My first reaction upon reading this article by Timothy Garton Ash was: such collossal stupidity!
Mostly because I have had extensive experience with post 9/11 immigration.
More after the jump
So, after swallowing a healthy dollop of bile I re-read the piece.
One of the dumbest things we have done post 9/11 has been to reign in student visas and make them extremely more difficult to get. Never mind that the simple solution was just tracking people better, in areasonably un-intrusive way. Instead we harrass people like TGA. We also prevent well-educated foreigners, who want to participate in the American dream, from coming over by our obsessive culture of fear.
Not only that, but my wife had to undergo 8 months of extensive background checks before they issued her visa. We’re talking about a 22 year-old, green-eyed Russian woman. At one point immigration said she might be denied because she had been an “Octobryanik.” Don’t know what that is?
Get ready to laugh out loud: it’s the pre-school version of Komsomol, the Communist Youth. Never mind that my wonderful wife was 7 years old when the Berlin Wall fell. I mean, how stupid is that?
All during her background check people from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan were NOT subject to the same requirements and a batch of 3,000 Malaysian student visas were approved by order of the President.
I hate to inform you, folks, but the Immigration/Visa process hasn’t been reformed in a better way. It’s now simply more arbitrary. Trust me, I know!
I also wanted to highlight a few points about TGA’s comments and encourage everyone here to debate them.
First:
Mull that one over for a bit but I’ll ask the obvious question: will we be able to regain our previous stature? I believe so, but it’s not something I can empirically prove. It’s more a gut thing.
Second:
There are several keen analyses here: Afghanistan versus Iraq, Osama rooting for Bush and short-term victories versus long-term defeat?
What do you think?
this position
One of the dumbest things we have done post 9/11 has been to reign in student visas and make them extremely more difficult to get
has been advocated by anyone in the know that I respect since 9/11, and I have always watched for articles on it.
Unfortunately, with the Iraq war, important issues like this are always put on the back-burner, coverage-wise.
Ironically, the neo-cons, who believe that Mid-East culture can all be changed to happy little capitalist American clones, should theoretically be strongly supporting funds and attention to solving the student visa problem. From what I can see, though, they mostly do exactly the opposite. Their “cultural exchange” seems mostly to be about exchanging threats and violence.
As many others did, I reacted to the issue of election postponement due to terrorist attack with outrage. The Bushies were planning a coup, of course. Then I let it go, returning to it this morning after reading a fresh round of articles about the impact of a possible attack on the election.
1. The primary elections in NYC, sheduled for 9/11/2001, were postponed for a couple of weeks. At the time, it was applauded as the right thing to do. The postponed elections went off, and everything was fine.
2. The idea was initiated by the head of the new election oversight commission. He should gets kudos for thinking ahead and thinking of the “unthinkable”. Better to have a contingency plan in place now rather than to scramble later.
The real issue is what would be the impact of a second attack on the scale of 9/11, either one large incident or a series of coordinated smaller incidents. The election outcome in such a circumstance will depend entirely on which conclusion most people reach. Bush wins if the conclusion is that we are still at “war” and need to prosecute our response more aggressively. Kerry wins if the conclusion is that Bush has only inflamed the situation and bungled the response.
If I were Kerry, I would focus on how I would re-invigorate our “soft” power and quit trying to out military Bush. And forget about re-building the alliances: who really cares. Talk to the goodness of the American people and talk about how we the people are the foot soldiers in the spread of tolerance and freedom. Talk about how the misuse of our military might burdened our citizen soldiers at home and alienated our democratic vision abroad. Make Bush look paranoid and small, not trusting the heart of America.
Should another 9/11 occur, then Kerry would be able to respond with an “I told you so”. It’s the only chance he has to effectively counter the natural bellicose reaction to such an event.
One of the dumbest things we have done post 9/11 has been to reign in student visas and make them extremely more difficult to get.
Because these visa applications are more difficult to check.
David Brooks had an op ed yesterday that I actually agreed with
War of Ideology
and I posted a piece by Anne Applebaum last month in the neocon thread
http://scoop.agonist.org/comments/2004/6/25/62047/5001/1#1
MISUNDERSTANDING THE COLD WAR. (diatribe against Bush/mea culpa for believing he ‘got’ the ‘WOT’
Not really that related, but I didn’t know where else to plop this short but intriguing item.
New York Times
July 27, 2004
Less to Memorize, More to Learn; U.S. Is Rewriting Citizenship Test
By JASON PESICK
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/national/27citizen.html
WASHINGTON, July 26 – In an effort to improve the quality and fairness of the citizenship test taken every year by hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the government is overhauling the naturalization exam.
Like the current exam, the replacement will test applicants in two areas: proficiency in English and knowledge of United States history and government. A major intent is to make sure the exams are administered uniformly. The new test will also try to ensure that prospective citizens understand basic concepts of American democracy and are not merely reciting facts by rote.
“We’re looking to standardize the process,” said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Currently, the difficulty of the history and government test depends on which 10 questions the proctor chooses from an exam book. To pass, an applicant has to get six right. Sample questions on the current exam include: What are the colors of our flag? Who said, “Give me liberty or give me death”? and Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court?
A review of the citizenship exam began in September 2001. The immigration agency is working on a study guide for the history and government part. When that is done, there will be a 60-day period for public comment. Then the agency will revise the exam and test its effectiveness. It plans to begin using the new exam in 2006.
Gerri Ratliff, the director of the test design project, said those involved in devising the test included civics experts, educators and groups that aid immigrants, as well as the National Academy of Sciences.
The current exam requires applicants to demonstrate proficiency in English by reading a single sentence out loud and then writing a sentence dictated by the test giver.
On the new test, applicants will have to talk about what two photographs show and write a description of another. They will also read a paragraph and answer four or five multiple-choice questions about it.
In the government section of the new test, a question might ask an applicant to select from a short list a right guaranteed by the Constitution.