Japanese student has visa reinstated after it was revoked by potential AI mistake
A Japanese student in Utah had his student visa status reinstated suddenly after it was mysteriously cancelled earlier this month.
His attorney believes the sudden switch-up shows the student was mistakenly flagged for deportation by artificial intelligence.
Suguru Onda, a doctoral student at Brigham Young University, learned on Friday his status had been restored, minutes after he and a group of fellow university students filed a lawsuit arguing the government suddenly and arbitrarily cancelled their visas 'to coerce students' to leave the country even though they had done nothing wrong.
'He is reinstated as if it was never revoked,' attorney Adam Crayk told KSL-TV.
Onda, a father of five studying computer science, was notified earlier this month his status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System had been terminated because he was 'identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked,' a procedural step that functionally ended his ability to remain in the United States for more than two weeks after the change.
The Japanese student had little apparent criminal history, besides a few speeding tickets and a fishing citation for organizing a church event where others caught too many fish, according to his lawyer.
'I feel helpless,' Onda told KSL NewsRadio at the time. 'Like nobody knows (the) answer, nobody knows what to do, what's going to happen.'
The Department of Homeland Security told NBC News it would not elaborate on Onda's case 'due to privacy concerns and visa confidentiality.'
The department has said it is using high-tech tools to search the social media activity and potential criminal histories of international students in the U.S.
That effort includes a State Department effort using artificial intelligence to screen foreign students for alleged support of terror groups, Axios reported in March.
Since taking office, more than 1,500 students from nearly 250 colleges have had their visas revoked, according to a tracker from Inside Higher Education.
The visa pullbacks have prompted lawsuits and widespread confusion.
They form the second major prong of the administration's deportation push on college campuses.
The White House has also targeted prominent leaders of the campus pro-Palestine movement, using a little-tested authority in federal immigration law to argue their activism threatens U.S. foreign policy interests.
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
The cult of Greta proves that the loony Left has gone mainstream
It was a sight so uncannily ghoulish I felt repelled and fascinated in equal measure. I was watching the coverage of Greta Thunberg and a band of other mouth-frothing young Palestine activists board the Madleen, a yacht that left from the Sicilian port of Catania last weekend, sailing, to our shame, under a British flag (though it is the Palestinian flag that blows aggressively from the prow). The Madleen is heading for Gaza with 'aid'. Say hello to the 'freedom flotilla' on which Swedish climate-turned-Palestine activist Thunberg is joined by the Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, the Irish Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, and Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian European Parliament member. I used to think nautical adventures were romantic, full of derring-do: this one makes me feel more vomitous than even the highest of seas. The website for the Madleen's voyage uses exactly the same tone and tactics as Thunberg's horrible climate stunts did: extreme, unbending, threatening, self-loving and bratty all at once. 'We sail until Palestine is free' runs the banner. The site explains: 'Since 8 October 2023, Israel has escalated its genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza in an attempt to destroy all forms of life. The Israeli military has murdered tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands.' You almost have to laugh. It's not clear whether any of these activists, drunk on their love of themselves, are even aware of October 7 or Hamas. And 'all forms of life'? Are they saying Israelis murder plants and pets too? At any rate, Thunberg and co do not mean freedom from Hamas, against whom thousands of brave Gazans have been protesting. They mean from Israel. Not just Israeli military action but, in accordance with the rest of their playbook of slogans, from the proximity of the Jewish state full stop. Anti-Israel chanting, stickering, posturing and boycotting has been a mainstay of Lefty life for as long as I've been alive. But since October 7, a new normal has spread and spread; a kind of slow-release pogrom, if you will. The loony Left, once possibly to ignore, is now everywhere, and everything. This flotilla is a prime example. Instead of being ignored as wacky trouble-making, it is instead taken seriously, hailed as heroic by millions who should know better. The Palestine solidarity mob peddles lies rooted in the anti-Semitic blood libel of Jewish bloodlust for innocents. It