Homeland Security Is An Embarassment With The Way It Treats US Citizens At The Border
from the this-needs-to-stop dept
A few months back, we wrote about the horrific treatment by Homeland Security's Customs and Border Patrol agents of On the Media producer Sarah Abdurrahman and her friends and family at the border. They were all US citizens and yet were detained for many hours for no reason, had their electronics seized and were generally treated terribly. Homeland Security has refused to explain why it stopped them -- though, the obvious answer is that they were Muslim. There is now a similar story from Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, the Emmy-nominated producer and host of Huffpost Live (full disclosure: he once had me on his show), discussing how he gets detained every time he returns to the country. This time, he was just coming back from the World Economic Forum at Davos, and he was given a document with a big X over his face and sent to a "special" line:At the door, an Egyptian-American woman greeted me, "Al Salaam Aleykum," she said. I reluctantly responded "Wa Aleykum Al Salam," though I was hardly feeling at peace. The room was filled with rows of seats and several DHS officers with colorful folders (red, yellow, green, blue) lined up in front of them with passports and travel documents. The juxtaposition of the colorful folders with the rows of mostly brown people filling the seats was suspect in itself.And, just as Sarah and her family and friends discovered, despite being US citizens, DHS treats them all like criminals:
"Omar Mubarak... Juan Diaz... Sayed Hussain," the officers called us one by one.
I couldn't help but feel as though JFK itself was a bit racist.
After a 14-hour trip, I wanted to stretch my legs. So I stood up, anxious to find myself back in the room, especially after having written to the DHS. "Take a seat," the officer at the door sternly said to me. I told him I wanted to stretch my legs after the long flight. He told me I wasn't allowed to stand up. You are also not allowed to use your phone or electronic equipment. I was also slightly surprised to find as many children in the room as there were cameras.Like Sarah, DHS won't provide any information as to why he was detained. And it clearly wasn't random, seeing as this is the third time in a row it has happened. While he has applied to have his name removed from the list, as we noted with the lawsuit involving Rahinah Ibrahim, DHS seems to have no interest in correcting its mistakes until forced to do so.
"Sir, I'm a U.S. citizen who wants to stand while being detained. Am I not allowed to stand?" I said, pointing to the Asian man and Pakistani woman standing with their toddler strapped to the man's chest. Anyway, there were only two empty seats in the room with a capacity of 60.
"Sit down!" he repeated for the sixth time, and came and confiscated my phone, which I was using to try to text my coworkers who were waiting to share a car home.
Frankly, this is disgusting. It's sickening that we are treating American citizens this way as they attempt to return home. Homeland Security and the US government seem to have dropped all pretense of freedom if you happen to be brown, Muslim or have an Arabic name (and just imagine those who hit on all three). This is not what this country is supposed to stand for -- and the fact that we now have two very similar stories from prominent journalists, and DHS continues to respond by saying absolutely nothing, is even more disgusting. With On the Media, they've been trying to pressure Congress to investigate the matter, but to date, no one in Congress seems to want to take on this issue, which is a real shame.
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Filed Under: ahmed shihab-eldin, customs and border patrol, detention, homeland security, profiling, sarah abdurrahman, us citizens
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It's sickening and disgusting that you treat any people like this.
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Conferences
Which is great, since that makes it easier for citizens of these other countries to go to these conferences. When they happen in my country, they are often in a city which is an one-hour plane ride (plus the unavoidable one-hour "you are required to get to the airport early and sit in the lobby waiting") for me.
Which is great, since making it easier to go to these conferences helps the technological advancement of these countries.
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EXACTLY what i was thinking...
as an amerikan, OF COURSE i want 'my' rights (HA!), BUT I WANT EVERYONE ELSE TO HAVE THOSE SAME RIGHTS, too
i don't care where they are from, THEY'RE HUMAN BEANS who deserve the SAME rights as i do, i don't care what 'The Law' says...
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Welcome to the US
But it's the Land Of The Free.
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Re: Welcome to the US
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[*** waves hand ***] This is not the Star Wars Fan Site you are looking for.
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thinking it would be a nice experience to see a french canadian town, i drove up to saint-georges to look around. i had no idea the unpleasant experience i had ahead of me getting back into my homeland.
i vowed to never again cross our border, and i've been true to that vow. i've rolled right up to our border crossing points a couple of times and waved to those guys, but i'll never again put myself at their mercy.
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As a very seasoned international traveller, I find it depressing that the average American would find "OK, I'll roll over and never leave the country again" to be the perfectly acceptable response to this kind of thing.
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@PaulT
You need to re-evaluate what rolling over is. You are the one rolling over... doing nothing to resist the second by second abuse of the 4th by the TSA. Had YOU any stature, then perhaps you would participate with the rest of us in refusing to interact with these services and watch their economies fall.
You have NO ROOM to speak!
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Even so, WTF are you talking about? I'm rolling over because I'm not letting the TSA's antics impede my freedom to travel even when I do visit your nation? The TSA is an economy that profits from higher numbers of people travelling?
