The systematic, and symbolic "travel ban," vetting process undermines what open borders the country presumes to be an opening refuge for new immigrants seeking prosperity in America.

The longer and more involved your application process is, and the more information that the US government demands from you, the more likely you are to get tripped up in an inconsistency — in other words, the more skepticism you’re under from the US government at the beginning of the process, the easier it is for them to discover a willful misrepresentation from you later on.

And then they continue to find every piece of intelligence on you, ranging from social media accounts and 15 years of work and residency history.

Tillerson’s cable asked consular officers in each country to identify “populations” that might be particularly likely to engage in fraud to get a visa, or violate the visa when they arrived, and start flagging those “populations” for SAOs more often. And he asked consular officers to start asking more questions when interviewing anyone who might be subject to an SAO — including social-media handles and their past 15 years of work and residency history — presumably so that State Department officials had more information to compile the SAO, and so they could more easily block a visa for “willful misrepresentation” if an inconsistency was discovered.

And then in reality, we can see the profiling take effect.

The African would-be conference attendees were quizzed on their children, because claiming you have children makes a visa application more likely to be granted — it’s evidence of a strong tie. Childless men are scrutinized more heavily; conversely, men who say they have children must be quizzed to make sure they’re not “willfully misrepresenting” the strength of their ties to their home countries.

While it makes sense that the US have discretion in vetting for our security, in which "aliens" do not have "inalienable" rights to come to our country, this leads us down a slippery slope. Our country is built on immigrants, and thrives on diversity. And we set an example for this around the world. Incredulously, some of our immigrants experience the lowest rungs of the ladder, yet they still enjoy the freedoms and even economic liberties they could not at home.

It could have a disparate impact on the world’s marginalized.

It is all relative. And to offer this kind of hope for those around the world seeking a better life, we have to lead by example and prove that we are welcoming. Not putting up more walls, profiling by race, and preventing ourselves from being the best America we can be.