claims, without a single piece of self-awareness or verification, that Israeli forces have 'murdered' hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. For these folks, context is colonialism, racism, murder – of a type that only Israel is capable of – so there is no understanding or desire to understand the cause of anything that has happened, or what has actually been going on with aid and food. In fact, flotilla wisdom is riddled with so many evil falsehoods there is no space to refute even half of them here. Now that the loonies have taken over, the flotilla is just an emblem of the new normal rather than considered fringe or extreme, or a curiosity. This is because the boundary between the wackiness of grassroots activism and the sobriety of government and the prestige mainstream media – both of which are expected to at least look into facts, verify claims and consider bias – has evaporated. Raw anti-Israel feeling has simply taken over. Some of it is done terribly respectably. A study by Andrew Fox of the Henry Jackson Society found that 98 per cent of the world's media, including The New York Times and CNN, simply repeated Hamas's casualty figures. Meanwhile, the goings-on of the likes of the Madleen is legitimised by statements made by our government. When Keir Starmer and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, publicly call into question the motives of Israel and Gaza, insult the valiant Jewish State as 'appalling' and 'monstrous', threaten to halt trade with its ally, and act like Israel is exactly what Thunberg and friends say it is, then what's the difference? We might as well all be sailing on that flotilla. Thunberg's power seemed likely to fade away; nobody so niche, I used to comfort myself, can stay at the forefront for long. Times change, trends move on. But the reality is even grimmer than I anticipated. All the climate loonies have just migrated to the cause of Palestine. Just Stop Oil has laid down arms to focus on 'Palestine', which it calls the next all-consuming cause for the world, as urgent as saving the planet from global warming. A thousand new grassroots, student and cultural campaign groups and coalitions have sprouted up to wage war on Israel and celebrate terrorists. Fossil Free Books led debilitating boycotts of British literary festivals last year, deviously and also perplexingly linking sponsors' tangential investments in fossil fuels with support for alleged Israeli criminality. Youth Demand, another group of anti-Israel fanatics, does the same. Its ghastly red website screams: 'The government is engaging in absolute evil. They are enabling genocide in Palestine by sending money and arms to Israel. They are contributing to the murder of billions to keep the fossil fuel profits flowing' and urges people to 'join the resistance'. It's barking mad, nightmarish conspiratorial nonsense. And so, under the frenzy of anti-Israel passion, bolstered by years of woke and trans madness, our society has lost decorum, professional standards, and, it often feels, any sphere at all that remains free of the politics of Israel hatred. Even the hushed plush corridors of Harley Street aren't safe. A Jewish friend texted me: 'Went to see a specialist, hadn't realised I'd get a thorough indoctrination treatment thrown in for free … Palestine badges on lanyards and prominently displayed items wherever you look.' She described the experience as 'chilling' and expressed gratitude her kids weren't there. 'No way I'd dare wear a Star of David there. How twisted is that?' Indeed. As I looked at the pictures she sent through, the menacing black, green and red badges on backpacks demanding freedom for Palestine, I too felt chilled, but only in a way that has become utterly familiar. I live in a mixed area that is, traditionally, also a bastion of the secular Jewish community. Yet I face a constant barrage of vandalism and graffiti disfiguring the area, from 'F--- Israel' sprayed on shop fronts and hoardings to 'Free Gaza' scrawled over my street sign. Out walking with my toddler last week, a car cruised past us, with three Middle Eastern looking men in it who rolled down the windows and sang in a slow, taunting tone: 'Free, free Pal-es-tine' on repeat, deliberately, it seemed, baiting the Jews of the neighbourhood. Yet nobody batted an eyelid. It's everywhere, all the time. No amount of last-minute professional sacrifice and rudeness is off limits: feminist icon Caryl Churchill has pulled her play from the Donmar because the theatre receives support from Barclays. Like most normal, ethical banks, Barclays is said to provide financial services to some defence companies supplying Israel. The defining feature of a totalitarian regime is, well, total. It pervades everything on pain of death. Since October 7 Britain – and other countries in the West – are starting to feel eerily similar where Israel discourse is concerned. Except unlike the totalitarian regimes of historical fame, we aren't being forced: we're embracing the madness of our own free will, and that is unforgivable.
