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ICE protester says her Global Entry was revoked after agent scanned her face
- gnabgib 9mo agoSmall discussion earlier (18 points, 7 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46845610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46845610
- SilverElfin 9mo agoCompletely authoritarian and unacceptable. This entire saga shows the American political system has serious flaws where it cannot hold the executive branch accountable.
- hackingonempty 9mo agoIt is not a flaw but a choice made by the GOP.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- foweltschmerz 9mo agoIf it can be exploited by a bad actor, it is a flaw.
- BobaFloutist 9mo agoEverything can be exploited by a bad actor if the bad actor is put in a position of authority over it. There's no democratic system of government that's completely immune to a majority of voters actively trying to erode and damage the system.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoThis story in particular seems like a flaw. There should not be such a thing as a privilege that the executive branch can revoke with no explanation or process.
- BrenBarn 9mo agoThe flaw is that they are able to make such a choice.
- direwolf20 9mo agoEvery government is always able to turn totalitarian. That's why voting is important. You don't vote for the totalitarian.
- jjav 9mo agoWell yes, but the US was supposed to have three separate branches of government to keep each other in check. Unfortunately turns out that in practice two of the three don't actually have any power at all when push comes to shove.
- direwolf20 9mo agoIt was a long period of time voting for totalitarians. Checks and balances worked by design: preventing immediate radical changes. And they worked by design: allowing changes gradually over a period of time if people keep voting for the same thing. And now it's here.
- jamincan 9mo agoI think Congress does have power, it's just chosen not to wield it to control this presidency.
- jjav 9mo agoBased on what we've seen of the courts, I have doubts about that. Congress does not have an army they can send out to enforce any law they pass, so turns out the president can simply just ignore it all without consequences. What are they going to do?
- direwolf20 9mo agoCourts don't have an army either. Only the executive has an army. Actually the president doesn't have an army. The generals have an army. You know we've never invented a system that stops the guys who have an army from taking over the guys who don't have an army, and we call it a coup d'etat, and it happens all over the world with some regularity. The best we can do is make sure the guys who have the army are guys who are committed to the wellbeing of the country.
- clipsy 9mo agoIt's not "cannot" but "will not", and the flaw is not with the American political system but with the GOP and the American populace. Congress could absolutely rein this in at any time if Republicans in Congress cared to do so; the Supreme Court could rein this in at any time if the Republicans on the Supreme Court cared to do so. Do not let yourself be convinced that the problem is Trump or a too-powerful executive; the problem is an entire party and the people who cheerfully vote for it.
- zeroonetwothree 9mo agoSCOTUS can only rule on cases presented to it. AFAIK there has not been a relevant case submitted to them.
- MengerSponge 9mo agoSCOTUS has already ruled on cases that were presented to them and now we're contending with a mad king.
- bsder 9mo agoHow on earth can you say that with a straight face? > Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated. This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges. > ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence. Ref: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230171/gov.uscourts.mnd.230171.10.0_1.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230... This is an official filing--facts, not a news report. A judge placed his job on the line and said these things in a written, filed, official ruling. The problem isn't judicial rulings; the problems are petulant bullies who simply ignore the rulings; and completely subservient sycophants who only can say "As you wish, master."
- SilverElfin 9mo agoI agree the voters and party are a problem, but disagree that we shouldn’t do more. We need better checks and balances on an administration that willfully and casually violates constitutional rights all the time. Not to mention the constant corruption and grifting that enriches the Trump family. We should have a system that can protect against this even when the majority makes a bad voting decision.
- nickff 9mo agoThe American political system has definite problems, but so does every other system. If you rank democracies by any metric, the USA has done rather well, if not the best. If you disagree with that statement, I invite you to list the countries you consider democratic, in your order of ‘successfulness’.
- kortex 9mo agoLol nowhere near the best, unfortunately. By multiple rankings. https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu
- nickff 9mo ago[flagged]
- SilverElfin 9mo agoYes, and in part because of that. The way they teach history and make their citizens resistant to authoritarianism through schooling is different from the really basic ways history is taught in America.
- HWR_14 9mo agoThe Germans have a new constitution and have kept the Nazis out of power with the new one.
- direwolf20 9mo agoSo far. Between a quarter and a fifth of the country, however, currently votes for the Nazi party.
- defrost 9mo agoThe US literally elected Trump. Not that they had a wide field of choice and not that they can actually fire him. Both reasons the US political system isn't all that great - it nosedived into a two party Hotelling's Law quagmire despite the founders being against party politics. It's hardly suprising a system centuries old and creaking failed to scale. Washminster systems are a literal reaction to the cracks in the Westminster and Washington systems. Maybe check those American Exceptionalism / Manifest Destiny blinkers and look about a little, it's hard to see out of a rut.
- jaybrendansmith 9mo agoAgree. This is absolutely unacceptable by any measurement you can name. They are not respecting equality under the law, they are behaving like a terrorist regime. Every one of these people needs to be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent the US Constitution allows. End of Story.
- rasz 9mo ago"While becoming a U.S. citizen, Kurt Gödel confided in his friend Albert Einstein that he had found an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that would allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship, causing Einstein to worry that Gödel's unpredictability would lead to his application being denied." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del#Princeton,_Einstein,_U.S._citizenship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del#Princeton,_Ein...
- ChrisArchitect 9mo ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823261
- decremental 9mo ago[dead]
- chvid 9mo agoSince she was in her car they could have identified her by her car’s number plate - but facial recognition sounds scarier - which I guess is the point.
- notepad0x90 9mo agoit's not speculation, they specifically tell people that they're using facial recognition. They threaten protestors that they're entering them into a domestic terrorist database using facial recognition. They're arresting people and detaining them for long periods of time without due process, even while having proof of citizenship (real id, passports) on them, because of a facial recognition hit.
