Italian tourist detained by Homeland Security for visiting his American girlfriend
A NY Times article describes how Domenico Salerno, an Italian was jailed by the US government for 10 days after coming to the US to see his American girlfriend and her family.
[O]n April 29, when Mr. Salerno, 35, presented his passport at Washington Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection agent refused to let him into the United States. And after hours of questioning, agents would not let him travel back to Rome, either; over his protests in fractured English, he said, they insisted that he had expressed a fear of returning to Italy and had asked for asylum. ... “The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” [Salerno's girlfriend Caitlin Cooper] recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought. “Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”LinkTwelve hours later, when Mr. Salerno was granted a five-minute phone call, he called Ms. Cooper and denied saying anything of the kind. Instead, he said, the asylum story seemed to be retaliation for his insisting on speaking to his embassy.
After being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was taken to the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va., where he ended up in a barracks with 75 other men, including asylum-seekers who told him they had been waiting a year.
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Sometimes I think some people in the US forget that we (Europe) are supposed to be your friends and allies (and the other way 'round).
Maybe it's some extra credits for treating people irrespectively of their origin, but still...
(And yes, I'm not even mentioning al the other things that are plain wrong in this picture.)
Okay, if I was trying to visit my girlfriend, say, for her birthday, and she'd made all kinds of plans for the trip, and I got sent back to Italy and wasn't allowed to get through to see her, I think I might just respond with something like:
"Man, my girlfriend is totally going to kill me if you send me back to Italy."
The actual cause for his detainment, not given in the summary, is that the immigration agent suspected that he was coming to the US to work. Fuck, what bullshit. And that whole "broken english" thing? Get a translator there for him. The last time I was in a customs line in a US airport, there were calls for interpreters of at least five different languages over the space of ten minutes. Are you trying to tell me that there wasn't anyone there able to speak Italian?
You've got to love when the rest of the world starts seeing us like this
One of the best (and by best, I mean maddening) quotes from the full story:
Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”
Someone needs to put the fear of God into the Department of Homeland Security. I know McCain won't do it, that's for sure....
Hmm. Maybe I should go to the US over summer this year. I *could* win the lottery. Approximately 1 in 2500 chance of winning a free multi-week stay at a stately Virginia camp. And to top that an added bonus chance of an extended stay at a lovely Cuban walled resort. Interesting.
Get a job in the US instead of the EU? With the US pesos, the economy, the politics, the healthcare, the lack of holidays, and what ever else? Yeah right, get real!
I live in Germany, and I heard once that now US students who want to get a residence permit (to study) here need to prove to the German equivalent of the INS that they have enough money to support themselves and aren't coming to Germany to work illegally. I could believe it when they do so for people from third world countries, I found it surprising that they were treating Americans the same... surprising, but it makes sense when you think how times have changed.
3 cheers for George W. Bush!
@ Trueblue, #3
Yeah, quotes like that make you wonder what ever happened to: "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
What the hell has happened to the United States? I really, really hope whoever is the next president can change this attitude of suspicion, fear and distrust that has swept over the nation.
I don't know, i might have to side with the agents on this one.
this guy is claiming to be an Italian male who is coming to the states to see his american "girlfriend" and her "family".
sure, plenty of american girls go to Italy and meet Italian men, but the second their visa runs out, he's stuffing her and her bags into his Fiat Panda and high-tailing it to the airport.
i call shenanigans
We only wanted the huddled masses when we were a relatively poor country. Now they can only bring us down!
Plus they would breath all our sweet sweet free(r)(tm) air.
Cpyrght (c) 2008 ll rghts rsrvd.
FB Wrnng: y wll b rpd fnnclly nd physclly f y cpy ths.
Hmlnd Scrty Wrnng: Y wll b rpd.
Disband Homeland Security. Just dismantle it. Return to our previous state of competent agencies, and dump the private contractors.
#6: "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" The Dept. Of Homeland Insecurity strikes again. I put them along the MPAA and RIAA. SCUM.
@#7: did you even read the story ?
This is nothing new. I was aware in the early 90's that arriving in the US and telling the INS that the purpose of the visit it "to visit my girlfriend" would likely result in refusal of entry. The assumption being that the person in question would be more likely to remain in the US and work illegally. The only difference is that DHS is now playing the role of the INS.
Homeland Security seems designed to create retrograde technology pressure.
Traveling by airline carrying a laptop computer:
High risk of incarceration.
Traveling by train with a transistor radio:
Medium risk of incarceration.
Traveling by horse with my favorite flapjack skillet.
Low risk of incarceration.
Standing in middle of room, gazing fondly at framed portrait of fearless leader:
Safe from incarceration, no blinking allowed though...
