Please meet Beate Chelette shown in the picture to the right. Beate came to this country in the mid 1980’s from Germany to begin a new life and pursue her dream: being a photographer and helping other photographers build their businesses by marketing their work for royalties in a tough town to start a business: Los Angeles. Beate came here with very little, and through a singular drive and belief in herself AND the “American Dream” made something of herself and her company, employing dozens and helping put talent on the map. She became so successful that two decades later, she was able to sell her company to Corbis Images owned by Bill Gates for millions of dollars and now tours the country helping motivate other women to real their goals and find their inner success.
To celebrate all that this country had allowed her to achieve, she wanted to pledge her allegiance to it and became a naturalized U.S. citizen over 10 years ago. A true success story indeed, and certainly not typical of every immigrant’s story, but there were times in the beginning that she wasn’t sure if she was going to make it. I know, because I was there and watched it all unfold from the beginning. You see, Beate is my dear friend. And now we discover she is going to be under surveillance due to a little noticed DHS rule change that will affect not only her, but those who interact with her by virtue of connecting with her via social media. This is how it started:
This morning Beate got the following request from the bank she has been doing business with for nearly 30 years and sent me a screen capture to ask me what I thought about it:
I wasn’t certain what to think about it but assumed it was standard to update records every so often. I know I’ve been asked to update things as well, but certainly was never asked about citizenship before. Beate decided to reach out to the bank and was stunned be told that due to “rule changes” the bank was getting their records in order in anticipation of them being requested by the DHS under a new rule. Explaining this to me, we both began researching this and what we found was disturbing indeed.
In a little publicized move that has many legal and privacy experts alarmed and sneakily taking place in the middle of three natural disasters that has gripped the media’s attention, the DHS has decided that it will begin collecting social media information on all immigrants and naturalized American citizens on October 18th of this year. This by extension means if you are married to a naturalized citizen, you are under surveillance by default. Friends with an immigrant or naturalized citizen on Social Media? Your interactions will be captured as well. The effect could be a chilling one on free speech as people begin to self-censor in order to not be misconstrued. Will their posts, and our own interactions with them, lead to ideological or political “purity tests” by a government that seems wildly out of control and run by people who dog whistle to those who want to exactly that? Am I being paranoid? I honestly don’t know any more. I guess I never thought any of us would find ourselves in the country having this very conversation.
I thought we were being assured at one point that the DHS didn’t collect information on American citizens. I guess “naturalized” citizens are not “real” citizens in the eyes of a political ideology that promotes purity above inclusion. And no I am not talking about Nazi Germany, although Beate could tell you a thing or two about that subject having come from its place of birth and the lessons drummed into her head about the ugliness and horror of it all. She came here thinking nothing like that would ever be possible in a place like the United States who fought to defeat it.
Maybe that is why she so scared right now...
Wednesday, Sep 27, 2017 · 8:56:12 PM +00:00 · Brubs
People are questioning the legality AND how it can affect Naturalized Citizens. I am no expert on the subject, but here is a screen capture from the Federal Registry which is a government website that published the new rules. This is found right in the rue publication itself: