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More reports of US citizens being detained by CBP

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Linkura

Member
Not just Muhammad Ali Jr... Basically this tells me if you are not white, prepare to be detained at airports. Even if you are a citizen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-muslim-teen-flight_us_58d01897e4b0be71dcf6d952?section=crime
A spring break trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca has turned into a travel nightmare for a Tennessee family after their 17-year-old daughter was denied entry into the U.S., allegedly because the airline they traveled with did not provide the proper documents to U.S. officials.

Zubaidah Alizoti, who was born in the U.S. and attends school in Knoxville, was scheduled to fly out of Turkey on Sunday with her family, but she was barred from boarding her Atlanta-bound flight, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

In a Facebook post, her mother, Sabrina Sadaf Siddiqi, wrote that her daughter was refused “for no apparent reason.” The experience left her rattled, with fears that her family is being targeted in this “new Great America.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/us/retired-police-chief-detained/
Aden said he was coming home from celebrating his mother's 80th birthday in Paris when he was detained by a CBP officer at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

He said he approached a CPD officer, "who didn't say anything when I handed him my passport, and (he) looked at me with a gruff expression and simply stated, 'Are you traveling alone?'" Aden posted on Facebook. "I knew this was a sign of trouble." Aden answered, "Yes," and the officer replied, "Let's take a walk."

Aden said he was taken to a room with signs that said "Remain seated at all times" and "use of telephones strictly prohibited." The retired police chief from Greenville, North Carolina, said those were clear indications he was being detained. He said he stayed there for an hour and a half.

Aden told the CBP officer he was a former police chief and US citizen. But neither fact helped his case.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...rofiling-frontier_us_58d045abe4b07112b64730d2
Last Sunday, while returning home from a vacation in Portugal, I was detained at Logan Airport in Boston by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. They questioned my American citizenship and the authenticity of my U.S. passport. While white travelers were permitted to pass freely through passport control, I was escorted by security – along with other people of color – to a separate room for further vetting.

I lead a civil rights organization in Boston that is suing the President over his policies on sanctuary cities, to protect and empower immigrant families. Yet in that moment when I was being held at the airport, I felt powerless. I was treated like a suspect in the country that my family and I have called home for three decades. I was proud to become a citizen in 1996, and my first U.S passport was issued shortly thereafter. I have used my passport at the airport on many occasions, and have never been subjected to additional scrutiny – until now.

Trump's America, folks.
 

Linkura

Member
Or do you just want people to post in your thread?

Um, no. I'm genuinely concerned about this issue and I figured GAFfers would be interested considering other threads about these issues. The Muhammad Ali Jr ones got a ton of interest. So I was just surprised that no one posted. I'm not going to bump it anymore... I just wanted to make sure people were seeing it as it's very alarming and scary to me that this is happening.
 
My elderly parents regularly travel to Mexico for family.

It is my continuing nightmare that one day they're going to get hassled for multiple hours without access to food or water by some racist shitheel at CBP.
 

FreezeSSC

Member
I have a trip to Colombia next month and I legit feel theyre going to detain me coming back in... I was born in the u.s. but idk if that will make a difference.
 

Admodieus

Member
Global entry is now a requirement if you are traveling abroad. It's well worth the money and the time to get enrolled in the system to avoid this type of hassle on the return.
 

Linkura

Member
My elderly parents regularly travel to Mexico for family.

It is my continuing nightmare that one day they're going to get hassled for multiple hours without access to food or water by some racist shitheel at CBP.

Yeah my elderly mother in law travels out of country to visit family as well. And she's not a citizen- just a green card holder. It's fucking scary.

Hell I'm a white, natural-born citizen and I told my husband I don't want to travel out of the country until Dump is gone.
 

Linkura

Member
Global entry is now a requirement if you are traveling abroad. It's well worth the money and the time to get enrolled in the system to avoid this type of hassle on the return.

That'd be great if they weren't backed up for months in most places and required an additional fee and an interview. It's disgusting that they are basically making it a requirement now even for citizens carrying passports. It's not acceptable.
 

RinsFury

Member
Trump has succeeded in making America white supremacist again. These cowards working border and homeland security are no doubt jubilent at this opportunity to bully muslims and people of color. Fuck Trump and fuck every piece of shit that voted for him.
 
CBP officers read anti-Muslim propaganda bullshit too. Only they have the power to act on it.

I think that's all this is.

Draws attention to how much damage this crap is doing.
 

