I’ve read part of the comments. Sure, there are multiple sides to the story similar to the two German teens whose story to the German press didn’t quite match up to what one of them had posted on Reddit (and when called out on it, they deleted the posting/account they made on at least two sub-Reddits). IMHO, that hurt the credibility of their particular story (doesn’t excuse the treatment they may have received as part of the process, but why try to cover those mistakes with an embellished story?) I do also agree that immigration agents globally will always have rotten apples (it’s expected in such roles where control and power can lead some to exert that over visitors).
The issue is the conduct of these immigration officials (the commonality in many of these stories is the generally abusive/disrespectful nature of those agents) which when taken together with how this fascist regime is conducting themselves, lends itself to quickly trashing any remaining goodwill/reputation that the U.S. has as a place that is actually welcoming. Naturally, there will be the retort that this is nothing new and has been ongoing for over 40 years (or that other countries immigration systems do the same). How about agreeing that we as a species need to do better?
There are also MANY people who do not follow any of this (long tuned out from the news both domestically and internationally) and have little idea of how quickly the U.S. is descending into this unwelcoming place to travel to. I’m having to tell more (the ones who do not follow the news) about this while trying to be diplomatic/not sound like a kook in the process. I would personally just prefer to advise not coming to the U.S., but that isn’t my place. Thus all I can do is inform those folks of what is going on and advise them to research it on their own/to have a plan.
Since just before mid-May, I was already tuning out (not helped by the tariff shenanigans which I knew were just going to be continually abused by the felon in the White House). It’s also no surprise the number of court orders being ignored continually rises. Similarly, I’ve tuned out from that activism angle (not helped by whatever drama that happened in the 50501 Movement). Indivisible (in partnership with many other organizations) has another large scale protest planned for June 14th (No King’s Day). As someone who is part of the ethnic minority (Asian) that is on the target list for persecution (maybe lower in the hierarchy) but who did take part in some of the earlier protests (including April 5th in D.C.), I think I will be sitting out many of these and letting the white folks reach that 3% threshold.
To be blunt, I’m personally at the point where this country needs to have that regime make a move that actually does push the everyday citizen over the edge into full blown resistance/larger calls for a general strike (versus the current state of protests). The fact that there are lawless/constitutional defying acts being perpetrated by this regime on almost a daily basis now (with obviously little pushback by broken institutions instead of a full on revolt), kind of highlights how this is all becoming normalized. I mean just look at the daily crap that is posted on Yahoo Finance and you’ll see how lot of it is just the same “wash, rinse, spin cycle” being repeated on the business financial side of things. The regular news itself is just an endless cycle of negativity (amplified on social media platforms).
