Episode 3

It is January 2017, the 45th President has taken office…continued from Episode 2…

SAN JOSE, CA
Later the Same Morning

“Naturalized citizens from the following countries between the ages of 14 and 59, inclusive, are required to come in to DHS Protection Camps for the duration of The Reevaluation.”

The officer turned off his laser pointer and used it to dust at the ERO arm patch on his new uniform. Arrayed around the conference room were an assortment of people in their 30s and 40s, about three quarters male.

Basit raised his hand.

“Let us hold questions till I have given you some more information. maybe you will have gotten some of your answers by then.”

This was the fourth group he had talked to and it was the same every time. These people were flagged for management experience, but the industry most were from, and the roles they were used to guaranteed that every group had a few that thought they were entitled to answers.

“Let’s see how that goes,” he thought.

The next few slides had the list of countries.

“Now, as the Executive Order says, this is being done to help make The Homeland more secure. As citizens, you are being requested to cooperate while your representatives figure thins out. for the same reasons, non-citizens have been requested to leave the country temporarily and no new visas are being grand, except in very exceptional circumstances. Just as you and your fellow citizens at this and other collection points, your colleagues who are from the same countries as you but in the country on a visa are on the way to the closest Port of Exit — San Jose Airport in most cases around here — and being enabled to return to their countries at the expense of the United States Government.

“But to come back to why we have gathered this group here and I wanted to talk to you. In order for this process to go smoothly for all concerned, we are reaching out to people who are covered by this Order and who have experience managing people to help us facilitate and support the people coming in.”

The decision to not mention the other criterion — of who seemed less antagonistic to the new Administration — was a formal one. The official gathered that using that criterion as part of setting up these groups had been a conscious decision. Not a hard one, come to think of it, or one that had taken too much thought. But a conscious one. He had gathered this from what he had seen of the database that was the basis of what he needed to say next.

And he knew that given the pre-selected nature of this particular group, once he started to get into the technical underpinnings of the decision and management process, they would become involved with it, if not be passionately engaged.

“We have used social maps from your publicly visible social profiles to help create affinity groups and match you with others close to your in your social networks so you can help us liaise and facilitate groups of people in this process. In a minute, Officer Runyon will be passing around lists of the people we feel you might be able to work with.

“Now, some folks had questions, but before we get to that, I would like to ask the group and give anyone that feels that they might not be ale to fulfill a facilitational role to please let me know. Whether it is for health reasons, or if you feel you need to focus on your own family or for any other reason. Please do not feel obliged to participate. This is a temporary situation, purely for protective purposes towards citizens and your help and support would be useful, but is not mandatory.”

With that, he was silent for a few minutes.

…continued in Episode 4…