RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

Ignorance at the U.S. border

This tragic story about Trevor Hughes and his fiancee, who was arrested and deported when entering the United States from Germany, reprises what happened to a friend of ours, our former nanny, who was arrested and deported on arrival in the United States for a six-week visit.

Even in the mid-90s the Immigration & Naturalization Service was out of control and answerable to no one. The government held our friend incommunicado and offering her only two options: get on the next plane out of the country or wait in jail for up to two weeks for a hearing, which they assured her she would lose since the INS was prepared to say she was trying to immigrate to the United States. Two weeks was about a third of the total time she planned to visit, so she got on the plane and never came back. Why was she detained? Too much luggage. The INS guy who decided she had too much luggage never answered to anyone and laughed when I asked for his name and badge number.

It's only become worse. We've got bullies guarding the border and the nation swells with fear.

Thanks to Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing for the link.