Promoted by Steven D.
Every week my grad and undergrad students sit down with me for our regular laboratory meeting. It’s when we discuss the various projects that we are working on, touch base across different projects, and keep up with life among the group. Today one of our most diligent members was absent without notice, to our surprise. Then she walked in, some 45 minutes late, visibly upset. She had been detained at the U.S.-Canadian border for questioning and search of her vehicle.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Kristi Clemens said some traffic headed into the United States would under go tougher procedures at the 89 ports of entry along the border.
“The current events may result in some additional questions of commuters and travels,” Clemens said. She also said, without elaborating, that her agency has added some “enforcement capabilities” following the arrests.
Although crossing the border is a regular routine for my student – who has a Visa, has furnished the Border authorities with her weekly campus schedule, and is recognized on sight by many of the U.S. authorities at the border, things have gotten worse just recently. More on her story, which suggests that border activity itself is ramping up fear of border crossers as potential illegal immigrants and/or terrorists. . .
My student came to campus expecting a slow crossing. Things had gotten worse in the past several months. Only a couple of weeks previously the border guards had taken her driver’s license, to “check it out”, leaving her very afraid of driving to and from campus without a license in hand. However, this week Canada arrested 17 suspected terrorists in Ontario, (which is just across the Detroit River if you don’t know Canadian geography). She hadn’t heard of the arrests, and didn’t understand why things were even worse that they had been recently in crossing the border.
And on this day, because she had recently had surgery and was rather stiff, in pain and on pain killing meds, she thought it best to have her elderly father drive her. Her mother decided to come too. They could do a little shopping or sight seeing while their daughter was on campus, they thought. My student and her parents left early, because they expected the border crossing to be a little slow.
At the border, my student and her father and mother were ordered out of their van. They were taken separately for questioning that was unfriendly. You can imagine the sort of questions: Why did she want to come to school in the U.S.? Why did she come in when she did not have a class scheduled at the time of this so-called lab meeting? Who was she meeting? What organizations did she belong to? Why were her parents with her? Were they planning just to stay in the U.S. and not go back to Canada? While she and her parents were being questioned, everything possible was being removed from their van: wheel covers, spare tires, tools, books, papers, rugs, mats, maps, seats, headrests, etc. Purses and briefcase were dumped out.
Finally, she and her father were told they could go. Nothing suspicious was found in the van, however the father of my student had his driver’s license taken “to be checked out”. Oh, and the heavy seats, tires, wheel covers, and other stuff were left lying on the ground. My student protested that the vehicle had been taken apart and not put back together. She was told that if she couldn’t lift the stuff (her surgery, and the age of her parents), just leave it behind, and leave. They did the best they could, while able-bodied guards who had taken the van apart watched but did not help. I saw her van later in the afternoon and she described it accurately: it was trashed.
Oh, did I mention that my student is of Middle Eastern heritage? Could that have had anything to do with the kind of treatment they received? No, surely not.
Grrrrr…………….
As a regular border commuter, this just pisses me right off. I haven’t had any problems, but I’ll be very curious what happens the next time I bring my child of Chinese descent to the States.
I was furious, and am complaining to my Michigan congressfolk, not that it will do any good.
I don’t know what parameters the boarder guards use to determine who they stop and question. (Although I am more than willing to believe that ethnic profiling plays a part.)
You might, however, want to make a point to the Congress people that the guards — who are paid by American taxpayers and who represent us in our interactions with foreign visitors — could, at the very least, treat people with courtesy and respect. Just because they feel the need to stop and question someone, does NOT mean that the person is guilty of anything. I’m appalled and embarassed by the treatment your student and her parents received.
Very good points, Kahli. I’m going to use them, thanks.
My granddaughter is of mixed African/Anglo ancestry and looks nothing like us. We always carry her birth certificate and the court documents giving us non-parntal custody when we travel, just in case.
We have never had any trouble crossing the border with her. About the most trouble we ever have is questioning why we have ID cards instead of drivers’ licenses. We explain that we live in Seattle, don’t own a car, and don’t need drivers’ licenses. All true, but the subtext (as one Canadian official once told me) is that they want to make sure that our licenses weren’t revoked as a result of DUI convictions. Down here it’s a misdemeanor, I believe, but big signs at the ferry terminal in Victoria state that DUI is a felony in Canada and you can be denied entrance to the country if you’ve been convicted. (We are considering getting passports so we won’t be asked all the time.)