- caminante 9mo ago>They threaten protestors that they're entering them into a domestic terrorist database using facial recognition. Is this in article? I figured it was using traveler photos stored in Customs/Border Patrol systems (e.g., Global Entry).
- fnordpiglet 9mo agoWho knows, but ICE agents are terrorizing people with the threat. It’s fascinating that the Ministry of Information is trying to redefine terrorist to mean something other than the people who try to induce mass terror for political gain: https://newrepublic.com/post/205629/ice-agent-threat-domestic-terrorism-database-filming-public https://newrepublic.com/post/205629/ice-agent-threat-domesti...
- mindslight 9mo ago> The agent stated that I was impeding their work Note how these thugs just casually lie to create some fantasy narrative that runs completely counter to the ideas of the Constitution, an open society, and government responsible to The People. When the fascist talking heads get on TV and claim that agents had no choice but to execute another American because they were being "impeded", everyone would do well to remember how readily their whole organization characterizes passive and peaceful democratic activity as "impeding".
- enrightened 9mo ago[flagged]
- crooked-v 9mo agoThe person in this case did neither, and in any case "shouting" at the government is fundamentally protected by the Constitution.
- mindslight 9mo ago[flagged]
- enrightened 9mo ago[flagged]
- mindslight 9mo agoUh-huh. I've got to love how half of you fascist apologists drop into broken English when pushed ("Not a loser like you living on dole"). I get it - you want to harm the United States and Grump is doing a great job at that.
- SilverElfin 9mo agoWho’s the useful idiot for a hostile foreign power? Peter Thiel is likely a literal Russian agent, given the Epstein files mention he met with Russian officials and his handler at Epstein’s home. His buddies Elon Musk and David Sacks probably know this and are therefore also compromised, and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the government positions and contracts they have. Trump refused to ban TikTok despite the law requiring it and has generally been soft on China on many things. He also did nothing to stop Putin. Also you should know that Musk and Melania are both illegal immigrants who violated our laws. Yet you’re aligned with them and complain here about “illegals”.
- slowmovintarget 9mo ago[flagged]
- tayo42 9mo agoGlobal entry is just a fast pass for getting through the border. I can't tell any difference between arriving with global entry or using the regular lane. Who ever is working the border asks the same dumb questions that they ask in the regular line.
- slowmovintarget 9mo agoThat's not true. I have Global Entry, and it is dramatically faster. I've not even had to break stride walking past the entry agent.
- tayo42 9mo agoHow can you say that's not true when Ive crossed the border and been asked the same silly questions they ask on the regular line? Its just faster because the line is shorter.
- mannyv 9mo agoI have GE and haven't even talked to an agent in the last four entries. The last time I didn't have to claim my baggage which was really strange (YVR).
- cthalupa 9mo agoThat would still be a benefit even if that was the case, but I frequently do not have to say a word beyond "hello" or "have a good one" to the border agent.
- xenospn 9mo agoCan you tell the difference between stopping at a red light and driving through a green light?
- 9mo ago
- mcfunley 9mo agoBy the time this is all said and done we’re going to wind down the DHS in its entirety, bogus lists of political enemies included
- direwolf20 9mo agoThat won't happen. This only ends with the collapse of the country.
- etrautmann 9mo agoThat’s not helpful
- SilverElfin 9mo agoMaybe this is not helpful either, but I wonder if that person is correct. The national debt is already bad. With the trillions of new national debt from the Trump administration, and also the destruction of basically every foreign relationship, how will the country manage its finances? I feel like the only way out is to print money and cause extreme inflation. But that also means the death of the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
- direwolf20 9mo agoLook at any other country that went through a similar period. These regimes never voluntarily relinquish power, but they're forced to within 20 years due to some crushing military defeat, economic collapse, assassination, violent revolt, etcetera. It's never ended with a peaceful transition of power and a smooth winding down of the bad stuff.
- HaZeust 9mo agoThe most recent historical example, the USSR, did so. How does that square with your premise and assertion?
- dyauspitr 9mo agoThe GOP is the party of censorship
- AtlasBarfed 9mo agoI censor your censorship word and replace it with fascism
- dns_snek 9mo agoThat's not fair, it's only fascism after you build a death camp with a sign that says "fascist extermination camp" on it! Even then it's just one camp, it's not that bad. Real fascism is when you have hundreds.
- readams 9mo agoThis is a bit thin to be drawing any conclusions. Only what one person claims. Has this happened to anyone else? Might there be another reason (that they're not telling us) that this happened?
- conception 9mo agohttps://onemileatatime.com/news/people-losing-global-entry/ https://onemileatatime.com/news/people-losing-global-entry/ Papers please.
- nirav72 9mo agoMy son, an 18 year college student with no legal issues ever (except a speeding ticket) - had his Global Entry revoked last year. For no apparent reason. We filed an appeal and are waiting for a response. From everything I've read on it, it seems it could take upwards of 18 months to get a response. But per the article you linked, it seems that less than half are able to get it reinstated. So I'm not really hopeful.
- _DeadFred_ 9mo agoSucks that we can't trust our own Government to tell us what is going on/what they are doing. WTF happened to the USA being an open society?
- AtlasBarfed 9mo agoThe authoritarianism infrastructure was always there, it's been built for decades from red scare, McCarthyism, post 9/11 legislation, carnivore type monitoring with joke oversight, and now AI for the firehose. We are extremely lucky that this is the form of authoritarianism is currently being exerted. It could be so so so much worse
- etrautmann 9mo agoWhat? Spell that out
- ChrisArchitect 9mo ago[dupe] Discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823261