A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

When I had only a Palestinian's passport, I lowered my expectation of how I should be treated at any airport

 

I suspect there is more to this story than this gentleman is letting on. When taking NASA IT property out of the country export control paperwork must be in order and I don't see any mention of that in the article. It is entirely possible that may have played a role.

Also, this guy appears to be inherently hostile to this administration, as evidenced by his uninformed and inaccurate use of the term "muslim ban" in his internet post. He really should read the executive order and aquaint himself with the fact that the vast majority of the world's muslims are not affected in any way by that order.

It is not a muslim ban and his trying to link his detainment to Trump's executive order is laughable. So he was detained in a room with some muslims. I'll wager there were some non-muslims like himself there also for a variety of reasons.

 

Don't know how long it will last, but there's a substantial "anywhere but there" movement going on with the Euros/Aussies/South Americans.

 

Is that why Trump went to Gulliani's and explcitly asked him how to make a Muslim ban written in a legal way?

Intent matters and this is the best the administration could do to make it appear legal.

 

Humm. I don't think that's correct. Unless nasa is under different rules than for commercial, very doubtful for just a phone that he keep with him for his work / use.

 

I work for NASA and have had to obtain export control paperwork for my work issued phone and laptop when traveling internationally. And that was for business travel. If this was a personal trip to South America he very well may not have gotten the appropriate authorizations to take his device out of the country. I don't know the specifics of his case. I just know that goverment agencies take that stuff seriously.

 

Cool to know. I don't have to for my busn trips, but then, I'm not working directly for the government.

 

a lot of the asian ceo's that i deal with are very pessimistic about the trump administration even prior to him winning. however i get the feeling that the states is still a place they would like to go to.

i assume it might not affect them as much since most of them get the quick lane treatment in getting their visas, so it's only logical that their immigration stuff gets special treatment too.