In the past 4 or 5 years I've had the opportunity to do quite a bit of overseas travel. I've been through customs, immigration and security in several countries including Peru, Egypt, Libya, Bosnia and Serbia. Guess which country always provided the most tense, nerve-wracking and rude experiences. The good old USA (even for a New Jersey born, red-headed whitey like me). Getting admitted to some of the above countries was sometimes even a fun, exciting, friendly experience - not here though. Makes me really sad.
How are people supposed to teach their kids about things like "...give me your tired, your poor..." with a straight face?
I think it will only get worse. I hate to say it, but the world gives me no indication of calming down. We can demand less security, and a new administration may listen, but then we're going to look pretty stupid when the next strike happens and we all start screaming bloody murder because the Feds didn't have the right kind of security. The Feds: FBI, CIA, NSA all got roasted after 911 for having non-integrated, poor security data. What's the real answer? Strong AI.
Quoth RetroPC @ 12, "I was aware in the early 90's that arriving in the US and telling the INS that the purpose of the visit it 'to visit my girlfriend' would likely result in refusal of entry."
You probably have something here: The poor sap got in trouble for answering truthfully when they asked him why he was trying to enter the country.
Trueblue2 did this not strike ye as a bit odd as well"it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.”..."Well Fuck alla yoo Guatamaleese an all a yoo Haitanaians we aint never heard a yoo!!"
This begs the assumption the the TSA or relevant Govt body was/were aware of a small country called
Italy!
(I know!Its the one that looks like a boot!)
Apparently, people will seek asylum from ANY country. I read something in the paper this morning (here in Toronto) that said over 1000 people applied for asylum in Canada, from the USA.
Trueblue2 did this not strike ye as a bit odd as well"it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.”..."Well Fuck alla yoo Guatamaleese an all a yoo Haitanaians we aint never heard a yoo!!"
This begs the assumption the the TSA or relevant Govt body was/were aware of a small country called
Italy!
(I know!Its the one that looks like a boot!)
If this guy wasn't Italian, he might easily have been injected with drugs and flown to Syria or Poland instead. And ten days? If he didn't have connections, it could have been ten years. DHS can and does detain without due process or communication with the outside world, just as the INS used to do. He could be spending decades in a wire cage.
DHS has to be reformed. At EACH PART of his story, confirmation of the details should result in firing and possibly prosecution. DHS needs to increase the level of education and training, and the Southern Prison Guard demographic needs to be weeded out permanently. There's no excuse for this kind of crap.
This country is neck deep in the sewer right now. I hope we can pull ourselves out in time.
"I read something in the paper this morning (here in Toronto) that said over 1000 people applied for asylum in Canada, from the USA."
Ooooh, a whole thousand. And I bet none of them was Alec Baldwin.
This is what I find troubling in the article:
"Though citizens of those nations do not need visas to enter the United States for as long as 90 days, their admission is up to the discretion of border agents. There are more than 60 grounds for finding someone inadmissible, including a hunch that the person plans to work or immigrate, or evidence of an overstay, however brief, on an earlier visit."
A hunch? A HUNCH that the person MAY do something? I'm pretty sure that that's ummmm....wrong. If that were the case, and if my hunch isn't correct (it doesn't have to be), I think DHS is involved in criminal activity. I could file charges for any one EVER associated with DHS as a conspirator...just a hunch. This phrasing is SOOOO bad for them, in a perfect world, it would leave them open to lawsuits and the like...however, since he was being held by DHS, he had no rights for anything.
My question, at WHAT point does the DHS (a federal entity) lose 'control' of the individual? I would think that if they were to retain 'legal' control over him, he would need to be in a federal prison, as opposed to a county jail.
This is just stupid. If he lied his way into the country (claiming to be on a business trip), there would have likely been no consequence, and he would have gotten in. But, since he told the truth, he's got something to hide.
Man...the war on truth now...though, I think that may have been going on for 7, coming up on 8 years now...
There's this amazingly arrogant assumption that everyone in the world wants to live in the US.
I moved back to the UK a couple of years ago but took my daughter over for Christmas to see her grandma and grandpa. One little problem, I'd been a legal resident alien but that had lapsed. It took HOURS with a tired 4 year old (London to LA flight), finger printing, an interview and signing stuff and promising that I didn't honestly and truly want to move back and waiting for it all to be faxed off and then approval to be faxed back before they let me go.
GET OVER YOURSELF USA, YOU ARE NOT THAT GREAT!
I really can't see the day that I'll ever want to visit again. They SAID next time I can just get in on a weaver form, but I don't think I believe them.
