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This isn’t immigration. He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. FBI is most likely deal

This isn’t immigration. He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. FBI is most likely dealing with an espionage angle. His research field of cryptography and using it to protect genomic data probably has something to do with it. The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood destroyed. What he did was public domain, unless he consulted for alphabet agencies. The Chinese govt also has a pretty nasty track record of pressuring erstwhile Chinese citizens to engage in espionage by making life hard for family back in china

tptacek 2y ago
(For what it's worth, at the time I wrote the comment, the rest of the comments on this story were about ICE raids). Nobody knows anything about this story. He might be in custody, he might be in Indiana, he might be abroad, he might be about to get charged, he might not be, he might keep his positions at IU, he might have lost all his positions at IU. It's an interesting story worth paying attention to because he's a prominent figure in an area of research we all pay attention to. But given some kind of criminal investigation is in process, and that he has a lawyer, there's no signal to derive from the fact that we can't get quotes from him in the media; that could just be him being smart.
- kortilla 2y ago
  Does he have a lawyer? It wasn’t clear who retained council, it sounded like it was just a woman living at the Carmel house, which could have been a rental tenant…
- freeopinion 2y ago
  Are you suggesting that it isn't helpful or useful to speculate that he was an undercover FBI agent working to infiltrate US-based dark web crypto gangs and that the University's actions tipped off the gangs? So when he went missing the FBI kicked into high gear? Just making stuff up like that doesn't provide clarity?
  - JohnMakin 2y ago
    Uh, yea, this isn't useful. This a top researcher in his field. He isn't shitposting for lulz on discord undercover, lol.
cma 2y ago
Permanent green card residents have been sent to El Salvador prisons without trial in the recent stuff. This incident does say it was with a court behind it though.
- orochimaaru 2y ago
  The FBI does not deal with immigration action.
  - stonogo 2y ago
    Yes it does. It's always had Title 8 authority, and several recent executive orders have directly expressed support for such action. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-authorizes-federal-law-enforcement-to-implement-trump-immigration-policies/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-authorizes-federal-law-enfo... https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/fbi-atlanta-confirms-new-immigration-arrests-ongoing-crackdown/T4OZCROP2RFAJBJHNO72BMJYTA/ https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/fbi-atlanta-confirms-new... https://www.wkrg.com/baldwin-county/fbi-immigration-enforcement-in-baldwin-county-leads-to-multiple-people-in-custody/ https://www.wkrg.com/baldwin-county/fbi-immigration-enforcem... https://www.nbcpalmsprings.com/2025/02/27/fbi-arrests-coachella-council-members-husband-in-immigration-crackdown https://www.nbcpalmsprings.com/2025/02/27/fbi-arrests-coache...
    - orochimaaru 2y ago
      That's the DHS authorization. It deals with immigration issues as a part of its investigations (for all federal agencies). But immigration action is not its primary role. They won't come looking for you because you broke immigration laws. But they will enforce them if it's found that you broke immigration laws while investigating something unrelated.
      - stonogo 2y ago
        Not only is that whole different set of claims from "The FBI does not deal with immigration action," but the new set of claims are also incorrect, which you can see from the links I've already provided.
ck2 2y ago
ICE has and is arresting US Citizens ICE is immune to prosecution for improper behavior so they've dialed that up to 11 this year Who exactly is going to stop them? Courts just say "don't do that" and they nod
- orochimaaru 2y ago
  Read the article. It's the FBI in this, not ICE.
  - ck2 2y ago
    FBI is after the fact follow up. Someone else may be responsible for his disappearance in the first place.
    - orochimaaru 2y ago
      Maybe, maybe not. It does follow a pattern of how FBI handles espionage though. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/spies/four.html https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/spies/fou....
  - leptons 2y ago
    Fascism tends to pervert every institution it touches. What the FBI was before 2025 is no longer valid.
fracus 2y ago
> The Chinese govt also has a pretty nasty track record of pressuring erstwhile Chinese citizens to engage in espionage by making life hard for family back in china China also has a history of establishing "police" stations in foreign countries with the mandate to harass and control expats. They did this in Canada at least, surely they did in the US too.
- pyuser583 2y ago
  A while back there was a bad arrest of an NYPD officer for working at one of these illegal "police stations." He was either found innocent or the charges were dropped, which is very rare.
- sureglymop 2y ago
  I can only urge you to provide one or more good primary sources if you are making such a claim. It should be a given...
  - fracus 2y ago
    Sure. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rcmp-chinese-police-stations-1.6862336 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rcmp-chinese-police-st...
    - sureglymop 2y ago
      Thank you! Reading this, it seems to be unclear/unspecified in the text exactly who or what group was involved in this or whether there was affiliation to the Chinese state. That's the part I'm really interested in though.
      - fracus 2y ago
        It was very clear.
        sureglymop 2y ago
riku_iki 2y ago
> The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood destroyed. specific numbers from wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative): 250 have been fired, 77 cases opened, 28 prosecutions, 8 got convicted. Also, I suspect many cases were closed or not pushed because of change in president administration.
leptons 2y ago
>He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. The current administration have proven they do not care about any of these things. Even natural born citizens are now under threat.
- brigandish 2y ago
  Can you name one?
  - DrillShopper 2y ago
    Trans people Gay people Doctors that provide abortions Doctors that provide gender affirming care Students protesting against Israel Just to name a few
    - brigandish 2y ago
      Perhaps my question was unclear. I responded to "Even natural born citizens are now under threat." I asked to name one natural born citizen, not categories of people. Perhaps, given you provided said categories, you'll be able to drill down and name a natural born citizen from them?
      - DrillShopper 2y ago
        [flagged]
        brigandish 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - leptons 2y ago
        Trump himself has said he wants to end birthright citizenship. EVERYONE in the US is at risk. If you think you're safe, you aren't. This is what fascists do. https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5327552/trump-takes-birthright-citizenship-to-the-supreme-court https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5327552/trump-takes-bir... https://immigrationimpact.com/2025/02/07/breaking-down-trump-end-birthright-citizenship/ https://immigrationimpact.com/2025/02/07/breaking-down-trump...

