Foreign Protesters Get Whiny Over Being Turned Away at U.S. Border

Here’s what happened, according to the Washington Post:

• A Canadian citizen and resident — with seemingly no right to enter the United States beyond being allowed in as a guest and at the pleasure of said country — was turned away by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol on Thursday, January 19th, along with seven other traveling companions — most of whom had only recently met online.
• Six were Canadian and two were French nationals. (So, still no Americans with any rights to be allowed in the country in the group.)
• They told C.B.P. agents at the Champlain, N.Y. port of entry that they were on their way to Washington, D.C. to protest the inauguration of President Trump.
• C.B.P., for whatever reason, denied entry to all eight.
• At least one of the turned away protesters, the subject of the WaPo story, Sasha Dyck, attended a sister protest in Toronto at the U.S. consulate instead.

First of all, none of these people has a right to enter the country on any given day. Customs and Border Patrol may turn away any person from entering the country for any reason and at any time, which they said in a response to being questioned about the incident.

In an emailed statement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it could not discuss individual cases, but that it “strives to treat all travelers with respect and in a professional manner, while maintaining the focus of our mission to protect all citizens and visitors in the United States.”

It’s unsurprising that C.B.P., under the banner of Homeland Security, would turn away admitted foreign protesters on a weekend that was predicted to be contention and possibly violent, which was borne out to some degree.

This whole WaPo story from beginning to end is unremarkable, except as a means to try and tie Donald Trump’s presidency to some kind of marked difference in the attitude of Customs and Border Patrol to foreigners.

Except it’s not C.B.P. that’s changed, but rather the intent of Mr. Dyck and his fellow protesters.

In 2009, Dyck states that he crossed into the U.S. to go to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama and was high-fived. The threat he posed at that time of doing anything illegal or harming Americans was low.

Eight years later, Mr. Dyck attempted to enter so that he could protest and join in disrupting the inaugural celebration. Of course, C.B.P. is going to assess that reason for entering the U.S. as unwelcome.  That has nothing to do with Donald Trump and everything to do with Mr. Dyck.

It’s amusing to see that the tactic of eschewing common sense and context in favor of getting to the non-existent outrage factor to supply a narrative is alive and well in the mainstream media.

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