This guy is lucky he has a girlfriend with money and connections. What about all the other people he was in jail with that don't have senators and immigration lawyers on their side?
I had a hard time getting back home to Indiana when I went to a conference in Japan. I guess that's what I get for traveling alone and having long hair.
Wait, so first foreigners are stealing our JOBS, now they're stealing our WOMEN?
No wonder they kept him out, good job DHS!
I've perfected my customs passing technique.
Simply assume an expression of complete exhaustion lightly tinged with absolute hatred for the person you are dealing with. Then add a thin veneer of obligatory civility.
The agent will recognize a kindred soul.
In all seriousness, being able to 'deaden' your eyes, removing all expression, will get you past most government-type people fairly rapidly. I don't have an explanation for this. Maybe the person sees that there will be no satisfaction in harassing you?
It is not that he was refused entry. No problems with that. But...
He was jailed for ten days .
DHS = Judge and Jury? Why was he held? He wanted to go back to Italy, he wanted to contact his Government ie the Embassy.
They threw him in prison instead. That's the US answer for all problems, it seems...
Italians hate us for our freedoms.
@ #24: Hear, hear...if you can pull off the "I-just-had-my-frontal-cortex-removed" expression, you're good to go.
I'm wondering how far off we are from tattooing a barcode on the forehead of every man, woman, and child just to save the hassle of weeding out terrorist by hand. Which creeps the hell out of me.
Tim Sf (#24):
Interesting solution. Ironically the facial expression you are going for reminds me of this unfortunate photo of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
I'd really love to visit the US (from the UK), but these stories, although clearly exceptions put me off. Plus, I'm not massively keen on being fingerprinted and stored on a US database forever...
Aside from all of the usual tit-for-tat anme calling.
You guys in the US really need to get this TSA DHS stuff scrapped.
It does nothing at all, as ide from bleed you lot of tax dollars.
The FBI didn't fail pre 911, your govt did.
And adding a couple more behemoth intell agencies of this staggering levl of stupidity and ineptitude will never help.
Le the FBI and the CIA do their thing, and scrap the DEA TSA and DHS.
Having passed several times from the West (TM) into the Soviet dominated East Block as a child, remembering the hours we spend at the border, remembering the checks and searches we had to go through to cross the border (both ways), remembering the enormous amount of distrust and control, remembering the fortification of the border (which seemed to increase year by year), remembering the god-like status of the border-bureaucrats plus remembering the fear and uncertainty, remembering all this gives me a warm welcome-back-to-childhood feeling.
As a child, I thought border-checks are normal and should be between every city... Last year, the border control between "the West" and "the East" were dropped (with some exceptions) and it felt to sooooo good to go from the country I was born in to the country my mother was born in with any control whatsoever.
Borders are not here to make you safe, they exists to protect your rulers. As a side note, in the East-Block they would have never thought about detaining someone from the West for trying to enter their sphere on a legal way - maybe turn away, but not detain. Regardless of the many horrendous things the Soviet Union has done, the SU always cared about its image in the world, the US seems to have stopped to care how it is perceived.
This is the sort of thing that makes me nervous that my Fiancée is French. Thankfully I have a LOT of phone numbers I could call if something happened to her, but still, it grieves me that we somehow got to the point where I even have to think about this sort of thing. It was fun while it lasted, I guess.
EAI, what do you think of the airport in Amsterdam? I'm had far worse trouble there than the US. And Israel is no dream either. Still, I'm not going to stop going to Europe because I've had trouble. It's the modern world and there are going to be problems. When the media covers the issues, and people can talk about them, hopefully that will help.
#5, I don't know for Germany but I'm fairly sure there's nothing particularly new about the European countries asking students for evidence of self-support. I was asked for this when I entered Britain as a student. It's to (try to) make sure that people from countries without socialized medicine and other support systems don't go to the European countries with these systems to get treatment/become a drain on their resources. Excluding the US from this requirement would be silly because it's a country that falls into the category of not having those support systems.
Eriko23 @7, shenanigans my arse. I call shallow cultural stereotyping.
Error404 @34, none of us thought it was a good idea. It's a big source of pork for areas that are unlikely to ever see non-indigenous terrorist activity, a source of patronage for George & Co., and an attempt to weaken the civil service.
Blackbird @24, the "hunch" provision terrifies me. It means they can do anything.
Anonymous @25, we think it's bullshit too. Truly.
better treatment than non-english speakers receive in Vancouver, Canada. There they execute them.
Personally, I call shenanigans on Eriko23 @7 for making me think that all Italian men drove cars that look like this.
Treat the entire world like prospective terrorists, and guess what?
It's so sad. But maybe that is what they want.