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why Britain must not recognise Palestine
The West Bank was never taken from the Palestinians. When Israel conquered the territory in 1967 it was from the Jordanians, who had occupied it since 1948 before trying their luck at a genocide of the Jews. Regardless, if Jerusalem gave up the land in return for peace, it would make Israel just nine miles wide at its centre. Known as the 'Hadera-Gadera rectangle', that narrow waist holds half the population and much of the country's vital infrastructure, including Tel Aviv. A new Palestinian state would lie just over the border. After October 7, would you do it? The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is famously incompetent, and is currently enjoying the 20th year of the four-year term to which he was elected in 2005. He presides over a system of corruption and brutality; he holds a PhD in Holocaust revisionism from a Moscow university; and he offers cash incentives to those convicted of terror offences, with higher payments awarded for more serious crimes. Fancy the odds? When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, it was in the naive belief that, from then on, even a single rocket from the Strip would meet with international condemnation, since the settlements and 'occupation' were no more. So that worked out well. A two-state solution would see the same policy applied on the West Bank. What could possibly go wrong? Sir Keir Starmer presumably thinks it's a great idea, because in nine days' time, Britain will join France and the Saudis in New York in talks about recognising a state of Palestine. Far easier to gamble with the lives of someone else's children than your own, I suppose. This would form the natural culmination of Britain's escalating hostility towards our ally, as it battles to defeat the jihadi group that carried out that orgy of butchery, mutilation and rape two years ago and has vowed to do the same again. Hostages are still in the catacombs. Yet Sir Keir dreams of a state of Palestine. War is hell. Israel – which neither wanted it nor started it – evacuates civilians before attacks and provides them with aid. Yet in Parliament last week, amid nods from MPs who have never known the inside of a bomb shelter, the Prime Minister branded Israel 'appalling'. As ever, Starmer's petty politicking blinds him to his own moral bankruptcy. Unilaterally recognising a state of Palestine is a contemptuous proposal. Dismissing Israel's existential security concerns is insult enough, but providing a reward for October 7 creates awful incentives for the future. Worse still, perhaps, is the narrative it would create. Britain's official policy would be to blame Israel for the lack of a Palestinian state, when the historical truth is the opposite. The Palestinians were first offered self-determination in 1947, but rejected it in favour of attempted genocide. They were offered it again during the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, but derailed it with a spate of suicide bombs that claimed the lives of many Israelis. In 2000, at Camp David, they were offered 96 per cent of the West Bank but turned it down. In 2008, prime minister Ehud Olmert offered 94 per cent of the territory with land swaps for the remainder, East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, and the Old City turned over to international control. Again, Abbas rejected it. Why? Because the true problem is the very existence of a Jewish country, which is seen as a rebuke by some to Arab honour. The Palestinians don't want a state alongside Israel. They want a state instead of it. This is what Britain would be supporting.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
‘Let down by a world that claims to be humane but does nothing': Palestinians speak out as Israeli bulldozers raze West Bank villages
Jaber Dabbaseh sits upon a pile of dust-strewn rubble. 'We feel oppressed, let down by a world that claims to be humane, while it does nothing,' the father-of-five says. The ruins once formed his family home in Khalet al-Daba'a in the West Bank, before his village was almost entirely demolished by Israeli bulldozers. A crippling 2025 for Palestinians in the West Bank has seen 14 children among 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the north of the territory alone. In late May came a hammer blow when Israel announced that 22 new settlements had been approved. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Israel would 'not stop until the entire area receives its full legal status and becomes an inseparable part of the State of Israel,' a lucid illustration of the aggressive pro-settlement policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's government. On Thursday 5 June Palestinians marked Naksa Day, a commemoration of the forced displacement of around 300,000 Palestinians during the June 1967 war. Nearly six decades on, demoralised West Bank residents tell The Independent that the current situation is worse than ever. 'Their future is lost and we cannot provide for them, even a little,' says Dabbaseh, lamenting the life awaiting his five boys. 'The situation is very, very tragic.' Dabbaseh is one of the residents of Khalet al-Daba'a that have remained on the land, living in tents and residential caves since Israeli machinery razed it to the ground on 5 May. The IDF says the village is 'built illegally within a military firing zone' and that Palestinians live there illegally. This is disputed by the UN, EU, and rights organisations who say the forced expulsion of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta is illegal. 