Border Bullies
 

The Department of Homeland Security in Action


From the above link:

A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend, Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from a good family; and one that is wealthier than most American families. She didn’t come here for a job. Well-educated, she has a master's degree and works as a bank officer in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aew was excited about the prospect of visiting America for the first time, though she had traveled to many other countries and had the passport stamps to prove it. She had no problem getting a U.S. visa, and she was paying her own way to fly.

Problems began when she entered the airport in Bangkok. Aew had a one-way ticket to America, because we would travel back in the direction of the war before she would go home, but we did not know our exact itinerary, so she hadn't bought a round-trip ticket back to Thailand. Before boarding the flight from Thailand to America, Northwest Airlines required Aew to buy a return ticket for 53,905 Thai bhat, or about $1,200 for a return ticket, else they would not let her board the flight. Aew paid by her credit card and pushed on. Understandably, it raises suspicions when a foreign national doesn't have a round-trip ticket in an age of massive illegal immigration -- even if that person is an educated professional with a home and career, and even though Aew has a ten-year visa to the United States. Nevertheless, Aew paid approximately $1,200 for the return ticket, and so now had a return ticket.

That is how it began. She boarded the jet, eventually landed in Japan and then Minneapolis, before the final leg to Orlando. While thousands of people have canceled trips to Orlando due to the failing economy, Aew was coming with cash to spend in Florida. We would go to Disney, Kennedy Space Center and many other places; she'd be seeing the sights while I was meeting with military and other people in preparation for my upcoming return to Afghanistan for the long year ahead.

I first met Aew in Indonesia during a break from the Iraq war. I had gone to visit the site of the murder of my friend Beata Pawlak, who, along with about two hundred other people, was killed in a terrorist attack on the island of Bali.

After meeting in Indonesia, Aew and I stayed in touch. We traveled at different times to Singapore, Great Britain, Thailand and Nepal. Yet when Aew landed in Minneapolis, she was hustled away by an immigration officer. After approximately 24 hours of exhausting travel, Aew was detained for about 90 minutes without cause, and as a result, she missed her connecting flight to Orlando. She was brought into a small room where she saw a camera peering down. The officer conducting the shakedown wore a name tag: "Knapp." Five times she had traveled to China with zero problems, but Knapp grilled Aew with a long series of questions, rifling through her wallet, handling her credit cards and reading them carefully, questioning her piece by piece. Her passport, thick with extra pages, showed stamps from countries around the world. It contained the valid U.S. visa, and stamps and visas from countries she had traveled to, such as Great Britain, Japan, China, Nepal, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei, New Zealand and Cambodia. She had traveled to some of these countries on multiple occasions, always paying her own way. She never had problems. Not even in China. We had toured Parliament together in London, on a private expedition led by Member of Parliament Adam Holloway. Aew was very interested to see the Royal Family, and was beside herself when I met Lady Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who at that time read this website. The British, including military officers, had treated her very well and she left with positive memories of Great Britian.

But that was Great Britain. The American shakedown was just starting. Her sister, Puk, was sending me SMS messages from Thailand, worried that Aew seemed to have disappeared. I had bought Puk's daughters, North and Nurse, who are 8 and 9, a "talking globe" so they could track the travels of their Aunt Aew. The last time I saw North and Nurse, we had taken them to the Chiang Mai zoo, and also to an elephant camp where the elephants paint. Puk's husband, Bey, is a high-ranking Thai police officer who, as part of his duties, helps organize security for the Thai Royal Family.

While the U.S. Immigration officer named Knapp rifled through all her belongings, Aew sat quietly. She was afraid of this man, who eventually pushed a keyboard to Aew and coerced her into giving up the password to her e-mail address. Officer Knapp read through Aew's e-mails that were addressed to me, and mine to her. Aew would tell me later that she sat quietly, but “Inside I was crying.” She had been so excited to finally visit America. America, the only country ever to coerce her at the border. This is against everything I know about winning and losing the subtle wars. This is against everything I love about the United States. We are not supposed to behave like this. Aew would tell me later that she thought she would be arrested if she did not give the password.