Linkura

Member
CBP officers read anti-Muslim propaganda bullshit too. Only they have the power to act on it.

I think that's all this is.

Draws attention to how much damage this crap is doing.

Except one of the stories I quoted is from a Latino. :( If you're not white, you're fair game.
 

Arttemis

Member
Global entry is now a requirement if you are traveling abroad. It's well worth the money and the time to get enrolled in the system to avoid this type of hassle on the return.
This is irrelevant when even minority federal employees with security clearances are still detained. It's far greater than what you suggest.
 

Ogodei

Member
It's against human rights law to straight-up deny entry. Harassment is one thing, but otherwise you're effectively rendering them stateless.
 
No one cares enough to post? Seriously? Or is this just too expected now in this day and age? :(
Many don't and some are becoming despondent as this shit wears you down quickly. Fighting this shit for the next 3-4 years and not even knowing if it'll change is very bleak but the alternative is worse.
 
It's hard to get an accurate picture of this. I'm as white as possible and I've been detained/searched before. Part of me feels like this is just getting extra publicity because Trump is in office. I can empathize with the people being detained but its easy for them to make more of it than it might be. The girl from Tennessee sticks out to being more to the story we don't know.
 

Arttemis

Member
It's hard to get an accurate picture of this. I'm as white as possible and I've been detained/searched before. Part of me feels like this is just getting extra publicity because Trump is in office. I can empathize with the people being detained but its easy for them to make more of it than it might be. The girl from Tennessee sticks out to being more to the story we don't know.
If you only look at the on the surface level.

The weekend Trump was elected, many Canadian women reported being denied entry to the US when their reason for visiting was to attend the Women's March. Federal employees are being detained despite having security clearance and background checks to bypass. Agents are asking incomers explicitly their opinions of Trump.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
I posted this to my Facebook thread the day the ban was enforced. But it's still relevant if you have a minute for a wall of text, and a peek at the inside of this nightmare, from somoene who's not actually affected.

I'm an immigrant. Now a citizen. Visa, then green card, then full citizenship. A dozen or so years, thanks to the “blip” 9/11 added to those years.

In my experience, most customs and borders agents have been professional, courteous and helpful. For many years there was a small flag on my visa - two dates that mismatched, apparently, but it was evident that it was a typo or a clerical error to experienced agents. So much so that I would deliberately get in line to try and get an older agent who knew the ropes.

Every now and then, though, the agent wouldn't know how to fix the flag and I'd have to spend 15 minutes in the processing room while they sorted it out.

A bare, grim government room. Folding chairs. There was usually a high desk, like a police station. On the desk there would be a simple wooden file thingy – to put passports in. My flag was so minor and the rest of my paperwork so normal, that they’d put my passport at the front, because it was going to be sorted out easier. It took me several trips to that room to realize how the system worked – because the agents can’t tell you anything. They’re not allowed to explain the process.

So for several of those trips, in a grim government room, on folding chairs, I’d sit with the other immigrants, feigning relaxation while deep inside, a roiling terror gripped my guts. A terror that despite doing everything correctly, your entire life is at the mercy of a misapprehension, a typo, a canceled airline ticket or some other invisible grain of legitimacy.

Most of those immigrants were Latino or from the Indian subcontinent – and when it happened in Seattle, Somalia and Eritrea. I chatted with them more and more as I became less terrified over the years, but the people I talked with were unified in that terror. I could not offer them solace, because neither of us understood what their particular issue was. No one ever did.

Mothers, sons, husbands, wives, children. That complete helplessness and blindness to the issue at hand.

People would sometimes be sobbing, shaking, bereft, waiting for a nephew or a lawyer. Praying in some cases, for help that might never come. That they’d be boarding another plane back to whatever nightmares they were fleeing.

So think about the most scared you’ve ever been, and now add to it the idea that you might lose access to your family, your friends or your freedom. And in some cases, hopefully vanishingly few, being sent back to certain death and torture.

And call your congressperson. I was scarred by 15 minutes of that at a time. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. And that scarring is dwarfed by what’s going on and what’s happening to these people is happening to our country.

We can’t have this conversation in four years when we’re inured to it. Or when everything is already ruined. This administration has no idea what it’s doing. It’s rampaging through law and constitution to appease an idiot’s ego and to drive a literal fascist’s dreams of a Nazi kingdom.

We have to do it now. Today. This morning. Especially you, my republican friends. You didn’t vote for ruination. Fix it now. United is the only way we can fix it. Congress and Senate needs to see that their “base” is at threat. Nothing else will move their hand.
 