tptacek 2y ago

(For what it's worth, at the time I wrote the comment, the rest of the comments on this story were about ICE raids). Nobody knows anything about this story. He might be in custody, he might be in Indiana, he might be abroad, he might be about to get charged, he might not be, he might keep his positions at IU, he might have lost all his positions at IU. It's an interesting story worth paying attention to because he's a prominent figure in an area of research we all pay attention to. But given some kind of criminal investigation is in process, and that he has a lawyer, there's no signal to derive from the fact that we can't get quotes from him in the media; that could just be him being smart.

kortilla 2y ago
Does he have a lawyer? It wasn’t clear who retained council, it sounded like it was just a woman living at the Carmel house, which could have been a rental tenant…
freeopinion 2y ago
Are you suggesting that it isn't helpful or useful to speculate that he was an undercover FBI agent working to infiltrate US-based dark web crypto gangs and that the University's actions tipped off the gangs? So when he went missing the FBI kicked into high gear? Just making stuff up like that doesn't provide clarity?
- JohnMakin 2y ago
  Uh, yea, this isn't useful. This a top researcher in his field. He isn't shitposting for lulz on discord undercover, lol.

cma 2y ago

Permanent green card residents have been sent to El Salvador prisons without trial in the recent stuff. This incident does say it was with a court behind it though.

