State dept. won't say why UK music scholar is barred from US
LinkMs. Ghuman’s descent into the bureaucratic netherworld began on Aug. 8, 2006, when she and Mr. Flight returned to San Francisco from a research trip to Britain. Armed immigration officers met them at the airplane door and escorted Ms. Ghuman away.
In a written account of the next eight hours that she prepared for her lawyer, Ms. Ghuman said that officers tore up her H-1B visa, which was valid through May 2008, defaced her British passport, and seemed suspicious of everything from her music cassettes to the fact that she had listed Welsh as a language she speaks. A redacted government report about the episode obtained by her lawyer under the Freedom of Information Act erroneously described her as “Hispanic.”
Held incommunicado in a room in the airport, she was groped during a body search, she said, and was warned that if she moved, she would be considered to be attacking her armed female searcher. After questioning her for hours, the officers told her that she had been ruled inadmissible, she said, and threatened to transfer her to a detention center in Santa Clara, Calif., unless she left on a flight to London that night.
Outside, Mr. Flight made frantic calls for help. He said the British Consulate tried to get through to the immigration officials in charge, to no avail. And Ms. Ghuman said her demands to speak to the British consul were rebuffed.
“They told me I was nobody, I was nowhere and I had no rights,” she said. “For the first time, I understood what the deprivation of liberty means.”
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The only explanation I can see for State's unwillingness to explain their actions is that they've screwed up royally, and don't want to admit it. I'll bet the immigration officers who initially jumped her thought Ghuman was Middle Eastern or Hispanic, not Oxbridge Anglo-Indian, and that they were free to mistreat her without fear of a general outcry.
Makes you wonder what they do to women who aren't as well-connected as Nalini Ghuman.
The fascinating thing is that the officers admitted they had *no idea* why Ghuman was being excluded, but still imprisoned, mocked, groped, and threatened her. Evidently, in the current climate, suspicion is guilt; guilt is depersonalization. Shades of the Stanford prison experiment...
- tWB
I'm not really surprised - the US immigration has obviously been embiggened by the climate since 2001. The INS has always been feared, but this just takes the cake.
I hope her consulate and government runs with their refusal to let her talk to the british consul. That is uncalled for, and maybe the british can do a few harassment of Americans visiting the UK to rattle the saber a bit.
The way I'm feeling today after browsing the news this evening, she's lucky they made her go somewhere else, anywhere else.
Ah, homeland security, how you make me feel not safe.
Anytime the government expands exponentially in such a short time period, the system is going to be very, very wonky for a long time because that's how government programs work.
In fact, it may never get fixed.
The best solution is a dramatic cut in the size of government, including this non-safety-inducing beefed up security presence that only diminishes our nation's reputation and true security.
I say it diminishes our true security because this level of border over-zealousness present at airports and ports and whatnot only creates the illusion of security when it is as broken and flawed and randomly violent/evil as we have seen.
Though we only see the worst cases in the media, my own minor cases have been quite bad, and I suspect are endemic to a much larger matrix of seriously awful awfulness wherein good people are rendered powerless and bad people know how to slip through the cracks.
This is sick. I personally have never been more degraded and mistreated at any border more than at US borders, whether a stopover or a direct flight, always hassle. I no longer visit the US or even fly through. I was treated with more respect in Beirut Airport than Chicago.
How absolutely terrifying. As an American I am disgusted with my government and their jackbooted tactics. Enough is enough.
I am one election away from quitting my job and organizing demonstrations or fleeing the country.
Welcome to 21st century police state U.S.A.
Everything is fine as long as you don't cross the imaginary line.
This is one of the saddest stories I've read all year.
reminds me of a quote by Narmier
"Bureaucracy’s are composed of juggernauts, revolting to human feeling in their blindness and supremely humorous in their stupidity"
I have a daughter who is a music major at Mills College. I'd like her to have taken a class or 3 from this wonderful young scholar, if only (she's an Elgar scholar according to the NYT) to be introduced to the Elgar Cello Concerto.
Is anyone interested in setting up a PayPal defense fund, or at least a way we can collect donations for her so she can attend the AMA convention, which is, lucky for her, in Toronto?
I am anonymous because I travel too, and I feel the heel of the jackboot getting closer.
This is what they have done to this once great country. Bin Laden has won.
I visited the States for the first time this year so I could attend PAX '07 (it was worth it). The plan was to fly to Vancouver from London, rest a few days then head into the States via Canada. What I didn't realize was I would be forced to enter America when the plane stopped in Chicago. There my girlfriend and I were separated (you're not married, only family can stay togeather we were told), questioned (when, where, how did you meet), and then my passport was taken off me (for inspection). I don't know if you have had your passport confiscated before but while in a foreign country it's terrifying, you instantly become a non person. When I finally had it returned I saw that it was in a pile with 6 other Irish passports, I can only guess what that means. Same treatment on the exit journey, search and seizure with a "wish I could hate you to death" attitude. My girlfriend was so terrified that she swore off ever coming back again, I wish I could say I felt differently.
Are US politicians aware that the Immigration Service and Homeland Security staff who man the airports of the USA are petty, paranoid, power hungry little people who seem to believe that entrance to the States is a privilege? Probably not, because they get rushed past in the executive lane and don't see the little Hitlers who man the economy class gates and who are paid so little that they envy even those who can afford to leave the country on coach. American airports are joyless holes at best, made worse by the people who are the first point of contact for everyone arriving. Every random rule derived from some vague notional threat is another victory for fear, and either the leadership remains unaware, or wants it that way.
Has anyone listened to her music?
Yes! I'm so looking forward to my next trip to the US! It's like a fortune cookie of annoyance, degradation and danger.
Do you know what the very first article of my country's constitution is? "Human dignity shall be inviolable". I'm suddenly very proud of that.
Dillinger: The scary thing is that they won't even tell where the fucking line is. I'm so fucking angry right now, I think I need to have about half a pack of fags.
I agree that this seems to be a case of a huge mistake compounded by ego and bureaucracy-- they mistook her for someone else, and were too embarrassed to admit it, and now the system is so slow that it may take her lifetime to correct it.
US borders are porous, she could get a ticket to Canada, and cross by foot anywhere along the border (people do it every day in some spots, walking through the woods to the Canadian liquor store for cheaper booze or smokes). I know, I know. . . that doesn't solve the problem (she may just end up being declared an 'enemy combatant' and sent to a secret prison), ahhh but what a wonderful embarrassment to US Homeland Security-- not only is she just a music professor they've mis-labeled, but she managed to get back into the US undetected, go teach peacefully at her, university, and when they bust her only draw more attention to their own stupidity. (wishful thinking I guess).
Rarely have I been so ashamed to be an American as right now.
You know, when any US Immigration, Homeland Security, or TSA staff travels overseas; they're just begging to be similarly treated. If the general population don't do anything about these people, eventually, after a while, all Americans will be similarly abused when they go overseas.
:)