If you only look at the on the surface level.

The weekend Trump was elected, many Canadian women reported being denied entry to the US when their reason for visiting was to attend the Women's March. Federal employees are being detained despite having security clearance and background checks to bypass. Agents are asking incomers explicitly their opinions of Trump.

The womens march thing I can see why people would be blocked. Entering the country to protest the current government isn't really a great selling point to a border official. The question I really have is was the question ever asked of previous administrations? I'm not defending it at all mind but its easy to get swept up in the hysteria related to the executive order/ban.
 
In the case of the first person, Zubaidah Alizoti, its apparently because the airline, Turkish Airlines, failed to provide required information on the person to TSA:
http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...g-us-citizen-barred-re-entry-turkey/99395572/

article said:
Turkish Airlines did not provide the Transportation Security Administration with the necessary information so that a 17-year-old Knoxville resident could board a flight back to the United States, a TSA spokesperson said Monday.

"International carriers are tasked with providing security information to the federal government before a passenger can fly into the United States," spokesperson Sari Koshetz said in an emailed statement. "That did not happen in this case."

I mean... what do people expect? TSA just to go "well, one person is missing information, but thats no big deal let her through!" Airlines take in visa, passport, baggage, etc information at check in and then pass that info on to TSA. Its likely in this case the person checking her in made a mistake. Sure, it should only take 20 minutes for TSA to call someone at Turkish airlines and get it cleared up so thats definitely a big problem in how that can take, quite literally, days.

She was in a group of 50 pilgrims traveling to Mecca, and the 49 others were let through. I doubt in this specific case there is the bogeyman of a rogue racist TSA agent.

Are there going to be racist TSA agents who do some unbelievable bullshit? Yup, and every case should be documented, publicized, sent to courts whenever possible, and recorded so at least the agent involved and all their supervisors have incidents on their record.

Throwing in situations like the first one where it just seems like typical normal bureaucratic screwups and trying to incite people against the TSA seems counter productive. Just because the DMV made me wait an extra six hours last year because my new cars smog check had a typo doesn't make them anything, it just means large bureaucracies sometimes take a long, long, long time to fix the one off error cases.

Oh, in the case of Hassan Aden the TSA claims his name is on a terror watch list as an alias used by a known terrorist. That could be complete bullshit or it could be true and its nearly impossible to find out, since it is extremely difficult to find out names on the watch list. Its also a reason why so many of us are completely against the terror watch lists, using it as a tool to deny people the right to own a gun (which MANY liberals are totally for), etc. Its a terribly secretive and silly way to "screen", like simply a name match means you might be a terrorist.
 
The womens march thing I can see why people would be blocked. Entering the country to protest the current government isn't really a great selling point to a border official. The question I really have is was the question ever asked of previous administrations? I'm not defending it at all mind but its easy to get swept up in the hysteria related to the executive order/ban.

Women's march at Vermont's relaxation spas, yeah okay Hollywood Duo
 

Mortemis

Banned
This terrifies me for whenever I end up traveling outside the country. Like most Americans I've never left the US (other than a trip to Canada by car once), and hearing stories like this make me afraid for myself and family members that travel.
 

Curufinwe

Member
Global entry is now a requirement if you are traveling abroad. It's well worth the money and the time to get enrolled in the system to avoid this type of hassle on the return.

I had never heard of till now, thanks for the heads up.

I don't travel enough for it to be worthwhile paying for, but it's good to know about these things.
 

norm9

Member
Right after the initial ban was stopped, there were reports of people being detained even after border patrol said they stopped, so this isn't surprising at all. They just assume americans will forget.
 
I'm just gonna avoid traveling for a while. My parents aren't happy but I already had to deal with long wait times at security before any of this shit, it's only gonna get worse.
 

Linkura

Member
In the case of the first person, Zubaidah Alizoti, its apparently because the airline, Turkish Airlines, failed to provide required information on the person to TSA:
http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...g-us-citizen-barred-re-entry-turkey/99395572/

Thanks for the additional info on that one. Sounds like a complete fuckup. It's ridiculous that it's taking days to sort out. But at least I think I can buy that it was a fuckup considering the rest of her family was cleared.

I posted this to my Facebook thread the day the ban was enforced. But it's still relevant if you have a minute for a wall of text, and a peek at the inside of this nightmare, from somoene who's not actually affected.

Thanks for this great post.
 

