Ok, as someone who is waiting for his Green Card, the story of the treatment allegedly received by Hiu Lui Ng frightens me. [BoingBoing link here. NY Times here ]

My Green Card has been in process for more than three years. We are supposedly approaching the end of the long road. But how do I know I won’t be thrown in jail and deported because of some silly clerical error?

We are all enemy aliens until proven otherwise. No wonder US corporations are finding it harder and harder to sell the idea of emigration to the US to potential employees from outside their boundaries.

“Yes, it is possible that you will be thrown in jail and mistreated because of some silly clerical error. It’s more likely that we will just keep you in fear and treat you like second-class indentured servants for 3-4 years until we’re done with you. Now, about our medical plan…”

I just remembered something this morning. Starting October 7, 2006, I will be officially a man without a Visa. My final H1-B renewal expires on October 6, 2006, and although they have applied for an extension, and I am at some indeterminate point supposed to get a Green Card, I will be of no status as of that date.

If you have any conferences or camps or seminars you want me to attend, better get me before October 6!

Technorati Tags: DHS, Immigration, H1B, H1-B, Canada, Visa, Green+Card, Permanent+resident

It appears that I will likely have to be fingerprinted every time I come into the US from now on. [here and here]

I love being an “enemy alien”.

Technorati Tags: Immigration, US-VISIT, USA, Canada

I am writing this from Toronto. I am in shock that I am here, as the events over the last 24 hours seem like a bad dream. It appears that the US media has not picked it up on this crisis. In fact, I am
having difficulty getting to US news sites and blog servers from Canada.

Yesterday, representatives from DHS arrived at my office and took me into a conference room along with the CEO and COO. The COO (a Canadian with a permanent resident status) and I were told that we and are families were being taken to Logan airport and placed on a flight to Canada. They then handcuffed us and took us out through the back door to an unmarked bus, with about 20 others onboard. There were guards in paramilitary uniforms I could not identify.

After three or four more stops (it was a blur, I can’t remember it all), we arrived at logan. I was re-united with Samantha and the boys in a abandoned hangar, where there were 200-300 of these unidentified paramilitary guards. There had to be 2-3,000 people in the hangar.

We were herded onto a series of C-5 cargo planes and flown for about 90 minutes. Off the plane, and left at what turns out to be an abandoned airfield just outside Toronto. AFter about 20 minutes, OPP and RCMP officers appeared, looking as stunned as we were.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

Right now, the targets are the “illegal immigrants”. This is white, middle-class code for “latin immigrants, regardless of status”. But will it stop there?

As the US fortunes are matched by other growing economies, will this xenophobic and racist tendency lead to all immigrants being targeted, regardless of status and origin? Is the tradition of US isolationism rearing its head in a world of crumbling borders and economic barriers?

Is the US really ready for the world?

Technorati Tags: immigration, racism, xenophobia, isolationism, USA, Canada, globalization

Rick Segal has a great post this morning about the unique nature of the Canada-US border. [here]

Rick hits it on the head: US Customs and Immigration Agents are some of the most unpleasant people I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

When Samantha goes home with the boys next month, what does she fear the most?

Re-entering the US on a valid visa.

Why should people who have valid visas fear coming back into the US?

Oh yeah, the US hates immigrants. Or at least that’s how the rest of the world interprets their attitude, policies, and actions toward those who are not privileged enough to hold US citizenship.

UPDATE: Looks like Matt Mullenweg enjoyed the pleasure of what happens going INTO Canada without a passport! [here]

UPDATE: GOOD LORD! Is it weird immigration story day or what? David Weinberger recounts his encounter with a US Immigration Agent in Montreal last night. Gives me some inkling of hope.

Technorati Tags: DHS, US Customs, Canada Customs, Canada, US, immigration, work visa, h-1b

<RANT>

George Bush is lame, and a lame duck.

He is a stooge, only in place to ensure that the right-wing packs the Supreme Court for a generation (Think Pelican Brief).

Now, after playing politics with 9/11, Karl Rove is playing politics with Katrina.

WHY?

What does playing politics mean? How many lives does it save?

FEMA failed. DHS failed. Santorum wants to gut NOAA so it can fail during the next crisis.

Karl Rove committed treason. George Bush committed stupidity. Brown and Chertoff were shown to be useless in the face of a disaster.

SHUT UP.

Unless you are going to New Orleans to DO something, stay home. Stay off the TV. Stay out of the media.

The White House has NOTHING to add to the conversation. It has added nothing to the effort to save these people.

The president of the oil companies and conservative religious fanatics failed the United States. And Karl Rove is trying to make the chimp look good.

Karl, you have failed. You are the most reviled man in America. I think that Karl Rove should be made to clean the Superdome. By hand. Alone.

</RANT>

I really try to stay away from political issues, as I am considered an enemy alien living in the US at the will of the DHS.

But if ANYTHING stated in this article is even remotely true, Microsoft has shown that it is morally bankrupt.

I would love to hear some comments from Scoble, Mini-Microsoft, Charlie Kindel, or Dare Obasanjo.

If this is a true reflection of Microsoft’s approach to openess and acceptance, I take back any positive things I said yesterday.

I want this to not be true. Please tell me this is not true.

Scoble says he is definitely not going to be happy if this is true.

Mini-Microsoft agrees with Scoble and me. This in and of itself is worthy of a comment: that the three of us agree on anything means that a plague of locusts is likely to descend on my garden.

Although I want to hear what BGates and SBallmer have to say on this.

Jeremy Wright of Ensight, and other fine blogging sites, had a nightmare run-in with the Department of Homeland Security at a border crossing.

I have never had an encounter like the one he had, but as a Canadian living in the US for the past six years (with valid TN-1 and H1-B visaa) I still get the third, fourth and fifth degree from DHS every time I cross back into the US.

I have always expected this to happen to me. It should happen to no one.

More people who comment on this. [here and here and here and here and here and here]

As a person who falls into the category of a resident alien, I was sickened when I heard the following story on NPR last week (PART 1 and PART 2). Somehow, I just knew that this was going on, and was most likely condoned at the highest levels of the administration, but did not want to believe it.

The twisted loophole in all of this is that like the "enemy combatants" at Gitmo, these detainees have not committed a crime, so they have no right to be provided with an attorney to defend them. One comment was that the detainees would have been better off if they had actually committed a crime, as they would enjoy a greater level of legal protection.

So, if you are a resident alien in the US, even one with a Green Card, you can be treated this way just for being too loud at a house party, and then being charged with a misdemeanor.

God help America.