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Comment by lawless123 | Hacker News Reader

>But he said he had never had a problem visiting the US before.

Has he visited the US between that law passing and before Trumps ban without any issues?

From the aftenposten[1] article he was in the US last year, after the law was passed, with same passport and the same stamp and was not stopped or questioned about it.

[1]http://www.aftenposten.no/verden/Bondevik-hadde-iransk-stemp...

If anyone has more knowledge about this let me know but...

I think the decisions about who to detain are typically arbitrary and decided by that particular agent at the time.

Difficult to believe that a junior agent dares to stop someone with a Norwegian diplomatic passport.

Not if he's been told by everyone from his immediate superior right on up to the President to stop EVERYONE!!! with an Iranian stamp.

I kind of agree. I don't know how the process works which is why I'm asking for someone more knowledgeable. But my current understanding is that is how it is done.

So you mean that terrorists just need to create officially looking Norwegian diplomatic passports?

Or pretend to have lost their passport and get a new passport without stamp. Or get a secondary passport that's made available by most governments because of issues like this one.

But you are right in principle. Letting people through because they look important is a big security hole.

There's not a whole lot that border control can do to stop people who are good at making fake passports though.

"Please step over here, sir, while I contact my supervisor" is about what I'd expect at worst from a junior agent in this situation.

It could be the change in Admin has prompted them to simply be more diligent about enforcement.

Also detaining the former Norwegian PM would make it look less like they're targeting specific groups.

>Has he visited the US between that law passing and before Trumps ban without any issues?

Doesn't say much, as it only takes a random border idiot to get into that situation -- so you might, or might not, even if before you were coming in without issue.

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