Entering the United States to Study

Thirty one years ago, in 1987, I landed at Boston Logan Airport with an F1 student visa to attend Harvard. I was full of excitement and not the least bit concerned about getting into the country. I had been here twice before, once staying with a family in Rochester, Minnesota for a school year (1983/84) and once in the summer of 1986 to tour schools all across the US. Each time entering the country had been a complete non event (other than long waiting lines).

This past Friday, a 17 year old Harvard freshman from Lebanon was denied entry to the United States, allegedly over posts by others whom he follows or is friends with on social media. If social media had been around back in 1987 and if that was indeed the standard, there is no way I would have been let into the country. Many of my friends were strongly and vocally anti American and I myself had participated in protests against the deployment of Pershing missiles in Germany.

Not all my entries during my student years were as smooth as the one in the fall of 1987. I have spent quite a few hours in the waiting room at Logan. Even back then, long before 9/11 and the Trump administration, some of the immigration officers were incredibly rude and made me feel not welcome. I tried to attribute it to the pressure of the job but having grown older I now know that some people relish the power they have been given over others and that cruelty is never far away.

Obviously this is not the currently worst abuse of power at the US border by a long shot. It just struck me how completely different my life could have been and I hope this young man will be allowed to enter and attend school.