Category World News

Since Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States in January, civil liberties have been threatened. Because US law does not give them the same protections as US citizens, the Trump administration has primarily targeted more vulnerable groups, including immigrants, tourists, and non-American activists.

Some immigrants and tourists have been stranded for a while at the border. They have been detained in some cases because of Trump-related social media posts. What should a person be prepared for when they encounter US immigration agents, according to the question?

Entry points

Trump’s crackdown targets people at risk when they cross the US border.

Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese physician and assistant professor at Brown University, was detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as she attempted to re-enter the country in March, and she was eventually deported after agents allegedly found Hezbollah-related photos on her phone. She tried to explain to the organization before being eventually sent to Lebanon that she had no idea she was associated with the paramilitary group and that she did not.

Because Customs and Border Protection has more authority than regular law enforcement, according to Tom Bowman, policy counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). He claims that they are permitted to search people’s electronic devices “without a warrant or probable cause.”

They cannot refuse you entry to the country if you are a citizen because they won’t let you unlock your phone. According to Bill Budington, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), they may seize the phone, but they can’t prevent you from entering. “It might be wise to comply with any requests made by customers and border enforcement if you are at risk of deportation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reduce the amount of data you’re carrying with you.”

According to Bowman, “some travelers choose to restrict the data they can bring across the border.” “That might involve using a travel-only device, deleting sensitive apps and files entirely, and storing important information in the cloud and logging out of all accounts.” People use full-disk encryption to protect their contents before attempting to cross the border and shut down devices completely.

Students who support Palestine have been targeted by the ICE, and it frequently uses social media to do so.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehended Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri in March as he returned home after performing a Ramadan iftar. Suri’s lawyers claimed that Suri, who was born in India and was on a student visa while residing in the US, was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” which he denied.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services had previously announced that it would check the social media accounts of people who were applying for permanent residency and those who were affiliated with educational institutions for “antisemitic activity.”

punishing protest

The Trump administration is currently punishing those who protest, including non-citizens, even though it has not yet invoked the Insurrection Act.

One of the many instances of similar cases is the administration’s recent efforts to deport a student activist named Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia University because of his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.

Daniel Solove, a professor of intellectual property and technology law at George Washington University, says, “I think people should be very concerned.” The government can use facial recognition and AI-assisted surveillance to systematically identify and track protesters because “we live in a surveillance society.” The government is already pursuing protesters, according to reports.

Momodou Taal, a student and activist at Cornell University, recently revoked his student visa to avoid deportation. ICE has also targeted Yonseo Chung, a student, activist, and legal permanent resident who immigrated from South Korea at the age of 7.

According to Bowman, federal agents may use geolocation, facial recognition, social media, and video surveillance to track protesters. He claims that people who use photos and videos to document protests can unintentionally identify those who attended a particular demonstration. This makes it important to be watchful when using their devices.

When traveling to a protest, turning your phone into airplane mode is one of the most basic protection. You won’t send your data in real time, Budington says. With offline maps, you can still navigate streets. Apple Maps and Google Maps both have methods for doing that.

Because of the encryption that comes with using messaging apps like Signal during protests, protesters can also communicate via SMS. Some people advise leaving your phone at home alone, but you might want it if you need to keep track of wrongful police actions in case of an emergency.

People who enter the country or attend protests can take steps to lessen the risk of them being targeted by the government, though it is essentially impossible to prevent all government snooping and keep one’s data completely secure 100% of the time.

Americans are increasingly aware of their need for privacy and are looking for ways to safeguard themselves. According to Buddington, people now seem much more concerned with privacy than they did ten or five years ago.

More than 100 000 people marched in Paris on Thursday to show their support for international peace, social justice, and the rise of the far right’s growing influence.

Rarely have relations between Algeria and France, a country that was once a colony, been straightforward.

Relations appeared to be improving after a rocky period in July when France supported Algeria’s regional rival Morocco over its disputed Western Sahara territory.

A new uprising follows the arrest in France of an Algerian consular official and two other men in April for allegedly helping to kidnap Amir Boukhors, an Algerian government critic, near Paris.

