BBC: Anger as father ejected from US

[BooScout]

I can tell you from personal experience the immigrqation officials at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport are officous nazi assholes. Tell me they didn't reject this man soley based on his looks and his Muslim sounding name.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5259264.stm

A father was quizzed for four hours and then thrown out of the United States in front of his wife and family.
Azar Iqbal, from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, was sent home on a plane at Atlanta last Thursday - despite officials allowing his family through.

He said he was shocked when US police allegedly saw him as a security threat as the group headed for Disneyland.

The US Department for Homeland Security told the BBC it did not comment on individual cases.

A statement for the United States Customs and Border Protection said it denied entry for "thousands of individuals every year on grounds of inadmissibility".

Mr Iqbal said he was also told Asian people needed a special visa.

(more) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5259264.stm

[hobbit709]

1. Homeland security=Gestapo

My mother sees no difference and she ought to know-she lived under Hitler for 7 years.

[Maat]

7. Her perspective is helpful.

I, for one, have learned from it and will keep that in mind. Thank her. It's important to learn from those experiences and viewpoints.

[Parche]

2. visa

Watch out at Disneyland, Goofy is a secret Al-Kida operative.

[gula]

3. Is there more than one airport in Atlanta? I transited there and quite

frankly once was once too often. I was treated like the worst criminal and I was only in transit from Argentina to Canada.

Strangely enough, I spent close to 50 years as a white western women. Since 9/11 (the NY one) I seem to have been reclassified as Arab. Just what TF is wrong here?

[Maat]

5. The answer is ..

in my humble opinion ... they have absolutely NO idea what they are doing.

[gula]

8. While I agree with you,

you obviously have never had your hand luggage (searched in depth in Buenos Aires) ripped apart by two people built like brick-houses.

[Maat]

10. Oh ...

that had to be HORRIBLE.

Husband has done all of the traveling over the years (he was in the Soviet Union when it collapsed; that's another story). He's had the Japanese hold a machine gun to him because he forgot to leave his 'pen knife' behind, etc., etc. Travelers have my utmost sympathy.

[gula]

11. The worst wasn't even the MAJOR search but the looks

given to me by the other travellers.

[Maat]

12. Jeez.

Take care!

I pray every day for things to improve; I'm not holding my breath, though.

[gula]

14. So do I

I can't afford to fly Air Canada,so I will have to keep on flying US airlines to go to Chile/Argentina, i.e. a transit stop in the US.

[mr blur]

4. "Asian" people? He's British. He's from Manchester.

He sounds more English than I do.

[Maat]

6. I correct "conservative" acquaintances on the concept all of the ..

time: race does not equal culture, culture does not equal ancestral origin, citizenship does not equal ancestral origin, etc.

Frustrating, isn't it?

[elehhhhna]

15. okay, "darkies" then

:sarcasm:

[sweetheart]

9. The INS can be really nasty (hs)

My SO experienced degrading INS(now HS) treatment. I even wrote a letter to al gore
to complain, believing that he might hear the letter over teh din in clinton's mailbox.

And the letter i got back late 90's timeabouts was to hang tough. Gosh, it makes me sad
to remember the optomism of those days and how any one of us would have laughed off the
future truth as a paranoid scare story... and now cassandra laughs at us.

That the INS took americanism over family concerned me, as family was in past the sacred
bassis of a civil society and whence did it become a conformist war cult and its hateful
ruthless barons of truth and righteousness.

[BooScout]

13. Our experiences in Atlanta...

I used to live in Atlanta. My husband is a Brit. We traveled 2 or 3 times a year between the UK and the US. Every single time my Brit husband was called aside for a secondary 'interview' in a small waiting area off the main Cusoms & Immigration area. This secondary interview could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. My husband held a US Spouse Visa in his British Passport and every single time they had to copy his papers, ask him some questions and then let him go thru, but he had to wait every time. I would sometimes head off to baggage without him because otherwise our bags would often get pulled aside because we weren't there to collect them.

When I would wait with him, I would witness how he Imigration Officers dealt with visitors to the US. Frankly treating everyone of them like dirt. Interogating them, yelling at them when they didn't understand english, etc.

Once, when we had been waiting for close to two hours and I noticed several people that had come into the interview room after us had been processed I approached one of the officers and asked how much longer it was going to be. Without looking up, he said...."when I get good and fucking ready".....I stood there a minute, with my US passport in hand and then asked him what his name was.....he then looked up for the first time and realized I was a US citizen...all he could do is stare at my passport.......and he quickly said "you aren't supposed to be in here".......I responded that I had every right to be there, was accompanying my husband who had a proper visa and that I planned to report him to the BCIS for his totally out of line behavior. We were processed within 2 minutes flat and sent in our way. I did get his name off his name tag and did report him, but I doubt it did a damned bit of good. They are all assholes and officious little prats on a total power trip.