I went through my history and deleted twitter, x and bluesky (I didn't and still don't read them via their apps). Probably should have deleted any mastadon links that I viewed in case any were not loyal enough.
I deleted stored passwords for all social media. Deleting SMS was tedious, if you donate, they sell you number to every campaign that is considered the "enemy of the people" by the establishment. The best I could do was search for "campaign" and "Trump" and delete the SMS messages out of the Messages app.
Of course my luck was better than I expected. All I did at immigration was point out one of my kids was really tired (he was quite sick on the plane-ride home). The CBP agent said something about "I'll get you out of here soon" and that was true without a single question.
I suppose my toddler makes me look like less of a risk to national security than when I would return from solo overseas travel. I'm not going to get too comfortable though.
Cheapo iPhone Mini on one of the refurb sites'll run you a couple hundred bucks. Not too too bad if you just need something to connect to Wi-Fi and access maps and email with.
Or is there some absurd news story I missed?
You've missed several, here's a good summary (while it's still online): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_and_deportation_of_A...
What a bizarre article! It always refers to illegal immigrants as "humans" as if that's the crime.
Is this a new trend in the euphemism treadmill? Have we moved from "undocumented immigrant" to "human"?
The term illegal immigrant is hate speech, trying to criminalize their being. Humans that broke immigration law is more appropriate.
I'd say 'God bless you sir', but that's hate speech as well now.
The examples you shared are liberal identity politics, nonsense I don't prescribe to. Calling a person "illegal" is a way of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the first step towards genocide.
The only people I see suggesting that it's hate speech are conservatives who pretend you can't say anything anymore. I'd love to see something beyond some random Twitter post from some random user that classifies "god bless you" is literal hate speech.
Regardless, may Satan see you in the end.
This “can’t say god bless you” nonsense is just moving the “war on Christmas” culture war BS even further.
It is not a serious discussion. The end goal is to install the 10 commandments in public and force prayer in schools. Because anything else is persecution
That said, though no person's existence should be called "illegal", I'm afraid it's an uphill battle to change that term if Fox News is going to use it 24/7. There are better hills to die on.
I wish they used the term immigrant. The preferred term seems to be "illegal alien" or one or both of those words. See this example from yesterday from the department of homeland security: https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/20/six-months-keeping-ameri...
Or a release from May for the Whitehouse: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/05/fact-sheet-pr...
Or ICE in April: https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/100-days-record-breaking-i...
Now, you can say that the immigration laws are morally wrong if you want, but that's a different argument. As far as descriptive terms go, they immigrated illegally, so they're illegal immigrants - immigrants whose immigration was illegal. No, we're not going to go with whatever newspeak alternative you come up with.
But your side also has a valid point: These are human beings. They deserve to be treated like humans, not animals, even if they are being expelled from the country. That's a true point, and one that needs to be made repeatedly. But heckling people about the term used to describe the people is not going to move the needle on that issue.
I disagree with this; this is the primary means by which dehumanization occurs. I like to think of "police officer" as the perfect dehumanizing term because it showcases that dehumanization is not always negative. Some people will hear the term and automatically think good things and some will automatically think bad things. Few will think about a person they don't know, complete with vices and virtues they may or may not agree with. The point is that dehumanization makes you think of a concept of a person rather than a person.
So I think that dynamic is present in every term we use to refer to humans as something other than "human". I don't need people to refer to me as "human who programs computers" so that I'm not dehumanized. (In fact, once "human that programs computers" becomes the accepted term, that term would also have the dynamic of dehumanizing those it covers. Having the word "human" in it wouldn't save it once it became a recognized term.)
That is not what is said - otherwise it would be people who immigrated illegally, using an adverb instead of an adjective.
By moving the designator illegal from the activity to the person, you are criminalizing their being instead of their deed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2600:4...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Detention_and_d...
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Detention_and_dep...
The oddness of the original...was it was possibly pasted from an LLM response?