'Israel must immediately halt illegal practices leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians, including attacks on residential areas, destruction of property and infrastructure, pervasive access and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians,' Amnesty International said on Thursday in a statement marking Naksa Day, as it accused Israel of presiding over a 'ruthless system of apartheid'. Since Khalet al-Daba'a's destruction, settlers have roamed the remnants of the village daily, grazing their sheep and vandalising remaining structures in the hope of pushing Palestinians away from the land, residents say. Footage shows settlers stood among the wreckage of Khalet al-Daba'a as three soldiers watch on, hands in pockets, relaxed and chatty. 'Our children are struggling to reach school and live in anxiety and fear. We cannot protect them from the settlers. We have no clinics, no schools, no recreational facilities for children,' Dabbaseh says. Nine houses, ten water tanks, four animal shelters, a community centre and most of the village's solar panels in the village were flattened by the army of bulldozers in less than two hours, according to activists. Residents watched on helplessly from a nearby hilltop, witnessing the stark transformation of their small village into a bleak landscape of lost livelihoods. Masafer Yatta, a collection of hamlets in the South Hebron Hills which the Israeli army declared a military firing zone in the 1980s, has faced some of the most brutal manifestations of Israeli occupation. After decades of legal wrangling, the High Court ruled in 2022 that there were no legal barriers to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. Many Palestinians have repeatedly rebuilt their homes after they have been flattened. Others have moved into caves which have been renovated by locals and activists to make them habitable for families. Jaber Dabbaseh says the latest eviction was the eighth he has seen his home demolished in as many years. Increasingly emboldened by the Israeli government's pro-settlement policies, the rate of settler attacks on Palestinian villages has increased over the past year, residents say. Each week, footage emerges on social media of settlers, often masked and armed, descending on Palestinian villages in the West Bank. 'We are full of sadness, full of weakness. What can we do?' asks Mohammad Hesham Huraini, a 22-year-old activist who lives in the nearby village of at-Tuwani. 'The people are scared and afraid. They want someone to stand by them to at least feel that we are not alone.' Speaking in a phone call last Friday, Huraini says he is due to join join fellow activists and resident to visit the remnants of Khalet al-Daba'a. 'I don't know if we will come back in an ambulance, or a military jeep, or a police jeep,' he says. 'It's really worse than ever before, more dangerous than before. The people feel that they are alone, the international community just watches.' Days later, Huraini was detained while sitting in a tent with other activists in Khalet al-Daba'a. Israeli police have routinely detained activists and residents on the land, including 70-year-old Irish woman Deirdre Murphy - who as of Friday remained in detention as she appealed her deportation - and Swedish national Susanne Björk, both UK residents. The army says entry into is prohibited under military orders. 'Every day it's getting worse and worse, and we expect there is more worse to come,' says Mohammad Hureini - a cousin of the previously-quoted Mohammad Hesham Huraini. Speaking of the settlers, he said: 'There is no power to stop them, they are roaming daily, shooting, stealing land. Anyone who stands up for their rights will be attacked.' The Israeli military says its troops are 'required to act to stop the violation' in instances of violence against Palestinians and 'to delay or detain the suspects until the police arrive at the scene'. But Palestinians say Israeli authorities offer no such protection. Activists including Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning director of the documentary No Other Land, which depicts settler and military violence in Masafer Yatta, have issued an urgent call for journalists and activists from the international community to flock to the West Bank. 'It's not easy for me to write this, but my community Masafer Yatta will be destroyed unless more activists and journalists don't urgently come and join us on the ground,' Adra wrote on X along with a video showing Israel settlers standing among the ruins of Khalet al-Daba'a. During one such visit led by Adra earlier this week, masked Israeli soldiers barred around 20 journalists from entering the villages. As the conversation draw to a close, Huraini thanks the international community for their support. But now, he says, as the community of Masafer Yatta looks ahead to a gloomy future: 'We need you here on the ground.' The IDF said: 'The mission of the IDF is to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel. 'Enforcement against illegal structures is carried out in accordance with the law, operational priorities, and subject to approval by the political echelon. The structures built in [Khalet al-Daba'a] and nearby areas were constructed illegally and were therefore demolished after the owners were given the opportunity to present their claims. 'The IDF monitors developments in the area and acts in accordance with regulations.' Israeli police were also contacted by The Independent.