Huh? Are you really that stupid?
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Just think - if you hadn't done that stupid "American Revolution" thing you could all be Canadians now - and you couold have done that trip without crossing the border.
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Welcome to America
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years before that i was working a contract gig in nashville, and caught the complaint of a scottish direct employee there talking about his treatment at the hands of our servents at the border. i assumed the man was a kook and paid nearly no attention. after i my own experience i realized i owe the scot an apology.
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Does anybody know...
After all, then they won't have to spend so much effort detaining them at airports they'll already know who and where they are. /sarc
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Why cooperate?
Just repeat, "I don't answer questions." Yes, they'll go through your stuff with a fine-toothed comb, but at least you have the satisfaction of pissing every one of them off. They CANNOT refuse entry of an American into America!
Don't take phones or computers with you, of course. Unless, perhaps, you wish to be "harmed" and like to sue the government (expensive and not very likely to work).
Or, perhaps, take an SD card filled with random data. Yes, they'll take it and try to "decrypt" it. What fun! ;)
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I do not believe that for a moment. I used to, but no more.
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America is a big place, you might get lost or misplaced somewhere you really don't want to be if you piss off DHS. But hey, they didn't refuse you entry. Now exit on the other hand...
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1) People who hold certain dual citizenships. When this happens, it's usually the result of marriage to a citizen of another nation where marriage automatically makes you a citizen of the other nation. Immigration agents can view this as an effective renunciation of US citizenship even when that's not the intention. This is rare, but is increasing in frequency as the amount of data required for passengers traveling increases. An example of how this can go wrong is on flights back from TLV a dual Israeli/US citizen is logged in the system as having entered Israel on an Israeli passport, but entering the US on a US passport.
2) lacking the proper paperwork for reentry. Be sure you have your visa/passport!
3) Being intoxicated. It is illegal to enter the US when you're intoxicated (a fact that totally amazes me). When faced with an intoxicated person, inspectors have two choices: allow them entry and arrest them as soon as they enter, or deny them entry. Most inspectors choose the latter.
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#1. The U. S. Customs and Border Protection does not care about care about the passport you travel on. Only about the one you entry on.
#2. This is very true even if the airline let you board with a expired U.S.Passport they still let you in.
#3. Being intoxicated. It is not illegal to enter the US by air so you're wrong about this one. Only if you intoxicated driving and CBP turn people over to the local police.
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The do not presume you are a US citizen until proven other-wise. You can easily be turned back, more likely is an Indefinite Detainment while the Majestic Wheels of Officialdom turn and turn and TSA determine whether you are wanted for anything, or a terrorist, only then, will they check if you are an American, If you have gotten a passport at some stage of your life, they will recognize your citizenship a bit sooner, I hope anyone at their mercy Know how to meditate.
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They can put them on a no fly list and strand them in a foreign country.
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Reminds me Papers Please
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Unbelievable.
I visited the US years ago & had a fantastic time, loved the people & very welcoming, friendly atmosphere. Since the TSA bullshit started I refuse to visit, which is a shame as it really is one of my favourite countries in which to have a holiday.
Friends, sort your government out. It's actively oppressing you.
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Re: Unbelievable.
To do list attached:
1. Teach new puppy that only the world outside the house is his toilet.
2. Organize "Clean" garage so I can park the $20k car in it instead of safely storing garbage out of rain.
3. Snipe that sweet old hand tool off ebay for less than $300 that will then be stored in the garage.
4. Sort out government.
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Not allowed to stand?
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US constitution works.
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US constitution works.
Well, if US laws don't apply in such zones, then he should be free to do what he likes.
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Of course, it would be better if the equal treatment was a bit more humane, but at least we have some equality...
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Carlin strikes again....
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DHS is not an embarrassment...
The whole thing should be disbanded. If you look at the money, you will find that the full body scanners that are used by airports comes from a company that was started by the former head of DHS, Michael Chertoff.
This tells me that the DHS was only formed to rip off the public, and put the money into the pockets of corporate cronies. It also tells me that they want the public to be more fearful of things, so that they can further monitor their whereabouts, in an attempt to further control them.
Get rid of them, and replace them with something more constructive.
Ben Franklin said, "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." We are sacrificing freedom for security here in the US, so therefore we deserve neither!
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Wow! Do you have access to some kind of information about all of these commenters? It's hard to see how you could know this to be true.
I, for one, never actually faulted the government for failing to stop 9/11. I do fault the government for turning into a tyrannical state as a result of it, though.
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Personally, I believe that they let it happen, so that they could start this stuff, and turn this country into a Police State!
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Not just "brown" people
Customs and HLS have always been populated with "little hitlers" as my grandmother used to say. People who get off on asserting what little authority they actually have. And the system is rigged to let them get away with it.
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Re: Not just "brown" people
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They asked me if I was on drugs...lol
I never been this disrespected my whole life, EVERY time I go thru either Detroit or Dallas they're asking me all those stupid questions, they even made me cry once....
U.S SYSTEM IS MESSED UP!
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