Fades

Banned
Women's march at Vermont's relaxation spas, yeah okay Hollywood Duo

Who said anything about spas? While there were many that were turned back for bogus reasons, there were plenty of stories of people (specifically Canadians and some British citizens) turned away who planned to join the women's march and told border agents as such. Why would any security agents let foreign citizens into the country for the express reason of joining a protest?
 

Lothars

Member
Who said anything about spas? While there were many that were turned back for bogus reasons, there were plenty of stories of people (specifically Canadians and some British citizens) turned away who planned to join the women's march and told border agents as such. Why would any security agents let foreign citizens into the country for the express reason of joining a protest?
Why shouldn't they? there's nothing wrong with them wanting to protest. why would you say it's okay for them to be turned away?
 
Who said anything about spas? While there were many that were turned back for bogus reasons, there were plenty of stories of people (specifically Canadians and some British citizens) turned away who planned to join the women's march and told border agents as such. Why would any security agents let foreign citizens into the country for the express reason of joining a protest?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/canadian-denied-entry-us-immigrant-visa-1.4011202

Canadian born woman told ''you got Trumped!'' and denied entry
 

bionic77

Member
In the case of the first person, Zubaidah Alizoti, its apparently because the airline, Turkish Airlines, failed to provide required information on the person to TSA:
http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...g-us-citizen-barred-re-entry-turkey/99395572/



I mean... what do people expect? TSA just to go "well, one person is missing information, but thats no big deal let her through!" Airlines take in visa, passport, baggage, etc information at check in and then pass that info on to TSA. Its likely in this case the person checking her in made a mistake. Sure, it should only take 20 minutes for TSA to call someone at Turkish airlines and get it cleared up so thats definitely a big problem in how that can take, quite literally, days.

She was in a group of 50 pilgrims traveling to Mecca, and the 49 others were let through. I doubt in this specific case there is the bogeyman of a rogue racist TSA agent.

Are there going to be racist TSA agents who do some unbelievable bullshit? Yup, and every case should be documented, publicized, sent to courts whenever possible, and recorded so at least the agent involved and all their supervisors have incidents on their record.

Throwing in situations like the first one where it just seems like typical normal bureaucratic screwups and trying to incite people against the TSA seems counter productive. Just because the DMV made me wait an extra six hours last year because my new cars smog check had a typo doesn't make them anything, it just means large bureaucracies sometimes take a long, long, long time to fix the one off error cases.

Oh, in the case of Hassan Aden the TSA claims his name is on a terror watch list as an alias used by a known terrorist. That could be complete bullshit or it could be true and its nearly impossible to find out, since it is extremely difficult to find out names on the watch list. Its also a reason why so many of us are completely against the terror watch lists, using it as a tool to deny people the right to own a gun (which MANY liberals are totally for), etc. Its a terribly secretive and silly way to "screen", like simply a name match means you might be a terrorist.
Don't try and normalize this bullshit.
 

Fades

Banned
Why shouldn't they? there's nothing wrong with them wanting to protest. why would you say it's okay for them to be turned away?

You don't have the right to enter another country, never mind the right to enter said country for the purposes of protesting their government. That... makes no legitimate sense at all. Say what you will about all of the other bullshit reasons that people have been detained wrongfully, but that one is absolutely viewed as letting a security risk into a country.


Ok, and that's terrible, but that's not what we're talking about.
 
My elderly parents regularly travel to Mexico for family.

It is my continuing nightmare that one day they're going to get hassled for multiple hours without access to food or water by some racist shitheel at CBP.
I've been waiting for my grandparents to come back for about a year now because they couldn't sell their house in Peru. If someone doesn't allow them to step foot in this country, I'm NOT going to just accept it.
 

Lothars

Member
You don't have the right to enter another country, never mind the right to enter said country for the purposes of protesting their government. That... makes no legitimate sense at all. Say what you will about all of the other bullshit reasons that people have been detained wrongfully, but that one is absolutely viewed as letting a security risk into a country.



Ok, and that's terrible, but that's not what we're talking about.
I think it is absolutely what we are talking about because it's all part of the same issues that people are being denied for but fine you can say it's okay for them to be denied but I don't agree and I think it's indefensible.

We won't agree at all.
 
Fucking ridiculous. Why are so many of these officers racist assholes?

This is really a question that eats at me. I mean, yeah, I know there's plenty of CBP that are probably fine and aren't this way, but it seems like a very large chunk of them are right-wing, if not radically right-wing. Is the idea of 'protecting the borders' just a huge turn on for these people or something?
 
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