> Piker, a U.S. citizen who streams on Twitch under the name HasanAbi, said in a live stream that he was taken aside after landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport from Paris on Sunday — despite being enrolled in Global Entry, a CBP program that is supposed to give expedited clearance to “pre-approved, low-risk travelers” returning to the U.S.
> Piker said he was brought to a detention room inside O’Hare that had “fluorescent lightbulbs, the whole nine [yards]” and where a CBP agent questioned him for about two hours about his job, his political affiliation, his opinion of Trump and whether he had any connections to terrorist groups.
for views and attention, he thrives on it
A citizen has a question to ask, on if they want to risk being one of the unfortunate examples to create a media wave of pushback, and if so; be prepared for a tricky interview. Obviously those with children and things to do might not want to take that risk.
With all of this in mind: One might note the powerful hypocrisy of JD Vance's unexpected lecture to the governments of European allies demanding protections of free speech[0], while America's current border policy is the polar opposite of that. There's nothing wrong with being strict on people who you think are entirely intending to violate their visa but everything wrong in trying to thought-police some pretty soft ideas[1]. The tourist who was refused entry just for having that JD Vance meme on his phone seems to cross that line by quite some margin.
For me, this administration has been a huge mask slip for pretty much all the "personal freedoms" talking points of GOP politicians/voters. Its appears it was never about "free speech" but rather the dominion of their speech.
[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceve3wl21x1o
[1] https://time.com/7297472/jd-vance-meme-mads-mikkelsen-touris...
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/19/g-s1-73572/us-resumes-visas-f... : All students applying for a visa will need to set their social media profiles to "public," according to a post Wednesday on the State Department's website
sell these by the airport duty-free for 20, or heck 50 a pop
we could probably get the man himself to let us use his brand for a cut.
I do all my actual online activities with handles as God intended back in the good old days.
Social media’s goal of connecting everyone with real names never was for our benefit and we all should stop giving them this data.
My understanding is that he was stopped for other reasons, and that meme was questioned while he was being already detained.
However, there's NO doubt this is not the America I grew up in.
Either be brave enough to stand up for what you believe in or shut up and do your capitulation in silence.
But also i can't help but feel sorry and mad about all the people who used their real names online for political activism. How have you not learned these lessons from history? Did you think you re special?
They also use Clearview AI which does facial recognition against social media and the web.
I sort of feel if you're only figuring this out now you've been willfully/woefully ignorant.
Remember the year: 2025 was when it all changed.
When socials transformed from self-expression to entrapment.
refs: https://www.techdirt.com/2017/02/09/dhs-secretary-says-agenc...
https://www.techdirt.com/2018/01/02/dhs-documents-show-haras...
https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/17/report-cbps-border-devic...
"this is personal file, but the intellgency agencies has just made it fashionable and making money for us to maintain our own personal files"
This is even worse then the Stasi. At least at that time people didn't see it as something operasive, but now we see it as fashionable.
It is more important to NOT have your personal data on the some else's hardware.
My bet is actually that it is intended to silence anyone who is NOT hostile to USA but has grievances with the current administration, i.e. someone who is smart and actually admires USA and aspires to visit/study/work in USA but wants USA to be better. I.e someone smart who has a chance to get into a prestigious US University and aspire to actually make the world a better place by someday make a huge contribution to science and wishes that USA was ethical country so their life work was put in a good use and not just some financial/political gain.
I'm pretty certain that USA will have a change in profile of the people they attract and that's probably the intention but I don't think that it will be good for America and the humanity. The message is clear, if you aspire to make the world a more fair place or a place that the humanity as a whole gets elevated then don't come, this place is about maximizing the power of the politicians and the profits of the shareholders.
The State Department is fully capable of finding social media accounts that you haven't listed: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/red...
And given that they're working hard on gathering data on citizens too, this will soon apply to you too?
That's why, IMHO, this is just an attempt of inducing self censorship among those who aspire to come to US for something productive.
I have also nuked my hackernews account multiple times in the past and will probably do it again before my next trip.
ranger_danger•4h ago
santoshalper•4h ago