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TB man's border crossing
andrew speaker, an american guy diagnosed with a rare, antibiotic-resistant strain of TB, was first inadvertently let out of the u.s. to get married, and then waved back across the canada-u.s. border by a u.s. border patrol agent (despite a warning the agent received, instructing him to detain speaker and contact health authorities). now they--the CDC and congress--are wondering how this happened, and pulling out hair about how porous the u.s.'s borders still are, despite 9/11; despite orange alerts; despite heightened security measures; despite the patriot act; etc.
now congress is holding hearings to determine how speaker got back into the u.s. despite the strong warnings that had been sent out to all border patrol agents. i'll tell you how: he's a white guy.
ask me about my ex-husband, R's, repeated run-ins with u.s. border patrol agents. (R is chinese-american.) the first one i witnessed happened in 1989, when we had been dating just a few months. we and another couple (both white) decided to go to windsor, ontario for the evening. on our way back through u.s. customs, the agent barely glanced at the driver's licenses of the 3 white people in the car. but R got the third degree. he finally convinced the agent he was really an american citizen who had grown up in chicago, when the guy asked him, "what's your hometown baseball team?" R gave the right answer: "which one, the cubs or the sox?" in the 10 years we were together, that shit happened almost every time we crossed the border. when we moved out to vermont in 1994, we went via hwy 401 in ontario. we were in separate vehicles on that trip--i was driving the moving van at R's insistence. he figured it was guaranteed to get searched if he were driving it. sure enough, we went through different gates, and i got waved through with no problem, despite driving the rented ryder van (this was before the oklahoma city bombing made suspect all ryder vans driven by white people from michigan). rex was driving a pickup truck with his motorcycle strapped in the back, along with a few boxes of stuff. the agent made him pull over for a vehicle search. when i saw R being pulled over, i pulled over too. when the agent found out we were together, he wanted to search the van too (he demurred when i opened it up and showed him how jam-packed it was). we were there for like 2 hours, and they had to let us (that is, R) go because they couldn't find anything incriminating.
grr. angry-making shit. anyone who doubts that racial profiling is standard operating procedure for u.s. law enforcement agencies is hopelessly and willfully naive.
now congress is holding hearings to determine how speaker got back into the u.s. despite the strong warnings that had been sent out to all border patrol agents. i'll tell you how: he's a white guy.
ask me about my ex-husband, R's, repeated run-ins with u.s. border patrol agents. (R is chinese-american.) the first one i witnessed happened in 1989, when we had been dating just a few months. we and another couple (both white) decided to go to windsor, ontario for the evening. on our way back through u.s. customs, the agent barely glanced at the driver's licenses of the 3 white people in the car. but R got the third degree. he finally convinced the agent he was really an american citizen who had grown up in chicago, when the guy asked him, "what's your hometown baseball team?" R gave the right answer: "which one, the cubs or the sox?" in the 10 years we were together, that shit happened almost every time we crossed the border. when we moved out to vermont in 1994, we went via hwy 401 in ontario. we were in separate vehicles on that trip--i was driving the moving van at R's insistence. he figured it was guaranteed to get searched if he were driving it. sure enough, we went through different gates, and i got waved through with no problem, despite driving the rented ryder van (this was before the oklahoma city bombing made suspect all ryder vans driven by white people from michigan). rex was driving a pickup truck with his motorcycle strapped in the back, along with a few boxes of stuff. the agent made him pull over for a vehicle search. when i saw R being pulled over, i pulled over too. when the agent found out we were together, he wanted to search the van too (he demurred when i opened it up and showed him how jam-packed it was). we were there for like 2 hours, and they had to let us (that is, R) go because they couldn't find anything incriminating.
grr. angry-making shit. anyone who doubts that racial profiling is standard operating procedure for u.s. law enforcement agencies is hopelessly and willfully naive.
no subject
Not saying profiling is a good thing, but perhaps it is naive to think it will change, as it is so in tune with human nature.