I'm curious what some of you think. I would particularly like to hear from those who have voiced strong opinions that current vetting practices are adequate. I just want to get your take.
I'm not sure I can agree with Ilhan Omar. Having anti-American views on your social media might be reason enough for prohibiting immigration into the U.S? Why do want to come here?
Why do we need someone who is dissatisfied with our country? Do potential immigrants have the same rights to free speech as citizens?
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/10/ilhan-omar-fascism-in-action/
There was a recent time when political vetting was limited to just two items, at least officially and on record: 1) Does this person advocate the forceful overthrow of the government of the United States 2) Is this person bound by any oath or act of loyalty to any foreign prince or state?
I see little if any reason to subject prospective immigrants to any proscriptions more restrictive. Although it is clear that the world of cell-phones, computers, and the internet present the authorities with a lot more challenges and a wider range of things to examine to determine the answers to those questions and make their judgments, that's just stuff. The principles are fine.
Unless the United States is already perfect and beyond improvement, it
needs people dissatisfied with it as they find it, in order to make it better. Making it better was why a bunch of dissatisfied recent immigrants threw the British Tea into the harbour and invented the whole damn thing in the first place. Except for the few crooks and crazies — who we shall always have with us — making it better is why everyone immigrates, and sometimes that extends to what they find when they arrive. We should be grateful, not fearful.
I can't see any moral logic or practical purpose in depriving new arrivals of the basic rights your Constitution and Declaration of Independence say are the inalienable right of every person born. But that sort of hypocrisy would certainly be yet another thing for native Americans (not to mention Native Americans who were cheated and robbed of a continent by immigrants) to be dissatisfied about. As so many have so loudly been saying since the middle of the last century.
Before enacting anything restrictive, at the border or elsewhere it's always worth contemplating how the folks on the other side might use that tool, if and when they won. Because one day, another side always does.