Source: Reason
by Katherine Mangu-Ward
“Why should a student on a J-1 visa be treated differently from a coder on an H-1B, or a tourist on a B-2, or a man fleeing violence with no papers at all? These distinctions are as artificial as the lines on a map. Yet they are enforced with a level of fervor otherwise reserved for violent crime. As this issue went to press, total bans on travel from 12 countries and heavy restrictions on seven more were abruptly announced. The result is predictable: lost potential, ruined plans, stranded lovers, wasted talent. Restrictions on the free movement of people are not just economic blunders (though they are that too); they are acts of cultural vandalism and personal cruelty. This obsession with control bleeds back into travel itself. You can feel it at the airport, in the endless security lines and biometric scans.” (for publication 08/25)