Here’s a good warning to those travelers who have a net presence in Facebook, blogs, other social networking sites, or anywhere on the web. Watch what you write; “They” are watching, and you can’t escape your past.
It turns out that Homeland Security is now googling (that’s a verb, now, right?) foreigners entering into the U.S., and using this information in order to bar entry.
Andrew Feldmar (pictured right), a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and now Vancouver psychotherapist, was detained four hours, fingerprinted, and barred entry after DHS noticed an article of his in a literary and scientific journal, talking about using LSD and other drugs in the 1960s…even though he has no criminal record and hasn’t used drugs since the 1970s. He was told he now needs formal permission from the U.S. consul to enter into the U.S.
It’s doubtful the border agent consulted lawyers to determine if a U.S. crime had been committed by Feldmar’s drug use, presumably in Canada, and over 30 years ago. What if his drug use was legal? If a person can imbibe, quit, and become President of the U.S., should others’ actions from thirty years ago come back to haunt them today? What about journalists that write less-than-flattering articles about the U.S.?