Zibago
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US border patrol checking people’s Facebook for political views
NEW YORK: US border agents are checking people’s Facebook pages for their political views before allowing them into the country, an immigration lawyer has claimed.
Houston-based lawyer Mana Yegani said several green card holders, who have the right to live and work in the US, were detained by border agents at American airports hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigration from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa.
The ban affect travellers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and also extends to green card holders who are granted authorisation to live and work in the United States, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman.
Ms Yegani, who works with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (Alia), said she and her fellow lawyers had worked through the night fielding calls from people with legitimate visa being detained before entering the US or ordered back on flights to the Muslim-majority countries on the list.
In one alleged incident a Sudanese PhD student at Stanford University in California, who has lived in the US for 22 years, was held for five hours in New York and in another a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen was not allowed to board a flight in Ottawa.
The Alia said border agents were checking the social media accounts of those detained and were interrogating them about their political beliefs before allowing them into the US.
She said: “These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here.
“Just because Trump signed something at 6pm yesterday, things are coming to a crashing halt. It’s scary.” [Independent.co.uk]
https://www.samaa.tv/international/2017/01/us-border-patrol-facebook-trump-immigration/
NEW YORK: US border agents are checking people’s Facebook pages for their political views before allowing them into the country, an immigration lawyer has claimed.
Houston-based lawyer Mana Yegani said several green card holders, who have the right to live and work in the US, were detained by border agents at American airports hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigration from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa.
The ban affect travellers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and also extends to green card holders who are granted authorisation to live and work in the United States, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman.
Ms Yegani, who works with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (Alia), said she and her fellow lawyers had worked through the night fielding calls from people with legitimate visa being detained before entering the US or ordered back on flights to the Muslim-majority countries on the list.
In one alleged incident a Sudanese PhD student at Stanford University in California, who has lived in the US for 22 years, was held for five hours in New York and in another a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen was not allowed to board a flight in Ottawa.
The Alia said border agents were checking the social media accounts of those detained and were interrogating them about their political beliefs before allowing them into the US.
She said: “These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here.
“Just because Trump signed something at 6pm yesterday, things are coming to a crashing halt. It’s scary.” [Independent.co.uk]
https://www.samaa.tv/international/2017/01/us-border-patrol-facebook-trump-immigration/