orochimaaru 2y ago
The FBI does not deal with immigration action.
- stonogo 2y ago
  Yes it does. It's always had Title 8 authority, and several recent executive orders have directly expressed support for such action. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-authorizes-federal-law-enforcement-to-implement-trump-immigration-policies/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-authorizes-federal-law-enfo... https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/fbi-atlanta-confirms-new-immigration-arrests-ongoing-crackdown/T4OZCROP2RFAJBJHNO72BMJYTA/ https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/fbi-atlanta-confirms-new... https://www.wkrg.com/baldwin-county/fbi-immigration-enforcement-in-baldwin-county-leads-to-multiple-people-in-custody/ https://www.wkrg.com/baldwin-county/fbi-immigration-enforcem... https://www.nbcpalmsprings.com/2025/02/27/fbi-arrests-coachella-council-members-husband-in-immigration-crackdown https://www.nbcpalmsprings.com/2025/02/27/fbi-arrests-coache...
  - orochimaaru 2y ago
    That's the DHS authorization. It deals with immigration issues as a part of its investigations (for all federal agencies). But immigration action is not its primary role. They won't come looking for you because you broke immigration laws. But they will enforce them if it's found that you broke immigration laws while investigating something unrelated.
    - stonogo 2y ago
      Not only is that whole different set of claims from "The FBI does not deal with immigration action," but the new set of claims are also incorrect, which you can see from the links I've already provided.

ck2 2y ago

ICE has and is arresting US Citizens ICE is immune to prosecution for improper behavior so they've dialed that up to 11 this year Who exactly is going to stop them? Courts just say "don't do that" and they nod

orochimaaru 2y ago
Read the article. It's the FBI in this, not ICE.
- ck2 2y ago
  FBI is after the fact follow up. Someone else may be responsible for his disappearance in the first place.
  - orochimaaru 2y ago
    Maybe, maybe not. It does follow a pattern of how FBI handles espionage though. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/spies/four.html https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/spies/fou....
- leptons 2y ago
  Fascism tends to pervert every institution it touches. What the FBI was before 2025 is no longer valid.

fracus 2y ago

> The Chinese govt also has a pretty nasty track record of pressuring erstwhile Chinese citizens to engage in espionage by making life hard for family back in china China also has a history of establishing "police" stations in foreign countries with the mandate to harass and control expats. They did this in Canada at least, surely they did in the US too.

pyuser583 2y ago
A while back there was a bad arrest of an NYPD officer for working at one of these illegal "police stations." He was either found innocent or the charges were dropped, which is very rare.
sureglymop 2y ago
I can only urge you to provide one or more good primary sources if you are making such a claim. It should be a given...
- fracus 2y ago
  Sure. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rcmp-chinese-police-stations-1.6862336 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rcmp-chinese-police-st...
  - sureglymop 2y ago
    Thank you! Reading this, it seems to be unclear/unspecified in the text exactly who or what group was involved in this or whether there was affiliation to the Chinese state. That's the part I'm really interested in though.
    - fracus 2y ago
      It was very clear.
      - sureglymop 2y ago

riku_iki 2y ago

> The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood destroyed. specific numbers from wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative): 250 have been fired, 77 cases opened, 28 prosecutions, 8 got convicted. Also, I suspect many cases were closed or not pushed because of change in president administration.

leptons 2y ago

>He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. The current administration have proven they do not care about any of these things. Even natural born citizens are now under threat.

brigandish 2y ago
Can you name one?
- DrillShopper 2y ago
  Trans people Gay people Doctors that provide abortions Doctors that provide gender affirming care Students protesting against Israel Just to name a few
  - brigandish 2y ago
    Perhaps my question was unclear. I responded to "Even natural born citizens are now under threat." I asked to name one natural born citizen, not categories of people. Perhaps, given you provided said categories, you'll be able to drill down and name a natural born citizen from them?
    - DrillShopper 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - brigandish 2y ago
        [flagged]
    - leptons 2y ago
      Trump himself has said he wants to end birthright citizenship. EVERYONE in the US is at risk. If you think you're safe, you aren't. This is what fascists do. https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5327552/trump-takes-birthright-citizenship-to-the-supreme-court https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5327552/trump-takes-bir... https://immigrationimpact.com/2025/02/07/breaking-down-trump-end-birthright-citizenship/ https://immigrationimpact.com/2025/02/07/breaking-down-trump...