However, with the new wave of fear and panic I worry that we are increasingly going to run into trouble crossing the border. We’ve never actually been searched yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens.
Fear brings racism to the fore. Unfettered authority at the top of the food chain leads those lower down to exercise their own discretion and ignore civilized behavior.
We had thought we were beyond the type of blatant racial fear that led us to put Japanese Americans in concetration camps, that we lived in a more enlightened time. We were wrong. A veneer had been thrown over the hate and contempt that many still harbor in their hearts.
This is just one shameful example of George Bush’s America.
Unfortunately that’s not the case. It’s not that long ago that we were at least contemplating relocation camps for Katrina refugees, complete with barbed wire fences and guard towers. I don’t know if they were ever built; I certainly hope not.
I visit my parents, who live outside of Toronto, frequently. I have lived legally in the U.S. for almost thirty years. I am a 52 year-old woman and the second last time I came back into the States I was detained for forty-five minutes and my car was searched. I was told I had been randomly selected by Homeland Security to be searched. (The Customs officer was rueful and almost apologetic; I believe he thought it was idiotic that I was being searched.) On the other hand, I read later that U.S. Customs was stopping middle-aged and older returning Americans and confiscating prescription drugs from them.
My Canadian relatives and friends avoid coming to the United States as much as possible. It’s just not that much fun anymore.
Part of the purpose of this is to create a climate of fear in which we are all more obedient.
Yes, more obedient, and more willing to be intruded upon. I don’t want to live in a society where you can be asked to “produce your papers” at any point. But difficulties such as these tend to make you willing to put up with that if it eases your travel.
The lovely thing about Canada and the U.S. – as well as Mexico and the U.S. when I lived in Texas, was the ability to cross the border and back very freely. Not necessarily to have no stopping, but to have passage be simple, comfortable, courteous, and fast. No longer.
on a cruise in a week…we make one Canadian stop (Victoria) so will have to go through Customs coming back; I’ll have to keep my eyes open and see if any of our fellow passengers get hassled.
Way back when, the spouse (before we were a couple) made a trip to Toronto; coming back, he’d misplaced his birth certificate. The border agent had him sing the National Anthem to be let in — I think she had a warped sense of humor. It’s too bad those days are gone…starting in January of next year, a freakin’ passport will be required to return from Canada or Mexico. “Papers? Papers?”
sigh
I live nearby. Instead of hanging out around the Empress, try a walk along the Dallas cliffs. When you leave your ship there will be several modes of travel available to get you a few blocks downtown. If you walk out of the terminal and turn right you will find the Dallas cliffs with the view of the blue Olympic mountains (on a clear day). (Try not to eat at Barb’s Fish & Chips, at Fisherman’s wharf, it’s awful stuff.)
We’ve been using our passports for some time now. However, on a recent flight to Washington, they noticed my husband’s passport had just expired. He got pulled aside because he was using an expired passport as ID. Although he quickly got out his drivers’ license, he still got searched.
I was told by our campus international office that the passport requirement for U. S. Citizens to travel between the U.S. and Canada has been delayed until 2008 or 2009, because of many complaints that have been received.
The national anthem is funny. I wonder if it would work the other way? We watch so much Canadian TV, that we can both sing the Canadian national anthem (easier than ours, by far!).
Papers? Papers?”
Ausweise? Was für Ausweise? Ich habe keine verficken Ausweise!
traveller. Volunteer basic info to save the border agents from asking for it. Example: Don’t say “It’s a business trip” which requires them to ask the nature of that business.
Never give more info than required because they are obliged to follow-up on everything you tell them. No small talk, nothing funny, they are extremely serious and under pressure.
There were cases of Canadians being mistreated getting into the USA after 9/11 – the agents pulled open peoples’journals and read them out loud. Keep that in mind.
That said, I think the case described in this diary is deplorable. Treating vulnerable people like that is disgusting.
Detroit Free Press=Freep
I used to live in the Hispanic community (referred to as Mexicantown) when I was in grad school. And, from what I rememeber, if this article and the nonsense that your student had to go thru, isn’t harrassment, I don’t know what is!