U.S. Requiring Social Media Informations from Visa applicants
- June 2, 2019
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- NEW YORK TIMES - Visa applicants to the United States are required to submit any information about social media accounts they have used in the past five years under a State Department policy that started on Friday.
Such account information would give the government access to photos, locations, dates of birth, dates of milestones and other personal data commonly shared on social media.
“We already request certain contact information, travel history, family member information, and previous addresses from all visa applicants,” the State Department said in a statement. “We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes to protect U.S. citizens, while supporting legitimate travel to the United States.”
In March 2017, President Trump asked the secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of homeland security and the director of national intelligence to put in effect “a uniform baseline for screening and vetting standards and procedures,” according to a memo published in the Federal Register. Requiring information about the social media accounts of visa applicants was part of that.
The move represents a step up from a September 2017 measure in which the Homeland Security Department proposed and enacted a regulation calling for the surveillance of social media use of all immigrants, including naturalized citizens. During the Obama administration, the State Department began to ask visa applicants to voluntarily submit their social media information.
“This seems to be part and parcel of the same effort to have an extraordinary broad surveillance of citizens and noncitizens,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said on Sunday of the latest development. “Given the scope of the surveillance efforts, it is hard to find a rational basis for the broad surveillance the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security have been doing for almost two years.”
The added requirement could dissuade visa applicants, who may see it as a psychological barrier to enter the United States.
“This is a dangerous and problematic proposal, which does nothing to protect security concerns but raises significant privacy concerns and First Amendment issues for citizens and immigrants,” Hina Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said on Sunday. “Research shows that this kind of monitoring has chilling effects, meaning that people are less likely to speak freely and connect with each other in online communities that are now essential to modern life.”
The social media web today is a map of our contacts, associations, habits and preferences. This kind of requirement will result in suspicion of surveillance of travelers and their networks of friends, families and business associates, Ms. Shamsi said, adding that the government had failed to explain how it would use this information.
Further, the government has been unable to prove that social media can provide reliable indications that identify a security threat, she said.
“In the absence of any such indicators, what we’ve seen domestically and abroad is government officials penalizing people’s speech, religious affiliation and other conduct,” she said.
Haitian senators ransack Parliament in failed effort to ratify a new government
MAY 30, 2019
PORT-AU-PRINCE
Haiti’s third attempt to ratify a new government and prime minister ended in chaos Thursday, when a vote in the country’s Senate was interrupted as four opposition senators ransacked the chamber — dragging chairs, desks and other furniture onto the lawn — and police fired tear gas at protesters.
The act was captured on video in front of Parliament security and Haiti National Police officers, who had been called to beef up security for Thursday’s vote. The vandalism was immediately condemned by the United Nations, U.S., Canada and others in the international community.
“These deplorable events go against democratic principles,” Canada’s ambassador in Haiti Andre Frenette tweeted. “Canada is calling for a national dialogue aiming at solutions to the security, economic and social crisis that is affecting the Haitian population.”
Haiti has been without a working government for more than two months, costing the impoverished nation more than $120 million in aid from international financial institutions aimed at helping the country prepare for the upcoming hurricane season and shore up a rapidly deteriorating economy.
It was the country’s third attempt to ratify a new government and confirm nominated Prime Minister Jean Michel Lapin after the Lower Chamber of Deputies abruptly fired ex-prime minister Jean-Henry Céant on March 18.
Hearing about the opposition senators’ actions, some of their militant supporters from the nearby slums converged outside the Haitian Parliament’s gates and tried to get inside. They were stopped by police and Parliament security. A clash ensued with police, who responded by firing tear gas.
The violence extended to Grand Rue, a central street of Port-au-Prince, where flaming barricades were erected, and a truck from the government’s Centre National des Equipements construction agency was set on fire.
“What happened today pretty much opens the door for the gourde to deteriorate even further since we don’t know when we will get a government,” said economist Kesner Pharel in reference to Haiti’s national currency.
In March, the International Monetary Fund approved a zero-interest $229 million loan to Haiti. But the money — and an immediate $49 million disbursement — was contingent on the country’s having a government and a budget approved by both chambers of Parliament. The European Union, Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank had planned to provide about $75 million in budget support.
All of that is now up in the air.
On Thursday, Haiti’s Central Bank, fearing that the economy could deteriorate further, announced that it was pumping $150 million into the economy to stabilize the depreciation of the gourde. Haiti currently has a 17.7 percent inflation rate, and Haitians are spending more than 50 percent of their income on food. Meanwhile food prices have gone up by more than 20 percent in the past year.
“What the Central Bank has done may quiet the local exchange rate market for a couple of weeks. But if the deep political crisis isn’t solved, we will have the same pressures,” Pharel said.
The four senators involved were Antonio Cheramy, Évalière Beauplan, Rica Pierre, and Nènel Cassy. Cassy said they took the route they did because Senate President Carl Murat Cantave “has refused to listen to the voice of reason.“
“When he decided to side with the executive to violate the constitution, we told him that we disagreed to have former ministers that were part of the [previous] government return in the new government, which the constitution does not allow,” Cassy said.
Since the formation of Lapin’s cabinet, the senators have objected on technical and constitutional grounds to the process, accusing President Jovenel Moïse of not respecting the constitution and trying to illegally appoint ministers who lack the necessary financial clearance to serve.
On Thursday, they also claimed that the current cabinet — which was reconfigured after the second ratification hearing ended in a near fistfight — did not meet the 30 percent rule for female representation in the government.
The key point of contention has been the reappointment of Justice Minister Jean Roody Aly, one of eight ministers from the fired government to be reappointed. Earlier this year, Aly authorized the transfer of five armed Americans, including a former Navy SEAL, who had been arrested by Haiti National Police, to U.S. custody, where they were then flown out of Haiti and faced no charges in the U.S.
Sen. Ronald Lareche, a pro-government lawmaker, said he believes the key to breaking the impasse is to get rid of Aly. Dialogue is needed, Lareche said, while condemning the move by the four senators.
“Some of them decided to resort to violence, removing all of the furnishings inside the Senate, and that’s not acceptable,” Lareche said, describing the battle as one of “galactic proportions.”
But the senators also had support among some of their colleagues.
“I am for all the means necessary to force a respect of the Haitian Constitution,” said Sen. Jean Renel Senatus, a former government prosecutor.
Senatus said he doesn’t condone the burning of vehicles. However, he dismissed the broken chairs as “no big deal” and said he supports the four opposition senators.
“President Jovenel needs to know that the country isn’t a savannah,” Senatus said. “There are laws, there is a constitution. He was sworn in under the constitution. He has a duty to respect it.”
Haiti Opposition Senators Block Prime Minister Ratification Process
WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI —
VOA NEWS - The sound of furniture being dragged across the floor disrupted the silence inside Haiti's parliament at 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
Four opposition senators and some helpers dragged chairs, desks and other furniture out of the Senate chamber and into the yard just 30 minutes before the Senate was due to begin debating the nomination of Prime Minister-designate Jean Michel Lapin.
The proceedings were canceled Thursday after the Senate furniture was removed. A new vote is planned for June.
On Wednesday, Senate leader Carl Murat Cantave had announced his intention to move forward with the process, at a standstill since March 18, when former Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant resigned amid corruption allegations.
Lapin's initial appearance before the Senate ended in chaos last month when a fight broke out between two senators who hurled insults and threw punches before calm was restored.
The opposition has dug in its heels and vowed to block the process until all former members of the Ceant Cabinet are removed from Lapin's proposed new government.
Senator Antonio Cheramy talks to VOA Creole about the furniture protest on the lawn of the Haitian parliament, May 30, 2019.
"What we did was a [deliberate] strategy," Sen. Antonio Cheramy, one of the opposition leaders who masterminded the furniture protest, told VOA Creole. He alleged that Cantave "violated various parliament regulations" during the process, which led to more drastic measures on their part.
"We've always said that we will not be bullied [by the ruling party]," Cheramy said. "I think everyone can agree that we need a government that defends the right of the people."
Haitians cheered Cheramy in the streets as his car made its way through downtown after leaving the Senate.
'The beginning of the revolt'
Meanwhile, outside the gates of parliament, dozens of protesters gathered in a show of support for the opposition's actions.
"Lock them up!" they chanted, referring to corrupt politicians.
Downtown, tires burned in the middle of Rue Pave, a main thoroughfare, and cars that risked navigating the road were met with a shower of rocks, VOA Creole's reporter said. The reporter also saw two Ministry of Public Works tractors parked in the middle of the road.
Protesters gather in front of of the Haitian parliament in Port au Prince, May 30, 2019.
"The people decided to put these here because we're done, we've had enough," said a young man standing near the tractors. "We can't let our country become a nation of thieves."
Asked where they got the equipment, the protester claimed he didn't know.
"We don't know how they got here, but what is important is that the people are watching. We know who is our enemy and who isn't. This is the beginning of the revolt," the protester said.
In another neighborhood of the capital, protesters dropped large rocks in the middle of the road, rendering it virtually impassible.
"We can't take it anymore," a protester yelled. "We want Jovenel [Moise, the president] to resign. Today we say, 'No, we can't take it. We are done.' "
The young man told VOA Creole that protesters would stay in the streets until their demands are satisfied.
Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters in front of the parliament building in Port au Prince, Haiti, May 30, 2019.
Reactions online
On social media, reaction to the events were mostly negative.
"These four people, I'd like them to search Google for the definition of opposition. Then analyze your actions and see if you should call yourselves something else," @jeffdenis3451 commented on VOA Creole's Instagram page.
"These guys should be fined for what they did and then jailed," @otoniel_lafortunajean.j said.
But @elgetseycharles3 applauded the move, saying, "Bravo."