your story. If someone (from any country) entered claiming to be a physicist, would it be reasonable to ask him to try to solve some integrals?
  - bobwaycott 10y ago
    How would a border agent even prove they possess the necessary skills and knowledge to even verify the veracity of an answer? As a tech consultant who spends inordinate amounts of time explaining to clients various kinds of plausible-sounding bullshit from others, I seriously doubt border agents can fare better.
xtreme 10y ago
If you are not a citizen, the CBP can deny you entry for pretty much any reason. If you are a citizen, they can detain you but not deny you entry indefinitely.
umanwizard 10y ago
> I assume that CBP cannot deny you entry because you didn't brush up on your algorithms and data-structures during your flight. Sure they can, if you're not a citizen or permanent resident.
wruza 10y ago
I read half the thread and still didn't see a point, so I'm doing that. They do not try to see you fail at balancing bst. They see your reactions on irrational things. They know it is irrational and ridiculous. Anyone who talked to police/immigration/security officer knows that they are always the same — because if discussion is easy and rational, you can't tell if someone lies. All those "look for body signs" methods are bullshit.
tete 10y ago
I'd get suspicious and ask why he'd not stay in IT and whether he isn't actually trying to infiltrate the TSA.

tacostakohashi 10y ago

I'd speculate that they're really just looking for any indication of understanding the question, rather than a complete and correct answer. To the extent that's true, it's not entirely unreasonable.

alphonsegaston 10y ago
Hey instead of speculating, I dunno, why just not listen to what happened from the person it happened to? He says in the same thread that he was asked 10 questions and only the "wikipedia answers" were acceptable. Americans elected a racist who has empowered racists to act as they see fit. This is the world now.
- oh_sigh 10y ago
  You certainly lend a lot of credulity to something which is essentially a series of tweets right now. I'm not sure how this story could be confirmed, but it seems like you've already made up your mind as to the what, how and why of what happened.
  - colemickens 10y ago
    Do you actually have some other interpretation or take on this event? Or are you just desperately looking for any reason to not admit how incredibly fucked up this is?
  - alphonsegaston 10y ago
    Yeah, I mean it's not like they did the same thing two weeks ago: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821 http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stori... Or harassed and intimidated a 70-year old children's book author: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-childrens-author-mem-fox-detained-by-us-border-control-i-sobbed-like-a-baby https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/australian-c... Or almost deported a visiting Holocaust scholar: http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holocaust-scholar-482609#article=6017ODBEQzY5MUVERUNDMjc2NDYxMUMwN0Q5RUQzODNBNjY= http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-almost-deports-visiting-Holoc... Or maybe, just maybe, I come from a family of immigrants who has seen people around him treated this way even before we elected a racist reality tv star as POTUS.
    - pfarnsworth 10y ago
      Stuff like this happens all the time, the press never picked up on it until Trump came into power. I posted a story of a close friend who got denied entry at the border and banned for 10 years. I've heard other stories where friends of friends )I met them and talked with them) were accused of being strippers or hookers flying to Vegas and being banned for 10 years as well. All during Obama's time, so it's not new. Border guards are facists. And all 3 of those stories you provide are non-Muslims, and 2 of them are white Australians, so it's not directly a "racist" event.
      - nikdaheratik 10y ago
        There was also Mohammed Ali, Jr. this past weekend who was a US Citizen but still got detained. A schoolteacher from England who was refused entry, a Canadian Student-Athlete was was refused entry two weeks ago, all three of these are Muslims. Also, at least two US Citizens who were denied global travel cards even though they were businessmen who travel frequently, both Muslims. And it doesn't have to be a "racist" event. The administration literally said they wanted to "ban Muslims", this could be exactly the policy they wanted when they passed the Executive Order. And the only way to tell is to get Congress to do more digging.
- nilkn 10y ago
  Do you have any evidence that this just started ~30 days ago after Trump's inauguration? It's entirely possible -- likely even -- that this has been going on for quite some time and the media is just more interested in reporting on it right now because they know it'll play into the Trump narrative. That doesn't justify the actions in any way, but it shows you how powerful the media are at forming narratives -- and how easy it is to fall for the trap.
  - alphonsegaston 10y ago
    There's no trap to fall into, I can literally pull up YouTube clips of Trump scapegoating immigrants at a moment's notice. Awful shit that happened under Obama (of which there is no shortage) is on Obama. Now? Trump owns it.
  - nikdaheratik 10y ago
    I don't know, and neither does anyone else because the people who are able to look into this are either running the show (the administration) or don't want to investigate (the Republicans in Congress). The best that the media can do is collect anecdotes and submit FOIA requests to see what they can find out.
  - tomlock 10y ago
    I think Trump may have kickstarted that narrative, because of that whole thing about Mexican immigrants (and some of them I'm sure are nice people), and how he banned the citizens of 7 countries from returning or entering the US. I think its fair to say this kind of treatment of people is nothing new - but to say the media is "forcing" a narrative here is hard to swallow. Trump has made it, at the very least, incredibly easy to create a narrative of racism for his detractors and the richard spencers of his supporters.
    - briandear 10y ago
      Let's back up a second: "Mexican Immigrants != Illegal Immigrants" One is a subset of the other and Trump's rhetoric was directed at illegal aliens and not "Immigrants." Allowing an innacurate narrative to propagate is part of the problem.
- umanwizard 10y ago
  The guy appears to have successfully entered the US (his tweet was sent from Manhattan), so apparently he passed their test. He also explicitly stated that he refused to answer the BST question and they moved on to other questions. Meaning it's not even speculation to claim that they weren't requiring an accurate answer to the BST question for entry: it's demonstrably true fact.

