After reading this..

[KarenCee 3]

I think the thing that sticks with me and with others is the fact that DHS personnel were "rapidly" processing her appeal that is so infuriating. I'm certainly not confusing one or the other. I know she's not immgrating...it's the fact that she's been denied and they were fast tracking her appeal all for some music show. Bah.

[trailmix 77]

The very wealthy and the well known (which generally go hand in hand) are above a lot of laws, that is the way of the world and the society we live in. We just generally don't hear about it or if we do it doesn't have the same personal feel to it - this does as it relates to immigration.

I also don't think there is any confusion here, as Karen mentioned, however when you see a couple like Ron and Sharon who are trying to do the right things and jumping through hoops and waiting month after month - to think that the DHS is wasting their time expediting something for someone to collect an award - I see the injustice.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

The very wealthy and the well known (which generally go hand in hand) are above a lot of laws, that is the way of the world and the society we live in. We just generally don't hear about it or if we do it doesn't have the same personal feel to it - this does as it relates to immigration.

I also don't think there is any confusion here, as Karen mentioned, however when you see a couple like Ron and Sharon who are trying to do the right things and jumping through hoops and waiting month after month - to think that the DHS is wasting their time expediting something for someone to collect an award - I see the injustice.

Agreed - people like Ron/Sharon and other VJers get denied for BS that comes out of some idiots at consulates that are utterly UNTRUE. Yet in this case, Any is deep in her addiction yet gets a waiver in less than 48 hours. I don't care if it's for 48 hours to pick up a freaking award (vis a vis move to the US and be with your wife while her parents' health is frail). This is not only absurd, but insulting to those who are trapped in an unfair process.

[~Laura and Nick~ 5]

The very wealthy and the well known (which generally go hand in hand) are above a lot of laws, that is the way of the world and the society we live in. We just generally don't hear about it or if we do it doesn't have the same personal feel to it - this does as it relates to immigration.

I also don't think there is any confusion here, as Karen mentioned, however when you see a couple like Ron and Sharon who are trying to do the right things and jumping through hoops and waiting month after month - to think that the DHS is wasting their time expediting something for someone to collect an award - I see the injustice.

Agreed - people like Ron/Sharon and other VJers get denied for BS that comes out of some idiots at consulates that are utterly UNTRUE. Yet in this case, Any is deep in her addiction yet gets a waiver in less than 48 hours. I don't care if it's for 48 hours to pick up a freaking award (vis a vis move to the US and be with your wife while her parents' health is frail). This is not only absurd, but insulting to those who are trapped in an unfair process.

Well said sisters

[kcmetzy 0]

The very wealthy and the well known (which generally go hand in hand) are above a lot of laws, that is the way of the world and the society we live in. We just generally don't hear about it or if we do it doesn't have the same personal feel to it - this does as it relates to immigration.

I also don't think there is any confusion here, as Karen mentioned, however when you see a couple like Ron and Sharon who are trying to do the right things and jumping through hoops and waiting month after month - to think that the DHS is wasting their time expediting something for someone to collect an award - I see the injustice.

Agreed - people like Ron/Sharon and other VJers get denied for BS that comes out of some idiots at consulates that are utterly UNTRUE. Yet in this case, Any is deep in her addiction yet gets a waiver in less than 48 hours. I don't care if it's for 48 hours to pick up a freaking award (vis a vis move to the US and be with your wife while her parents' health is frail). This is not only absurd, but insulting to those who are trapped in an unfair process.

Well said sisters

I want to clarify..I am NOT embarrassed to be an American. I shouldn't have said that, but I had just finished reading the article and was FURIOUS. If I was truly embarrassed to be an American, I would be the one immigrating to Canada. In fact, I tried to change it but couldn't figure how to edit the title. Now that that is out of the way..

I think we are all upset over the same issues..

Check this out:

“Vancouver psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar has been barred from entering the United States. The reason? During a random stop-and-search at a US/Canadian border crossing, a Google search of his name led to his article from the Spring 2001 ‘Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts.’ In it Feldmar describes two acid trips he took under the supervision of his graduate adviser in psychology — in 1967 and how the substance could be used to understand the self and a possible alternative to psychotherapy. This turns out to have been enough to earn him a life-time ban under the grounds of ‘admitted drug use.’

“Feldmar *was* told he could apply for a waiver, and that after a year, and at a cost of around $3,500, he had a ‘90% chance’ of its being granted.

“Oh — and he’d have to go through the process each time he wanted to travel to the US.”

The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to “narcotics” use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn’t interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file…

Feldmar was determined, in the months after the aborted border crossing, to turn things around. He was particularly determined because the idea of not being able to visit his children at their homes was unthinkable.

Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. border and protection, based in Seattle says “Anyone who is determined to be a drug abuser or user is inadmissible. A crime involving moral turpitude is inadmissible and one of those areas is a violation of controlled substances.”

