alt Hacker News> I wonder how many actual terrorists they pick up for saying "I'm here for terrorism"
Its like those stupid questions on US immigration forms, e.g.
"Do you intend to engage in the United States in Espionage ?" or "Did you ever order, incite or otherwise participate in the persecution of any person ?"
It's like, really ? Do they seriously think someone who should answer yes will really answer yes ?
Might as well just turn up at the immigration desk, slap your wrists down on the counter and invite them to handcuff you .... why bother with the form !
Replies
Making false statements to federal officials is itself a crime. The intent of having those sections is to be able to have legal recourse against people that lie on them, which hopefully deters people that would lie on them from attempting to immigrate in the first place.
> It's like, really ? Do they seriously think someone who should answer yes will really answer yes ?
No, they do not think anyone will check 'Yes' to that box.
The purpose of the box is that it's a crime to lie when someone checks 'No', and that tends to be an easy charge to bring.
So, the purpose of the form is to generate convictions for lying on the form.