The Government of the United States was reading the private e-mails of a U.S. citizen (me). The Department of “Homeland Security” was at work, intimidating visitors with legitimate visas. They had at least 24 hours to check her out before she landed in the United States. What kind of security is this? The Department of Homeland Security was at this moment more like the Department of Intimidation.

Officer Knapp called my phone as I was driving to the Orlando airport. I was going to be there two hours early to make sure I would be on time, so that she had a warm welcome to my country. But instead, Knapp was busy detaining Aew in Minneapolis and was on my cell phone asking all types of personal questions that he had no business asking. Sensing that Aew was in trouble, I answered his questions. Mr. Knapp was a rude smart aleck. The call is likely recorded and that recording would bear out my claims. This officer of the United States government, a grown man, had coerced personal information from a Thai woman who weighs 90 pounds. I asked Aew later why she gave him the e-mail password, and she answered simply, "I was afraid," and “I thought I would be arrested.”

What could I say to alleviate any of this? Could I say, "This is the U.S., nothing to be afraid of."?

><snip><

The only thing more disgusting than this account is the knowledge that this behavior probably goes on each and every day to countless more people whose experiences never make it to an online blog.

I hope the author pursues aggressive action against this inspector and DHS.

The majority of that article is fluff.

The parts of the story that actually say something about the day:

"when Aew landed in Minneapolis, she was hustled away by an immigration officer.... Aew was detained for about 90 minutes..., she missed her connecting flight to Orlando. She was brought into a small room where she saw a camera peering down. The officer conducting the [interview?] shakedown wore a name tag: "Knapp."... who ...pushed a keyboard to Aew ....Officer Knapp read through Aew's e-mails ....
The Government of the United States was reading the e-mails of a U.S. citizen.... Officer Knapp called my phone as I was driving to the Orlando airport. ... I answered his questions.... "

how does it end: she flew to Orlando and they did whatever they had planned to do.


While I have no doubt some CBP guy on a power trip with a tin badge got an attitude with this lady, I don't have all the facts. Sure there are legit horror stories and I have seen some of these guys be rude before, but I don't know if this is the case here. Maybe if a mainstream media source did some work it would shed some light on this more. The email part is very disconcerting, but from the article I am not sure if it is her laptop or just his computer. I hope you get some updates and post more info, this is very interesting and could be huge (or be nothing).

Interesting read nonetheless.

Ciao,
FH

One reason I never fly in to MSP (or DTW) is their immigration staff who have (before this resolution) been the rudest, most agressive immigration officials I have ever met.

I have an extremely hard time believing this story as stated. If she was flagged, it was because of two reasons. One, buy the return ticket at the airport, probably with a different reservation number and being bought at the last minute. Big mistake. The OP should have known that foreign nationals on any type of tourist visa or visa waiver ALWAYS need to have a return ticket. Plain and simple.

So she lands in MSP and get's secondaried. No real surprise there. Now, when did she tell them that she was coming here to see you? Second giant mistake. Single Asian woman, coming the US on a one-way ticket, buys a return ticket at the airport only because the airline flagged her. She's coming here to see a guy. Now, I think US immigration policy when it comes to this is bogus, but accepting it for what it is, if I was the CBP guy, I would be suspicious.

As far as the rest, I guess her wallet is one thing, to see if any of the credit cards were in your name or something since maybe she was coming here to marry you or you were already married and never did the K-3 and everything.

Now, this is where this story strains believability - they went on-line and made her log into Yahoo or whatever webmail she uses? ..., I've never heard of that. Inspecting notebooks, sure, but having someone log onto a webmail system somewhere? That sounds bogus. And then the CPB guy calling the OP? Again, I've had foreign girlfriends end up in secondary before for stupid stuff, like not having their receipt with the return reservation on them or screwing up the I-94 form in some way. Customs sure as hell never called me, I had to flag down a United employee (pays to be 1K sometimes) who took my copy of the itinerary back to customs for me/her.

