This is the new normal in Trump’s America:
An Iranian student planning to attend Northeastern University was removed from the country overnight Monday in defiance of a court order, his lawyer said, and a federal judge said Tuesday there was nothing that he could immediately do.
And in case you are wondering exactly what threat the fearsome Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi, 24 years old, posed to the United States…consider this:
According to the legal filing, Hossein Abadi was admitted to Northeastern for the 2018-2019 academic year and submitted his visa application in 2018. After a background check that took nearly a year, the State Department issued Hossein Abadi a student visa last week, the petition says.
HE HAD A VISA.
The US State Department, not exactly a hotbed of radical Islamic activism, granted him one after an exhaustive inquiry. And still, CBP agents stopped him at Logan, and then defied a federal judge’s order not to deport him until a hearing could be held. They lied to the judge about the deportation, asserting that he was being kept in the country when he was already on an Air France flight to Paris.
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said Hossein Abadi had been put on an Air France flight out of Logan late Monday night. It was not immediately clear why he Hossein Abadi was removed in spite of the judge’s emergency order that he be detained here and brought to court Tuesday morning.
It’s pretty fucking clear, I’d say: CBP agents, operating under the accepted lawlessness that flows to and through their organization from the Oval Office on down, don’t see themselves as bound by anything so 2016ish as the rule of law.
What adds to my fury is this:
“There seems to be some history of CBP ignoring district court orders, which should concern the court,” Doyle said during the hearing. She asked that Hossein Abadi be returned to the US, but the judge said there was little he could do now that the student was gone.
“I don’t think they’re going to listen to me,” Stearns said.
How about starting by holding every agent involved, and their supervisors, in contempt. Throw them in jail. Fine the shit out of them. I’m sure that Barr’s “Justice” Department will pry them loose fast enough, but put at least a little bit of consequences into the equation.
This is why Trump — and every Republican in elected office everywhere in this country — needs to go. The spectacular corruption and egregious crimes grab the headlines, but it’s the daily acts of cruelty, and the brick-by-brick destruction of US governance in every domain that will leave us bereft.
Salt their fields.
Image: Unknown artist, Shoki (The Extermination of Evil), 12th century.
Lapassionara
Whoever was the agency’s attorney in the courtroom needs to be reported to the bar and lose his or her license.
Roger Moore
Absolutely. And when we include their supervisors, let’s include everyone up to the acting Secretary of Homeland Security. Even better, deport them and let them figure out how to get home.
(((CassandraLeo)))
I completely agree, and this is exactly why I’ve been paraphrasing Cato the Elder at the end of every single comment I make (except the ones where I forget – five-minute edit window and all that). The complete annihilation of the Republican Party is absolutely mandatory to the continued existence of the Republic. It needs to go the way of the CSPU and the NSDAP. If it’s not obliterated, stories like this will be the new normal – and that’s assuming they aren’t already.
Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.
Baud
Just so people know, and not to take away from the lawlessness, a visa does not legally entitle you to admission into the country. A visa is just a travel document.
Mnemosyne
Trolls are out in force on Twitter insisting that the student is the son of an Iranian government official and therefore a danger to us all by his mere presence. ?
Ruckus
@Baud:
What grants a person the right of entry then?
HumboldtBlue
Speaking of the terrible and not-so-good.
One tweet makes it hard to discern if it’s real or not.
HRA
@Baud: It was a one year student visa.
Baud
@Ruckus:
When they get admitted by the CBD at the port of entry. Obviously, most of the time, especially in a law abiding government, just about everyone with a visa gets admitted by the CBD.
Felanius Kootea
@Ruckus: Discretion of the CBP officer.
Baud
@HRA:
I don’t know if there are special rules about student visas, but a visa generally does not guarantee you admission. Admission is done at the Port of entry.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Read it and weep.
tomtofa
said the judge. Too bad the judge has no remedies in these situations. . .
HRA
@Baud:An F1 visa is issued to international students who are attending an academic program or English Language Program at a US college or university. F-1 students must maintain the minimum course load for full-time student status.
Baud
@HRA:
Right. There are multiple types of visas (travel, immigrant, student, etc.) and for most people, the hard part is getting the visa. But a visa doesn’t legally entitle you to demand that the CBD officer at the point of entry admit to you into the U.S., if the officer believes that you do not meet the standard for admission. There are ways to challenge the CBD’s decision, but saying you have a visa isn’t one of them.
TS (the original)
@Ruckus:
Many moons since I travelled to the US but at the time I had a 6 months visa. We were coming on vacation and at immigration in Hawaii (first point of entry) we were given an entry certificate valid for 6 weeks. Back then the visa did not guarantee entry.
PenAndKey
As others have said, throw all their asses in jail. By flying Abadi out of the country in defiance of a court order the CBD agents, including EVERYONE involved from the guy who drove the van to the official who made the call, is effectively getting away with what amounts to kidnapping and human trafficking. That he’s now out of the country doesn’t change the fact that everyone involved in getting him to his current location broke the law.
