A boxer in the visa line

Najah Ali, an Iraqi flyweight boxer, has every right to feel aggrieved. When he was in the spotlight during the 2004 Olympics, the State Department was only too happy to exploit him for propaganda purposes. But when he applied four times for a student visa to study in this country, that same State Department found reasons to turn him down.

...

American officials who interviewed him questioned whether Ali was really a serious student and expressed concern that he might not leave the United States once his studies were completed. Never mind that the University of Houston was eager to get him. Never mind that IBM expressed interest in employing him in Egypt. There was just too much risk that Ali might actually like the country he had been praising and might choose to stay.

I don't know whether this is just bureaucratic idiocy or there is some sort of twisted policy behind this but in a country where there already are millions of illegal immigrants that sounds ludicrous.

tags: iraq  immigration