It couldn’t have anything to do with the impossibility of distinguishing jihadis from peaceful Muslims. It must be “ancestral discrimination.”
“By failing to provide clarity in how the restrictions will be enforced, it further feeds people’s perception that they are being discriminated against and that they face increased risk of travel restrictions because of their family heritage,” Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council, an Iranian-American activist group, told Politico..
NIAC has been established in court as a lobbying group for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Said Michael Rubin: “Jamal Abdi, NIAC’s policy director, now appears to push aside any pretense that NIAC is something other than Iran’s lobby. Speaking at the forthcoming ‘Expose AIPAC’ conference, Abdi is featured on the ‘Training: Constituent Lobbying for Iran’ panel. Oops.” Iranian freedom activist Hassan Daioleslam “documented over a two-year period that NIAC is a front group lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime.” NIAC had to pay him nearly $200,000 in legal fees after they sued him for defamation over his accusation that they were a front group for the mullahs, and lost.”
Barring Iraqi Nationals From Visa Waivers Dubbed ‘Ancestral Discrimination,’” by Rachel Stoltzfoos, Daily Caller, April 12, 2016 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
Civil rights groups and minority activists are calling a new U.S. law that excludes Iraqi and Syrian nationals from a special visa waiver program a form of illegal “ancestral discrimination.”
The U.S. allows citizens of 38 primarily-European countries to enter America without obtaining a visa. After the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks, however, President Barack Obama signed a new law barring some of those citizens from the waiver program, if they’re also citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan.
This dual national provision is upsetting civil rights activists who say it’s unclear who exactly will be affected, and that it could unfairly burden some people without effectively curbing national security threats, reported Politico Tuesday. They’re calling it “ancestral discrimination.”
Depending on how the U.S. interprets the law, people who were born in Europe could still be required to obtain a visa because of their “heritage,” while others also born in Europe will not. For example, a woman born in France to an Iranian father is considered an Iranian national under Iranian law, even if she never visits Iran or pursues Iranian citizenship. Activists argue barring such a person from the visa waiver program would constitute discrimination based on her “heritage” or “ancestry.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not provided details on how it will interpret and apply the dual national provision of the law, saying it wants to prevent malevolent actors from gaming the system.
“By failing to provide clarity in how the restrictions will be enforced, it further feeds people’s perception that they are being discriminated against and that they face increased risk of travel restrictions because of their family heritage,” Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council, an Iranian-American activist group, told Politico….