Unless you are John Hodgman*, you can only be an expert at so many things. Two of the areas that I know much better than the general population are computer technology (deliberately vague) and US immigration. What is interesting is that I quite frequently see dramatically false examples in the mass media relating to current events. For computer technology this is of course nothing new, I’ve grown to accept that to reporters they have just given up on trying and just try to paste something down that is grammatically correct-ish. Glaring factual errors are just par for the course in this arena.

So during my long ordeal with immigration into the US I managed to become quite the expert on procedures and things that most people won’t experience. This gives me perspective on news items like this one which tells me that just as they do with computer technology, reporters are just making stuff up as they go along with regards to immigration too. They take a story about a guy who (a) didn’t know what kind of visa to get; (b) screwed up and did the things out of order; and (c) is subject to standard US immigration practices — and they turn it into a sob story about how The Man is denying Arabs from getting into the country.

Guess what, sfgate.com? If the dude was legally married to an American, he could apply for a K-3 visa without having to leave the country. He could get his security clearance done inside the US in any of the time following his legal marriage. Getting fingerprinted, questioned, and barred entry into the US while they judge the merits your case is standard operating procedure.

Entry into the USA for non-citizens is not a right, it’s a privilege and when you declare your intent to immigrate they don’t want to let you in until they make sure you qualify. It super-mega-sucks, I can personally attest to this, but it has nothing to do with the dude’s name or country of citizenship. That’s just a bunch of nonsense written by people who don’t know what they are talking about written to serve what I assume to be a predetermined agenda.

I am also reminded of the times in both my personal and working life where I have been privy to a situation that was considered newsworthy. There was an “act of god” type accident at a job site my father’s company was tangently involved in, and also the company I work for launched a new product. In both cases the various media agencies put out incorrect facts and made unwarranted conclusions that would mislead viewers/readers. The reporters took the angle they wanted to report on an tried to jam the facts of the case into their story (for better or for worse).

It begs the question**, does the media get anything right about anything at all? It really can’t just be a coincidence that all of my exposures have been so bad, can it?

Notes:

* Wow really?? That’s frigging AWESOME you read my blog.
** Sorry was that incorrect? I meant, it literally begs the question.