raggi 10y ago

Ask Maher Arar what CBP is allowed to do, or better just read up on the case. Don't assume the laws in this area have any relation to what you would hope they are. They're not.

nevi-me 10y ago

This is what happens when you have a populist president, people start disregarding the law and listen to the President even if he/she is wrong. Imagine this happening at the time when companies are starting to accept that you can't interview candidates solely by asking them to solve algorithms on a whiteboard, then some inexperienced staff go to Wikipedia and expect people to be able to recite it. The question's what happened as he said he was too exhausted, does he get flagged for secondary screening? The travel ban is suspended AFAIK. We are witnessing self-division at sad levels. We had a flare up of xenophobic attacks in South Africa last week. In an earlier incarnation of such attacks in 2008, mostly Zulu people would ask you what certain things are in Zulu, and if they perceived that you don't know what they are, they would accuse you of being a foreigner, and anything could happen to you. An example that became popular was "what is an elbow or knee in Zulu?". I'm not making this up, and this happened in a country with 11 official languages. The point I'm getting at is that this lawlessness started because a populist president and other leaders started shooting from the hip, making inflammatory statement and playing political football with our lives. Trump is worse IMHO as he signs an Executive Order and things go crazy until the courts can act. You should worry when your first citizen is not well-acquainted with your Constitution like our dear Jacob Zuma and your Donald Trump are. The country ends up being run through the courts, and the courts don't act expediently.

umanwizard 10y ago
Is there any evidence that this guy was specifically singled out for being non-white, or that this has anything to do with Trump at all? Border guards are allowed to ask you questions to see how you react and to corroborate your story. If someone (from any country) entered claiming to be a physicist, would it be reasonable to ask him to try to solve some integrals?
- bobwaycott 10y ago
  How would a border agent even prove they possess the necessary skills and knowledge to even verify the veracity of an answer? As a tech consultant who spends inordinate amounts of time explaining to clients various kinds of plausible-sounding bullshit from others, I seriously doubt border agents can fare better.

xtreme 10y ago

If you are not a citizen, the CBP can deny you entry for pretty much any reason. If you are a citizen, they can detain you but not deny you entry indefinitely.

umanwizard 10y ago

> I assume that CBP cannot deny you entry because you didn't brush up on your algorithms and data-structures during your flight. Sure they can, if you're not a citizen or permanent resident.

wruza 10y ago

I read half the thread and still didn't see a point, so I'm doing that. They do not try to see you fail at balancing bst. They see your reactions on irrational things. They know it is irrational and ridiculous. Anyone who talked to police/immigration/security officer knows that they are always the same — because if discussion is easy and rational, you can't tell if someone lies. All those "look for body signs" methods are bullshit.

tete 10y ago

I'd get suspicious and ask why he'd not stay in IT and whether he isn't actually trying to infiltrate the TSA.