I have a big issue with the US immigration folks. I know, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing around why the issue exists or how it started, but it still drives me nuts. I am so sick and tired of the profiling at the US border. The first time it happened to me, I was still in hijaab and it was November 2003. I just assumed that it was 9/11 sensitivity and that the hijaab was the culprit...But now I'm not so sure.
In 2003 I was going to a wedding in California, by air. The US Immigration guy at the airport stopped me and questioned me for about 15 minutes. Stupid questions like how did you meet the people you're visiting, why are you going to the wedding, what high school did you go to. I politely answered all these questions, and as I answered them, their questions kept getting worse. I know I was visibly irritated when he gawked at my response to his question around what type of education I had. Clearly, he didn't believe that a scarf girl could have an MBA. Next, when he asked what I do for a living, and I gave him my title and the organization I work for, he blurted out "that's impossible". I actually had to pull out a business card before he would let me go into the US. That was just too much for me, and very very insulting.
Then, a few months ago, I went to Buffalo to shop. My friend who was with me recently got his Canadian Citizenship. Prior to that, he would travel on a Pakistani passport with a US Visa. When we went shopping, he was traveling on a Canadian passport without a visa. We were stopped for about an hour going in, and he was fingerprinted etc, and told basically that this would continue to happen to him unless he gave up his Pakistani Citizenship. (Canada lets you hold two Citizenships, and the US does not). What a hassle. That day was very irritating to me, although my friend should have been more irritated (I suppose he has more patience than I do). I couldn't shake the feeling that Americans are just so very arrogant.
So, on Tuesday, I went again to Buffalo with my sister. The US immigration guy looked at our ID (We are both born in Toronto), and he told us that we had to go inside for a random computer test. We went inside. 15 minutes later, another officer asked what our birthplace was. I told him Toronto, and that we already showed our birth certificates to the other guy. He asked for our birth certificates, driver licenses, photocopied them, and told us we could leave. When I asked what happened to the computer test, he told me that he didn't know what I was told outside, but that I was free to go. Obviously, there was no computer test, and there was nothing random about the "spot check".
So, why was I stopped? Colour of my skin? The fact that I have traveled with a Pakistani born person last time? Was my license plate flagged for some reason? I had no problems when I went to the US a few weeks back with Mich in her car, so what was the deal?
I found the experience totally confusing and totally disheartening. I mean, I can only imagine what would have happened if I still wore my hijaab, or still had ID with the hijaab. This is why my Muslim friends refuse to travel to the States. But then again, that's exactly what they want, right? Stay in your own Country and stay the hell out of ours is their attitude. So what's the solution? Stop traveling? Keep traveling and hope for the best? Pull a Michael Jackson and dye my skin white?
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