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Comment by equil | Hacker News Reader

While I don't like the recent executive order from Trump, this situation seems unrelated to it, instead revolving around the earlier H.R.158 [0] bill that passed at the tail end of 2015 (the article does mention this in passing), which disqualifies any non-citizen from entering the US under the visa waiver program if they have traveled to one of the seven countries since march 1st, 2011 (amongst other things). Trump's recent EO explicitly makes exceptions for diplomatic passports, and I worry that conflating these documents will only undermine the rhetorical grounds for repealing them.

I just want to underscore the law at fault instead of fueling partisanship.

[0] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/158

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>But he said he had never had a problem visiting the US before.

Has he visited the US between that law passing and before Trumps ban without any issues?

From the aftenposten[1] article he was in the US last year, after the law was passed, with same passport and the same stamp and was not stopped or questioned about it.

[1]http://www.aftenposten.no/verden/Bondevik-hadde-iransk-stemp...

If anyone has more knowledge about this let me know but...

I think the decisions about who to detain are typically arbitrary and decided by that particular agent at the time.

Difficult to believe that a junior agent dares to stop someone with a Norwegian diplomatic passport.

Not if he's been told by everyone from his immediate superior right on up to the President to stop EVERYONE!!! with an Iranian stamp.

I kind of agree. I don't know how the process works which is why I'm asking for someone more knowledgeable. But my current understanding is that is how it is done.

So you mean that terrorists just need to create officially looking Norwegian diplomatic passports?

Or pretend to have lost their passport and get a new passport without stamp. Or get a secondary passport that's made available by most governments because of issues like this one.

But you are right in principle. Letting people through because they look important is a big security hole.

There's not a whole lot that border control can do to stop people who are good at making fake passports though.

"Please step over here, sir, while I contact my supervisor" is about what I'd expect at worst from a junior agent in this situation.

It could be the change in Admin has prompted them to simply be more diligent about enforcement.

Also detaining the former Norwegian PM would make it look less like they're targeting specific groups.

>Has he visited the US between that law passing and before Trumps ban without any issues?

Doesn't say much, as it only takes a random border idiot to get into that situation -- so you might, or might not, even if before you were coming in without issue.

Yes, same far from defending Trump. But in theory, if DHS would have followed the Obama bill, he should have denied him entry as he can't use VWP anymore.

You are aware that getting a new, clean passport without any trace of his visit to Iran would have cost him less than the efforts of going through, say, getting an ESTA in place?

If customs is triggered by what countries one has visited in the past, know that only someone who has means no harm has these in his or her passport. All others will remove this evidence prior to flying...

I'm surprised he didn't have a second diplomatic passport.

I've always had two standard US Blue passports. All I was required to do to get them was write a explanation as to why I needed it and await approval. The most common reason is travel to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, keeping them separate reduces some of the headaches.

FWIW, Israel no longer stamps passports.

Ah, haven't been in a few years. Is it because of the above issue?

My understanding is that it was because US travelers with an Israel stamp would have trouble if later trying to visit a country not friendly toward Israel.

I was just there last summer. They gave me a bar-coded receipt in lieu of the passport stamp.

There's still an issue that if you visit Jordan from Israel you get a stamp from Jordan that states the entry point.

But do they check the stamps you have?

I had a conversation about this yesterday and I assumed USA keeps a database of your entries into other countries thus ending this new passport hack. Can anyone confirm this?

How would the US know if a non-US citizen entered Iran if there is no stamp? Keep in mind that this law does not apply to US citizens.

Someone posted this, I guess that's how: https://papersplease.org/wp/2013/09/29/how-the-nsa-obtains-a...

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