Techie Detained at JFK, Asked to Take Test to Prove His Profession

The software engineer was held up for hours at the JFK airport. 
Deeksha Sharma
Social Buzz
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(Photo: AP)
(Photo: AP)
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Donald Trump’s most controversial move since he came to the Oval Office was when he introduced a temporary immigration ban on some countries, which has been keeping the immigration officers pretty busy at the American airports.

Celestine Omin, 28, a Nigerian software engineer, was the latest victim of the ban as he was detained at the JFK airport in New York City. Reportedly, Omin was asked to prove that he was in fact a software engineer by taking a test!

Omin was made to wait for 20 minutes before and officer asked him to take a test. After several questions, he was reportedly taken to another small room and made to sit for another hour before a customs officer continued the questioning.

A detailed post on Linkedin narrated that Omin was asked to, “Write a function to check if a Binary Search Tree is balanced and what is an abstract class, and why do you need it?”

Omin said that the questions given to him looked like someone with no technical background would google and ask. Omin, who has over seven years of experience, was sleep deprived and flustered after all the unnecessary questioning and all he could do was simply leave when allowed to.

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Omin learned that US Customs allowed him entry after they verified his story with Andela, the start up he is supposed to work for.

Americans on Twitter came out in outstanding support for the engineer.

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