Incoming Harvard Freshman Deported After Visa Revoked

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The kid had a valid Visa and a scholarship, and no doubt is smarter than many who have posted responses to this thread. FFS. The ignorance and racism of some of these posts are just astounding.

And, even if the kid actually has foolish views: The ideal way to handle that is let him go to Harvard and expose him to many different kinds of students.

All sending him home teaches him is that the United States is fool of jerks.

[Anonymous]

Awful news. We'll lose the best and brightest that have been coming in from abroad to study at places like Harvard or MIT with news like this.

[Anonymous]

I don't think we know the whole story at this time. It isn't correct to pass judgment one way or the other.

As for being super smart, maybe he is. But the recent college admission cheating scandal in the US is tame compared to what goes on internationally. Best not to be naive that all international students at top schools are truly as credentialed as the colleges that admitted them assume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think we know the whole story at this time. It isn't correct to pass judgment one way or the other.

As for being super smart, maybe he is. But the recent college admission cheating scandal in the US is tame compared to what goes on internationally. Best not to be naive that all international students at top schools are truly as credentialed as the colleges that admitted them assume.

Again, you want the CPD to be making those determinations at the airport based on his phone? He had already been vetted by the state department, a 50-year-old international nonprofit, and effing Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think we know the whole story at this time. It isn't correct to pass judgment one way or the other.

As for being super smart, maybe he is. But the recent college admission cheating scandal in the US is tame compared to what goes on internationally. Best not to be naive that all international students at top schools are truly as credentialed as the colleges that admitted them assume.

Again, you want the CPD to be making those determinations at the airport based on his phone? He had already been vetted by the state department, a 50-year-old international nonprofit, and effing Harvard.

+1. Border agents can be so mercurial and biased. I am a US citizen of color, born and bred here and when I came back from vacation in Mexico I was detained for a half hour because a nimrod agent was darker than my passport picture. It was only when I asked to speak to a supervisor that the man released me. I can only imagine how they must have treated a Middle Eastern teenager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. More room for US citizens at our universities.

+1. Seriously. More than 1 million overseas students come to the US every year to start studies. Universities like it because it shows the university to be a "world leader" but the situation has gotten absurd, with little SLACs like my own boasting about its huge international student body. All the colleges follow Harvard. Yes, Harvard, Yale, etc. are world-class universities but not all institutions in the U.S. but due to the ranking publications, ALL institutions now have to seek out student bodies that come from all 50 states and 83 countries, and that's just not right.

-1. Do you even know *why* they seek out and admit so many international students? It's money, genius. Most international students pay full tuition and fees IN FULL. Most American students DO NOT. The international students subsidize scholarship for Americans.

P.S. These are PRIVATE schools. They can do whatever they want. If you don't like it, don't go there! That is the end of your influence in the matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. More room for US citizens at our universities.

+1. Seriously. More than 1 million overseas students come to the US every year to start studies. Universities like it because it shows the university to be a "world leader" but the situation has gotten absurd, with little SLACs like my own boasting about its huge international student body. All the colleges follow Harvard. Yes, Harvard, Yale, etc. are world-class universities but not all institutions in the U.S. but due to the ranking publications, ALL institutions now have to seek out student bodies that come from all 50 states and 83 countries, and that's just not right.

-1. Do you even know *why* they seek out and admit so many international students? It's money, genius. Most international students pay full tuition and fees IN FULL. Most American students DO NOT. The international students subsidize scholarship for Americans.

P.S. These are PRIVATE schools. They can do whatever they want. If you don't like it, don't go there! That is the end of your influence in the matter.

Agreed. I don't get all these parents coming on here to argue that these schools should be shut to foreigners. Your kids benefit from diversity of viewpoint and experience, whether you realize it or not. And Americans as a society benefit from having foreigners who were educated in the American system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should be educating our own kids first. Why not?

If you think your alma mater should be admitting fewer international students, write a letter and withhold your alumni donation. But this boy earned a spot, won a scholarship, was cleared for a US visa by the Embassy and through a rigorous process in his home country, and then was denied at the airport. That's ludicrous. You have to be able to see that.

They obviously found something on his phone or laptop they didn’t see earlier. It happens.

So many pages of funding distractions. It's clear what you say is why they gave him more scrutiny. Wonder what his facebook friends were posting? My guess is it was perceived as threatening against the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should be educating our own kids first. Why not?

If you think your alma mater should be admitting fewer international students, write a letter and withhold your alumni donation. But this boy earned a spot, won a scholarship, was cleared for a US visa by the Embassy and through a rigorous process in his home country, and then was denied at the airport. That's ludicrous. You have to be able to see that.

They obviously found something on his phone or laptop they didn’t see earlier. It happens.

So many pages of funding distractions. It's clear what you say is why they gave him more scrutiny. Wonder what his facebook friends were posting? My guess is it was perceived as threatening against the US

US born kids aren't held responsible for what their friends post on Facebook. Heck, half the time, they aren't held responsible for what they post on facebook if they plead ignorance/youth/stupidity etc. This kid was vetted heavily through AMIDEAST which is a US government supported entity. CBP shouldn't be reversing those decisions on a whim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:““When I asked every time to have my phone back so I could tell them about the situation, the officer refused and told me to sit back in [my] position and not move at all,”

There is no right to be provided entrance into the US. Whatever ‘situation’ he felt he needed to explain after a review of his computer and phone apparently was enough to bar entry while all the other student were allowed to enter.

He can explain from his home country and request to try again.

I see nothing wrong with this.

That reflects more negatively for you than anything else.

Sad.

I’d you think cbp detained him on a whim you’re mistaken.
Send him home. He can appeal from his hometown.
Not on the us taxpayer dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:““When I asked every time to have my phone back so I could tell them about the situation, the officer refused and told me to sit back in [my] position and not move at all,”

There is no right to be provided entrance into the US. Whatever ‘situation’ he felt he needed to explain after a review of his computer and phone apparently was enough to bar entry while all the other student were allowed to enter.

He can explain from his home country and request to try again.

I see nothing wrong with this.

That reflects more negatively for you than anything else.

Sad.

I’d you think cbp detained him on a whim you’re mistaken.
Send him home. He can appeal from his hometown.
Not on the us taxpayer dime.

Clearly you don't know how to read or think critically. Because the kid was already sent home. And that's what the thread is about.

[Anonymous]

The financial information on the AMIDEAST website
is somewhat limited but it does look like the
non profit gets US funding from

US Agency for International Devmt
US Dept of State

and there are some other US entities listed as
"partners/sponsors".

Again the information on the website is somewhat limited.
It does not tell how much money comes from each
agency in terms of grants.

[Anonymous]

“When I asked every time to have my phone back so I could tell them about the situation, the officer refused and told me to sit back in [my] position and not move at all,” he wrote. “After the 5 hours ended, she called me into a room , and she started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list.”

Above comes from the Harvard Crimson article but
was omitted from the initial thread quote.

Why do we let students into the US that don't like us?
It seems there are plenty of international students
that like us and want to study in the US.

It looks like there was problematic material on the
student's phone.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps AMIDEAST should have vetted the student better.

[Anonymous]

We are using tax payer money to fund international students who hang out with friends who don't like us.

I'd rather see that Harvard slot go to another hard working
American kid. I work with a lot of lower income students
on the Rio Grande border of the US. There are a lot
of smart low income kids in the US that would like to go to
Harvard.