What does Algeria’s new colonizer’s expulsion mean for relations with Algeria, and why are diplomats now being expelled?

Let’s break it down:

Amir Boukhors, who is he?

With more than 1 million TikTok subscribers, Boukhors, or Amir DZ, is an Algerian online critic and influencer who has criticized President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

In 2023, the French government granted Boukhors political asylum.

He is a fraudster and a “terrorist,” according to the Algerian government, who they have been extradite from France since 2016.

Nine times has Algeria tried to extradite Boukhors. France has turned down every attempt.

Why is it that an Algerian consular official allegedly wants to kidnap him?

Boukhors claimed in an interview with Le Parisien that he was stopped by an unmarked car with flashing lights on the evening of April 29, 2024, when he returned to his home in Val-de-Marne near Paris.

He was handcuffed and threw into the vehicle by four men in civilian attire.

They explained to me first that an Algerian official wanted to speak with me and that that was the reason they were taking me. Then they informed me that my plans had changed and that I was traveling to Amsterdam, Boukhors reported to the newspaper.

Boukhors claimed that he was then forced to take sleeping pills and spent more than 27 hours in a “container” before being released without explanation.

Information led to the arrest of three men on April 11 and the fourth man, who is still reportedly at large, was discovered during a subsequent investigation by France’s counterespionage agency.

Two of the men have not been identified in any information. According to French officials, the third was a consular employee from Algeria.

Algeria immediately responded with a statement outright, calling out its official’s involvement and demanding that the person’s arrest be “in public… without notification through the diplomatic channels.”

The statement denied what it claimed was a “far-fetched argument” based solely on Boukhors’ claim that his mobile phone was “found around the home.”

In connection with a terrorist operation, all three suspects were later accused of kidnapping or arbitrary detention.

What was the diplomatic response?

Algeria announced on April 14 that Algerian consular officials had 48 hours to leave.

The Algerian official’s arrest was followed by France’s arrest, which was later confirmed in the statement read on public television.

The arrest was intended to “humiliate Algeria, without taking into account this agent’s consular status, and without regard for any diplomatic customs and practices,” according to the statement.

The following day, France kicked off 12 Algerian consular officers from its territory and recalled its ambassador from Algiers.

Algeria should “resume dialogue” and “take responsibility for the degradation in bilateral relations,” according to a statement from the office of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Why have Algerian and French relations historically been poor?

Algerian civilians were killed and a class structure was established by France, which France colonized for 132 years, resulting in the death of European settlers and their descendants.

Algeria was viewed as a fundamental part of France by the French, who refused to leave. France finally left in 1962 after a war of independence. Due to the number of people who were killed by France during the struggle for independence, Algeria is still known as the “country of a million martyrs.”

However, there is still a way out. Not just between France and Algeria, but also across the entire region, is the Western Sahara’s conflict.

The conflict between Algeria and Morocco is at the heart of the country’s poor relations, which includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara. While Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front and has taken in tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees, Rabat claims the area as its own and occupies the majority of it.

What position does France hold regarding the Western Sahara?

Despite the United Nations not acknowledging Rabat’s claim to be the sovereign of the Western Sahara, France has largely supported Morocco. And last year, Macron asserted that France backed Moroccan rule over the Western Sahara.

Algeria recalled its ambassador at the time and expressed its “deep disapproval” of France’s “unexpected, ill-timed, and counterproductive” decision to support Morocco’s plan for autonomy in Western Sahara.

However, it was believed that since then, things have improved between the two.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated in an interview conducted in early April that “we are reactivating as of right now all the mechanisms of cooperation in all sectors.” The curtain has been lifted, and we are returning to normal, in accordance with President Tebboune’s statement.

However, the Boukhors case and subsequent diplomatic expels have demonstrated that the curtain has come back in.

A senior Qatari diplomat claimed that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a “genocidal war against the Palestinian people” and is using force against them. He resigned from a long list of international organizations that condemned Israel’s actions during its occupation of Gaza.