After nearly 10 years, my brother John was coming to Los Angeles from England to see me. Our mother had recently died, so it seemed especially important to be together. He would help me celebrate my birthday, then we would travel to Northern California.
John arrived at LAX at 2:45 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon last month. That was as close as he got to seeing me. After inspecting his passport, immigration officials informed him that there was a problem.
About 26 years ago, he was convicted in Britain of cocaine possession. He paid the required fine and never touched drugs again. In fact, he went on to work for more than 20 years for the British government as a prison liaison officer. But that wasn't good enough for the U.S.
Over the two days that followed his arrival, he was searched five times, fingerprinted 10 times and photographed again and again. Not until nearly three hours after he was originally detained was John even allowed to call me. By that time, I was extremely worried. On the phone, he asked me not to speak because he was not permitted to talk long or tell me anything other than that he was being sent back to the U.K. "I'm here and they are sending me back," he said.http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-hygate1feb01,1,7930205.storyI heard on the news that many Asian travelers are choosing to come to Canada rather than the US for their vacation because of concerns about how they'll be treated by US immigration authorities. Looks like they're right to be wary. I am sure Canada businesses catering to tourist will appreciate the addition revenue, but it's still a shame that the fruitcake neo-cons are apparently doing their best to make "the land of the free and the home of the brave" into a police state.
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