But this story, fluffy as is, just doesn't add up to me. And if it did happen, I would think it would have taken a lot longer than 90 minutes.

I never have issues in MSP ... DTW has some real jerks.

I have no trouble with the story.

The only country where immigration has ever hassled us is -- sadly -- our own.

Did it actually happen?

After seeing the way some of the Customs inspectors have treated foreign visitors at IAD (like the 80-something year old Asian woman they literally yelled at because she spoke little to no English), I believe the story.

Accessing private email data is wrong. But it's not like the government can't get it from Yahoo anyway.... and for those with private/company accounts, often the emails are stored on a computer itself, so this is in line with what they've done in searching laptops.

Unfortunately, the CBP has stated that the Constitution doesn't apply at a border checkpoint.

Yes, it would be fantastic if there was an easy fool-proof way to tell the good guys from the law-breakers at a border point without examination. Unfortunately the fact that she is a "Thai woman who weighs 90 pounds" does not preclude the possibility that she was in the US for unlawful purposes.

So, in the end, there was a 90-minute delay while they confirmed the legitimacy of her trip. I'm not surprised, nor concerned.

Lost Passages from the works of Franz Kafka
 

I personally know a Thai young lady I met back in 2005 who was detained for three hours in Portland, Oregon. She had a ten-year visa. A round trip ticket. Educated with a masters degree. She was subjected to a litany of questions. She experienced just as much trepidation as Aew mentioned by the OP.

She originally wanted to stay a month but immigration gave her only two weeks. Normally with such a visa from what I recall one can stay up to six months then go home. Calling a friend or family member by a member of FLEO is not unusual if they believe it can enhance their interrogation.

I think the OP should have advised his friend to do a few things that should or might have made her initial arrival less problematic. Such as buying a round trip ticket ahead if time. Avoiding certain airports where some of these officers were out on coffee breaks during the training sessions dealing with different cultures.

It's a given that a single Asian woman traveling here could encounter difficulties if she is not a Japanese citizen. BTW my friend came here years ago with a group of Thais for a student exchange program. She did not encounter such difficulties. Only when she came solo did she had a rude epiphany of what can happen to her.

I'm looking forward to the new incoming administration that pledges to eviscerate the excesses of the Patriot Act that most likely allows for such egregious overreaching as to checking someone's e-mails while being in a compromising situation.

I read something similar in a periodical the other day. I can't remember what it was, because it was just one of those random things that was laying there as I was waiting, so I picked it up to thumb through it, but the author was talking about a girlfriend he had while he was in a country (which I think is either Central or South America) doing some photo-documentary of the conflict. Turns out, she was directly embroiled in it. The description of her was just about the same, except swap out "Thai" for... whatever she was. She was, apparently, a cold-blooded assassin. At the end of the piece, he wrote that she eventually died while in the execution of one of her missions, at twenty-five. Wish I could remember what it was I was reading, now.

Ya' never know about people. An oft-repeated lesson while watching The Secret Lives of Women :D

:D :D :D
Thanks! That's a good one!!! :D

Dave

I've had the same type of call from CBP for a Costa Rican relative who had entered a few times before without any problems. It's all luck of the draw. Obviously having only a one way ticket may have set off the alarm bells. I would have booked a return ticket using award miles to satisfy them before she even left.

I've had similar things happen to me (sans the email password request) going into Canada. I was visiting a friend (I said it was a girl) and boom.. secondary. They were thinking I was coming up to meet someone underage for sex. I had her phone number, they looked it up and it was in her name. They didn't call her, but I was partially expecting them to page her in the waiting area. I got a stern warning to make sure I left on the day I said I was going to, and that he was going to be watching for me..

Wierdest thing I've ever had happen. Coming to the US, very few issues. I'll sometimes get hastled for a weekend trip to Tokyo (miles miles miles baby) but otherwise not much.