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Yes? Why would a government allow people who aren't citizens to come in and protest on its soil about its actions? I think that's the definition of forgein interference.


> Yes? Why would a government allow people who aren't citizens to come in and protest on its soil about its actions?

Because the definition of what a "protest" is is very arbitrary and can be defined to suit your political agenda.


[flagged]


Criticizing the government is not hostility. Its wanting to move towards a better country. This is EXACTLY what the 1st amendment is intended to protect. Whether the legal system decides it applies here is one question, but there are heaps of documents and communications between founding fathers and other figures making this clear. Many of those folks were immigrants themselves. So the idea that it wouldn't apply to legal immigrants is wildly out of line with the founding ethos of the country.


We're not talking about an American criticizing his country though. We're talking about a foreigner.


Genuinely, why would an outsiders perspective be less worthwhile to listen to?


For the same reason words like "mansplaining" exist, presumably?

I think outside perspectives can be useful, but sometimes they are just ignorant. Really depends on a) the perspective, and b) the intent


'Inside' perspectives can be equally useful or ignorant. The questions remains: why the distinction between inside/outside?


I think on average, outside perspectives are less well-informed than inside ones. It's a decent first-pass filter for quality, despite its inaccuracy.

I see this frequently as an engineer: my pet peeve is the "can't we just..." from someone who has no idea how the system works. Occasionally they're correct that we could make a trivial change to make something work... But most times, that "just" is hand-waving away days/weeks of effort. On the other hand, when "can't we just ..." is uttered by someone else on the same team, they're usually correct that the change is indeed trivial.

In this case, "outside" vs "inside" is actually a good proxy for how informed or accurate the opinion actually is.

Another good example is the stereotypical "expert in a field who thinks their expertise trivially transfers to unrelated fields".

To put it more simply: the distinction exists because outsiders are very frequently blind to the internal complexity of something (a system, an idea, etc), but are still willing to confidently assert their ideas anyway, leading to a frequent association of "outsider" with "poorly-formed opinions".


> The United States has no motive in the constitution or otherwise to let anyone in who behaves in a hostile manner to the country, it's people, or its government.

Here we are back at the same argument that I just brought:

The definition of what "hostile" is is very arbitrary and can be defined to suit your political agenda.


So, it says here in this app right here, that you behave in a hostile manner.


The behavior at issue is not hostile, it’s a patriotic duty. We typically laude immigrants who assimilate, so why not in this case?


>it’s a patriotic duty.

For Americans, not foreigners.


In the US, the bill of rights and specifically the first amendment unambiguously applies to anyone who is lawfully present in the country, citizen or not.


Yes, and this person had left the US, needed permission to reenter, and thus the Secretary of State had the power to deny entry because it "wasn't in the interest of the country".


A parent post said:

> The policy of applying US immigration enforcement actions against legal visa holders who have attended specific legal (US based) protests has been publicly reported and confirmed by many government officials and is unrelated to anyone trying to enter the country.

So in this context, the GP asked “Why would a government allow people who aren't citizens to come in and protest on its soil about its actions?” and that was the question I’m answering. The answer is: because preventing someone who is already in the country lawfully from protesting violates the constitution.




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