jsn55

What a truly disgusting story. I hope the OP does some research to ascertain whether his name brings up a flag on somebody's "list". It's difficult to believe that American citizens can be treated this way by American agencies; is this what we have come to?

Dovster

This is the part that throws me. Even assuming that you are on their list, how did they know that you are you? Do they have pictures of you and your wife on file for some reason?

As far as the speculation that it is because you are brown-skinned is concerned, that seems way off base to me. Brown-skinned people, both citizens and non-citizens, enter the US by the tens of thousands each day and this does not happen to them.

(When I fly into the States it is almost always from TLV and the flight is invariably full of people of all shades. Sephardi Jews have about the same skin color as Arabs (which is not far different from Sicilians) and they go through the CBP process as quickly as Swedish blonds.

GUWonder

They have access to pictures of some people on some lists. Not everyone on USG blacklists or otherwise flagged with a photo accessible is targeted for a great reason -- some get flagged for one or more wrong reasons, including because of misidentifying targets, especially those with one or two names that are far from being unique.

Anti-brown-skin prejudice in combination with anti-muslim prejudice is alive and thriving in the US, including within the ranks of those on the payroll of the federal government. Do advocates of racist profiling generally have a problem with that kind of targeting being used by government employees working in "security" positions at airports?

jphripjah

They have advance passenger information about everyone arriving, and if you are a US citizen I'm going to assume they have your passport photo or driver's license photo. The OP was on some sort or target or watch list, they identified him when he exited the plane, they asked him to come talk to them. I on't think there's any reason to suspect it's anti brown skin discrimination, plenty of browned skinned people arrive in the US every day and they go through regular passport control and are not pulled aside.

GUWonder

They don't always have every arriving passenger's arrival info -- most passengers' info, but not all -- as electronic systems aren't all perfect. It's led to gaps in my electronic records on file with the gov.

That most individuals of some ethnic minority backgrounds of some sort don't get hassled on return to the US does not mean that racist discrimination doesn't exist and isn't even systematic in some ways. Even racists can't harass every individual who is part of very large groups -- which is often why racists target a subset of their hated group(s) and exploit some opportunities more than others.

I expect that many racist profiling advocates are fans of downplaying the racism they advocate and otherwise practice or want practiced. The same would apply to those in the employ of the US federal government.

That said, there's nothing to make clear that this couldn't be a case of an out of whack ATS score or some other flag/blacklist on a basis largely independent of racist prejudice.

flyerhog

These sort of things had happened even before a guy spoke in front of the lincoln memorial having some illusions in his sleep or soemthing.

Houston.Business

It's beyond me why people keep everything on their computer. I have no delicate info in my laptop, and no passwords. (Except the password to get into the system.) All my delicate info is on a micro SD, which is the size of a finger nail, and can be hidden almost anywhere. I never had a problem.