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Trump Administration Approves Tougher Visa Vetting Including Social Media Checks

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday June 03 2017, @07:08PM   
from the your-myspace-account-please dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The Trump administration has rolled out a new questionnaire for U.S. visa applicants worldwide that asks for social media handles for the last five years and biographical information going back 15 years.

The new questions, part of an effort to tighten vetting of would-be visitors to the United States, was approved on May 23 by the Office of Management and Budget despite criticism from a range of education officials and academic groups during a public comment period.

Critics argued that the new questions would be overly burdensome, lead to long delays in processing and discourage international students and scientists from coming to the United States.

Under the new procedures, consular officials can request all prior passport numbers, five years' worth of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers and 15 years of biographical information including addresses, employment and travel history.

Officials will request the additional information when they determine "that such information is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting," a State Department official said on Wednesday.

The State Department said earlier the tighter vetting would apply to visa applicants "who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities."

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Original Submission

• Re:Easier approach... (Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday June 04 2017, @01:23PM

  by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday June 04 2017, @01:23PM (#520200) Journal

  islam has, as its ROOT mission, to convert the earth to their religion. PERIOD. if you do not understand that, you understand nothing about that religion and how it 'works' with the 'infidels'.

  Um... Jesus's last words [biblegateway.com] on Earth before ascending into Heaven after this resurrection:

  15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
  16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

  Or, another gospel account [biblegateway.com]:

  19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
  20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

  Now, we can argue about the methods modern Muslims to use for their evangelization vs. the MODERN Christians. (Historically, Christians were often happy to massacre pagans who refused to convert too.) But you cannot pretend that the FOUNDATIONAL message of Christianity wasn't the conversion of all people to that religion.

  That was, perhaps more than anything else, what differentiated early Christianity from Judaism. Jews had a traditional "tribal" God, who belonged to THEM, not others. The Christian God instead insisted that the message be spread to the entire world -- and if it wasn't, those people would go to hell.

  Islam inherited the evangelical mission from Christianity.

  Parent

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