Baud
Another little wrinkle is that visas are issued by the State Department, while admission decisions are made by CBD, which is part of Homeland Security.
kindness
Funny I wouldn’t have expected Customs & Border Control to become our Gestapo. I figured it’d be one of the secret services. My bad.
Usagi
@Baud: Hahahahaha! No. Gate agents have been frivolously denying students entry since I started working as a Designated School Official in the 90s (ask me about the student from Belarus who tried for three years to get her visa and was denied every time because she was single and in her 20s).
It’s an order of magnitude worse now, but it is not new at all. They were detaining US citizens a month ago and nothing happened.
And recall when the first Muslim ban was issued, supervisors specifically instructed gate agents to tell any member of Congress who came to the airport that they (the Congressperson) had no field authority and to leave. Congress should have taken heads when that happened.
PenAndKey
@kindness: I’ve been expecting this or the overall “Homeland Security” Department to act like this since it was created after 9/11. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long.
Baud
@PenAndKey:
And people say Trump hasn’t accomplished anything.
mrmoshpotato
@Roger Moore:
Pull a W and send them to random countries like W sent Katrina survivors to random far-flung parts of the US.
Another Scott
@Baud: Not the same thing at all, but I’m remembering that the 20th 9/11 hijacker was denied entry to the USA.
It seems to me that the infuriating part of this is that the judge’s order was ignored. But things are weird legally until a person is actually officially in the USA.
I hope the student is able to find a way to attend college in the US as he planned.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
I’ve been saying CBD when I meant CBP.
Leto
@Baud: I can’t wait for the police to start arresting people for driving with a driver’s license.
”But I have a license! I’m allowed to drive!”
”I make the law here, not the government.”
Felanius Kootea
@Baud: CBD oil on the brain?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Baud, you’re high. Go home. :)
Baud
@Another Scott:
You can understand why, because there might be some time lag between when the visa is issued and when the person is actually at the point of entry, and something could have happened in that period that would disqualify the person from being admitted.
For the record, I have no idea what excuse CBP gave in this case.
Baud
@Felanius Kootea: I wish. I’ve heard that CBD oil improves brain function.
Leto
@Baud: maybe ingested? I am using a CBD cream for muscle relief and it does help. I do know I’ve seen enough commercials for Previgen (JELLY FISH!) to see it’s claims about “memory help”.
Baud
@Leto:
Ask black drivers about that.
Anywho, a driver’s license does give you the right to drive. Each permit is different, and the law on visas says that particular “permit” doesn’t include the right to be admitted by the CBP officer.
danielx
@Baud:
A mistake anyone could make….
Baud
@Leto:
It’s hard to know which claims are real and which are hype when it comes to pot products.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Your autocorrect switched to the one you use more.
Mainmata
I work pretty much exclusively in the international development field and have sponsored or otherwise facilitated a lot of foreign students for graduate degrees in the US. I have never heard of this obvious obstruction until now (I last worked on this issue during the Obama Administration). It’s pretty clear CPB has had new instructions since Jan. 2017.
Statistics also show a dramatic fall off in foreign student admissions.
The Trump Administration is evil.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Would you like me to fix those, for clarity?
encephalopath
Yep… issue a bench warrant for their arrests. Make them get hand cuffed and processed and have to appear at an arraignment hearing.
It’s the least they deserve.
aliasofwestgate
I’d chime in on this but i’m trying not to panic right now. I’m about to be homeless unless i can come up with money by thursday, and i’m not liking the odds of that. I’ve applied for state emergency help, but i likely won’t get that. Especially since i’m single with no kids. I literally have no car to live in as an alternative, even here in the chilly Michigan winter that finally made an appearance. My roommates are gone (and i can’t get any new ones with the place in such a bad state), my mom is staying in her facility and i don’t even get time to put the house in order or make arrangements for myself to leave the state and move in with a friend in Wisconsin. (she needs time to come get me besides)Which is looking more and more likely. Even a month more would do, but i’m not likely to get it and i’m just fucked. None of the family will help or are actively sabotaging my efforts to do anything myself. My online contracting isn’t remotely enough to cover rent either.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: That would take the fun out of things.
chopper
@Baud:
“and when i said THC, i meant DHS”
Another Scott
@Mainmata:
CommonweathMagazine:
(Emphasis added.)
It’s infuriating…
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
Jurassicpork?
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic:
Dunno…?
Cheers,
Scott.
justawriter
Contempt of court citation – “You stay in the crowbar hotel until he is back in the country.”
Response: “How do we do that while we’re in jail?”
Response to the Response: “That’s your problem.”
drunkenhausfrau
Ask herr drunken, I have been saying for YEARS: People NEED to go to JAIL! It was true of Iraq, of the finańcial debacle, Katrina, etc. AND it is MORE true now!