Discrimination? No, Yassmin Abdel-Magied had the wrong US visa

Yassmin Abdel-Magied has been forced to backtrack on claims that she was being deported from the US due to a “crackdown on immigration”, after decrying her treatment by American immigration officials in a series of angry tweets on Thursday.

The controversial activist was due to undertake a speaking tour in the US but was told shortly after arriving at Minneapolis airport that she would not be permitted entry. She quickly attributed her treatment to a tightening of US immigration laws, presumably a reference to President Donald Trump’s attempts to reduce the number of people travelling from several Muslim-majority countries to the US. 

“Interesting facts: within a few min of looking at my case the border security person – Officer Herberg looking at my case she announces: ‘we’re sending you back!’,” Abdel-Magied tweeted. “Roughly three hours since touch down in Minneapolis, I’m on a plane back. Subhanallah. Well, guess that tightening of immigration laws business is working, despite my Australian passport. We’re taking off now. What a time…”

She doubled down on her insinuations that her deportation was due to her birthplace – Sudan – with a further tweet as she was leaving the US. She was, however, travelling on her Australian passport.

https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/984224557648306178

But hours later, she admitted that she had attempted to enter the US on what immigration officials said was the wrong visa. Like most countries, the US does not allow entrants on visitor or tourist visas to work while in the country. Abdel-Magied did not expand on what visa she had attempted to enter the US on or whether she was due to be paid for her presence in New York on April 18 at an event called The M Word: No Country for Young Muslim Women, part of the Pen America World Voices Festival.

Her follow-up statement, tweeted several hours after the first tweets, was, however, considerably more conciliatory toward the US.

https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/984380697644236800

And a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection told The Australian that the 27-year-old did not have “the appropriate visa to receive monetary compensation for the speaking engagements she had planned during her visit to the United States”. 

There was a debate on Twitter after a New York Times reporter said that the activist was on a B1/B2 visa, which Twitter users said was the correct visa for people who wished to attend a conference in the US, but not necessarily for those who would be paid for an appearance at a conference, because the visa permits only unpaid work. Given that Abdel-Magied’s image was used to promote the event, it may have made it difficult for her to argue with US immigration authorities that she was attending in a charitable function, even if she was not receiving direct financial compensation.

But some tweeters remained suspicious that the activist was being unfairly treated due to her religion or birthplace.

And you know what's worse? Where there's rats, there's poison nearby. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a concerted effort to keep her out (and I am not generally a conspiracy theorist).

— Will Olson (@DeadSexyWill) April 12, 2018

Abdel-Magied currently resides in London, after saying that she had become Australia’s ‘most hated Muslim’ for her claims that Islam is the “most feminist religion” and for attempting to draw a parallel between the sacrifices of the Anzacs and the asylum-seekers detained on Manus Island and Nauru.

Do you think Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s treatment was in fact due to the nature of her birthplace or her religion, even though that was not the reason cited by US immigration officials?