If there’s no criminal record, as in Feldmar’s case?

Not necessarily the criterion, Milne said. You can still be considered dangerous.

Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer, who lectures on drug policy issues in the department of criminology at the University of Ottaw and works as a policy adviser to a range of government agencies and departments, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada says:

“This is about the marriage of the war on drugs and the war on terror, and the blind, bureaucratic mindset it encourages. Government surveillance in the name of the war on drugs and the war on terror is in danger of making us all open books to zealous governments. As someone mentioned at a privacy conference I attended in London, U.K., several months ago, all the tools for an authoritarian state are now in place; it’s just that we haven’t yet adopted authoritarian methods. But in the area of drugs, maybe we have.”

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

The very wealthy and the well known (which generally go hand in hand) are above a lot of laws, that is the way of the world and the society we live in. We just generally don't hear about it or if we do it doesn't have the same personal feel to it - this does as it relates to immigration.

I also don't think there is any confusion here, as Karen mentioned, however when you see a couple like Ron and Sharon who are trying to do the right things and jumping through hoops and waiting month after month - to think that the DHS is wasting their time expediting something for someone to collect an award - I see the injustice.

Agreed - people like Ron/Sharon and other VJers get denied for BS that comes out of some idiots at consulates that are utterly UNTRUE. Yet in this case, Any is deep in her addiction yet gets a waiver in less than 48 hours. I don't care if it's for 48 hours to pick up a freaking award (vis a vis move to the US and be with your wife while her parents' health is frail). This is not only absurd, but insulting to those who are trapped in an unfair process.

Well said sisters

I want to clarify..I am NOT embarrassed to be an American. I shouldn't have said that, but I had just finished reading the article and was FURIOUS. If I was truly embarrassed to be an American, I would be the one immigrating to Canada. In fact, I tried to change it but couldn't figure how to edit the title. Now that that is out of the way..

I think we are all upset over the same issues..

Check this out:

"Vancouver psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar has been barred from entering the United States. The reason? During a random stop-and-search at a US/Canadian border crossing, a Google search of his name led to his article from the Spring 2001 'Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts.' In it Feldmar describes two acid trips he took under the supervision of his graduate adviser in psychology — in 1967 and how the substance could be used to understand the self and a possible alternative to psychotherapy. This turns out to have been enough to earn him a life-time ban under the grounds of 'admitted drug use.'

"Feldmar *was* told he could apply for a waiver, and that after a year, and at a cost of around $3,500, he had a '90% chance' of its being granted.

"Oh — and he'd have to go through the process each time he wanted to travel to the US."

The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to "narcotics" use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn't interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file…

Feldmar was determined, in the months after the aborted border crossing, to turn things around. He was particularly determined because the idea of not being able to visit his children at their homes was unthinkable.

Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. border and protection, based in Seattle says "Anyone who is determined to be a drug abuser or user is inadmissible. A crime involving moral turpitude is inadmissible and one of those areas is a violation of controlled substances."

If there's no criminal record, as in Feldmar's case?

Not necessarily the criterion, Milne said. You can still be considered dangerous.

Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer, who lectures on drug policy issues in the department of criminology at the University of Ottaw and works as a policy adviser to a range of government agencies and departments, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada says:

"This is about the marriage of the war on drugs and the war on terror, and the blind, bureaucratic mindset it encourages. Government surveillance in the name of the war on drugs and the war on terror is in danger of making us all open books to zealous governments. As someone mentioned at a privacy conference I attended in London, U.K., several months ago, all the tools for an authoritarian state are now in place; it's just that we haven't yet adopted authoritarian methods. But in the area of drugs, maybe we have."

Saw this story on either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. The whole 'war on drugs' is just a scam. A self perpetuating industry. This is just another war that America keeps losing for all the wrong reasons. Interdiction? That's only a small part of the problem. How about eliminating or ameliorating the poverty that attracts people to these modalities of escapism? President Johnson declared a 'war on poverty' in 1965, did we win that one? Just a thought but maybe America should try to win a war for once using brains instead of brawn. How about a war on ignorance? I don't know of anybody who is embarrassed to be an American, but I do know many folks who are embarrassed at US policy. What is going on with Ron and Sharon and the hysteria over drug use is scandalous. To a lesser extent we see the same kind of hysteria in the AP of FEW and my father and many others.

[thermophile 0]

I don't think there is any reason to apologize about being embarrassed by this kind of hypocrisy. The rules apply unless the person that broke them is rich, then they deserve leniency. The whole immigration system is set up for businesses (why should businesses be able to bring in foreign workers much quicker than we can bring in our family) and rich people bringing in their families. There are special visas to hurry the process for finances but they can't work (now expanded to married couples but first the k visas were designed to get finances in the country). Can there be a more blatant statement that if you are rich you deserve to be with your loved ones, but if you can't live on just one person's income-get to the back of the bus. So, yes I'm embarrassed by the policies of the US which means that I'm embarrassed to be American.

However, part of this discrepancy is us poor peoples fault too, the rules (and the exceptions to the rules) are designed by our government. and the government is us, if we don't like the rules and we don't like the government then we need to do something to change it. At a very minimum, we need to share our frustrations with the system with our federal representatives. How are they to know that they should be working to improve the system if they don't know that their constituents think the system needs fixed and needs their attention.

Edited February 10, 2008 by thermophile

[SpiritAlight 1]

I guess I should explain why this bothers me so much. Good people like Ron/Sharon get denied their visa because of something (minor in my opinion) that happened 27 years ago!! The waiver for that could take up to 18 months.

Amy Winehouse is open about her drug addictions, currently using drugs, in and out of rehab, has videos on youtube smoking crack, sings songs about drugs, and HER visa denial is overturned in 48 hours!!

I have a serious problem with that.

Yup.

It's #######.

Just like jailbird Paris who was welcomed as a "princess" in Toronto last Fall (I believe it was Fall).

It makes me sick to my stomach.

Bleh.

[SpiritAlight 1]

I just read KCmetzy's write-up about that Vancouver Prof and what happened with him at the BC/WA border.

That border crossing is one of the worst.

They have discovered Google and are playing with it like unschooled children...making judgements and assumptions better left for people with brains AND that know how to use them.

The word here is DISCERNMENT.

They need to Google that!!!

I am going to go and throw up now.

Excuse me....

Edited February 11, 2008 by SpiritAlight

[Earmuffs 1]

That border crossing is one of the worst.

I agree...

I have had nothing but problems on both sides crossing there...

[Caladan 19]

I guess I should explain why this bothers me so much. Good people like Ron/Sharon get denied their visa because of something (minor in my opinion) that happened 27 years ago!! The waiver for that could take up to 18 months.

Amy Winehouse is open about her drug addictions, currently using drugs, in and out of rehab, has videos on youtube smoking crack, sings songs about drugs, and HER visa denial is overturned in 48 hours!!

I have a serious problem with that.

More relevantly, though, is that Winehouse isn't trying to immigrate (as Ron is.) Not that I don't think that Ron's situation is ridiculous, but it's important to keep the visa classes separate. Hers doesn't lead to permanent residency. A lot of leniency can be given if you're only allowed in for a short period of time.

That said, boo on celebrity privileges.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

What is it exactly that Paris Hilton does? The second I hear anything about her and out comes the remote. I've met some CBP folks who are quite enlightened, just not lately. That's all I'm saying.

People, as you read something on the net, it may mean that the fruitcake who screams at passing motorists at the corner can now spew his or her screed worldwide without anyone realizing the provenance.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to get back to hurling my feces at the red Lexus stopped at the light or the world will end in five minutes.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

I guess I should explain why this bothers me so much. Good people like Ron/Sharon get denied their visa because of something (minor in my opinion) that happened 27 years ago!! The waiver for that could take up to 18 months.

Amy Winehouse is open about her drug addictions, currently using drugs, in and out of rehab, has videos on youtube smoking crack, sings songs about drugs, and HER visa denial is overturned in 48 hours!!

I have a serious problem with that.

More relevantly, though, is that Winehouse isn't trying to immigrate (as Ron is.) Not that I don't think that Ron's situation is ridiculous, but it's important to keep the visa classes separate. Hers doesn't lead to permanent residency. A lot of leniency can be given if you're only allowed in for a short period of time.

That said, boo on celebrity privileges.

You would think that but the CBP assumes that all visitiors to the US are going to immigrate. Ron just isn't rich and famous enough.

[Caladan 19]

If they assumed all visitors were immigrating, none would be let in. The burden of proof is on the visitor, but that's not the same thing.

In any case, Ron needs to record a song, perhaps a blues album. VJ will buy it, and then we will get him in on a celebrity award visa.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

If they assumed all visitors were immigrating, none would be let in. The burden of proof is on the visitor, but that's not the same thing.

In any case, Ron needs to record a song, perhaps a blues album. VJ will buy it, and then we will get him in on a celebrity award visa.

Actually it is. The CBP uses reverse onus and assumes, unless proven otherwise, that you intend to immigrate to the US (legally or otherwise) and are not just visiting. Since the border is not closed (yet!) to visitors they do manage to let a few in, but why quibble over details when we should be out buying Ron's sex tape, CD, commemorative edition SUV, cologne, feminine hygiene products, home pregnancy test, ....

Unless I'm mistaken visas for performers are P-U visas.

Edited February 11, 2008 by IR5FORMUMSIE