Kremmen

A Victorian member of parliament on a trip with a group of other politicians, all on A2 diplomatic visas, was not allowed to join a group of parliamentary colleagues on a flight from Vancouver to Denver.

I bet you can all guess his religion.

More here.

goalie

FWM

GUWonder

The guy is over 60 years old and a legislator in one of the closest US allies, and yet this is his treatment by the USG. All on a mission to study de-criminalizing of some drug use. Sounds like an Al-Qaeda type, right? No.

"Flying while brown, with a Muslim-sounding name". Vancouver has US CBP Preclearance, so blaming UA for this just won't fly.

Section 107

Well, to be fair, the passenger in question has reportedly publicly proclaimed fealty to Bashar al Assad, announced his intentions to advance the Syrian government's interests in parliament, and has at least one recent visit to Syria. It is possible the servicing officer at the consulate in Canberra missed that or deliberately ignored that when processing the visa requests for the Aussie co-del (or is it referred to as a "par-del" for Australia?).

So it is a little bit more than just "flying while brown..."

chollie

It isn't clear to me how his exercise of free speech as a member of the Australian government, plus an alleged recent visit to Syria (not sure what the basis for 'at least one' is) is a threat to me or anyone else here in the US.

Don Rumsfeld once got his picture taken with Saddam Hussein. Should civilized nations everywhere refuse him entry because he once associated with and supplied a dictator?

Loren Pechtel

The plot thickens:

https://thewest.com.au/politics/syri...p-ng-s-1753619

GUWonder

The above post sounds like another excuse to try to justify whatever CBP does, an excuse built upon questionable characterizations at that. Just saying.

He was trying to travel with his Sex Party colleague who was on the same trip. Sounds like he is less of a real problem to the US compared to various other diplomatic passport users the US allows in, including some "allies" and "opponents" who are considered to have encouraged war crimes in Europe, Asia, Latin America and still manage to visit DC. Just saying. If he weren't a "brown" diplomatic passport user from a majority "white" country, he'd likely have had less problems with CBP.

Kremmen

What really doesn't make sense to me is that if the US government really has an problem with him, the time to bring it up is when he applied for the A2 diplomatic visa. None of the issues mentioned have changed since the visa was issued.

Section 107

Unless you are privy to the information the US Government has regarding the passenger then you really have no idea if nothing changed about the information the government has in the time between the visa application and the attempt to enter. You might be right (and are maybe even probably right) but I think it more than possible you are not speaking with full knowledge of the situation.

Consular officials do not necessarily have access to all the information CBP has. Consular officials have discretion in deciding to approve a visa; even more discretion is afforded to immigration officials at points of entry. Consular officials have to live and work closely with the host government so perhaps the consular official exercised that discretion and approved the visa knowing the applicant stood a good chance of being denied entry. Perhaps consular officers and immigration officers have been given different instructions on the standards of who is admissible?

Anyway, lots of countries grant visas and then deny entry to the travelers. Happens every day all around the world although it is quite rare for it to happen to elected national representatives of other countries.

chollie

Do you have a cite? I have never met anyone or even heard a story about someone having a visa and being turned away on arrival, except in the US or Israel.

GUWonder

Unless the purpose of the trip isn't in align with the visa type or the visa recipient has previously abused their visa, it's very rare to be turned away on arrival when having a valid passport with a valid visa for the trip. And most countries very rarely if ever do it otherwise, with the US being far more extreme than any country to which I've been. Israel/TLV is very good about diplomatic passport users with legitimate Israeli visas, when juxtaposed against the US ports of entry.

I have every reason to doubt that the "brown" diplomatic passport holder from a majority "white" country did anything between his visa receipt and his showing up at a US entry clearance facility that changes anything. Most likely, DHS/CBP is in the aggregate prejudiced against "the unusual" and/or there was a batch process run after visa issuance that flagged something down that was known well before he even applied for his visa. Welcome to DHS/CBP incompetence in action, either way.

Section 107

Never heard of one story? you must lead a sheltered life.

Here is one thread with almost 200 posts about denied entry:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...y-country.html

Visit some of the visajourney or tripadvisor fora - you will read about many others. It is a regular occurrence.

or just google on "denied entry xxxx" with "xxxx" the name of any country.

chollie

Wow. Who knew. (Not me, obviously, or anyone I've ever been around when the subject has arisen).

GUWonder

None of those are mentioned as a situation of an individual having a diplomatic passport with a validly procured diplomatic visa (for the country to be visited) in it being refused at the entry clearance port for the visa-issuing country. The US is exceptionally bad in this regard.

Loren Pechtel

I've been turned away once. It wasn't personal, they had just decided to close the border.