The wife of an active-duty Coast Guardsman was arrested earlier this week by federal immigration authorities inside the family residential section of the U.S. Naval Air Station at Key West, Florida, after she was flagged in a routine security check, officials said Saturday.
According to a U.S. official, the woman’s work visa expired around 2017, and she was marked for removal from the United States a few years later. She and the Coast Guardsman were married early this year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an enforcement incident.
The official said that when the woman and her Coast Guard husband were preparing to move into their on-base housing on Wednesday, they went to the visitor control center to get a pass so she could access the Key West installation. During the routine security screening required for base access, the woman’s name was flagged as a problem.
Base personnel contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which looked into the matter, said the official. NCIS and Coast Guard security personnel got permission from the base commander to enter the installation and then went to the Coast Guardsman’s home on Thursday, the official said. They were joined by personnel from Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
HSI eventually took the spouse into custody, and the official said they believe she is still being detained. Officials did not provide the name of the country she is from.
I am curious, where are you on this? Do you think this is ok?
Very Strong A.
I think borders in an interconnected world are practically meaningless. When you can travel from NYC to Istanbul to Beijing in a weekend, what’s the point? I think the city-state model serves us better than the nation state model. I think, the whole reason for our current border rationale is either A) that certain people are afraid of people who don’t look like them B) to keep out “the clods” - which is a stupid concept since people are the economy and/or C) certain people can profit off of it.
I only see borders as useful for taxation purposes and societal control - and in both use cases there are better options.
I do think, if we are to maintain the nation-state model, then we do need military, as there are other nations that do threaten our way of life. Safety in shipping lanes is also essential for a global society.
As I’m more center-left, I was conflicted as to which the left perceived as the higher priority - immigration or the reduction in the power of the military. While not a perfect poll, since not everyone on the Fediverse is a lefty, I think we can glean that most are. And it appears that the overwhelming majority consider that immigration is the much higher priority. A few years back, I would have confidently considered the latter.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I might share some of your views on borders, but so far more as a thought experiment. I have heard similar takes on borders before, but am not convinced from a practical standpoint. More from an idealistic one.
I am also very strongly on A.