You papers, citizen!

posted by The Vidiot @ 7:48 AM Permalink

Oh yes. It can happen here. And it is.

The ACLU recently reported that there is a 100 mile wide 'constitution-free zone' in the US in which nearly 2/3 of the population lives. (See the map above.) In that zone, stop and search is random, frequent and without cause.

Don't believe it? Well, here is an account from a friend of my acupuncturist. My acupuncturist is British, owns her own business, is married to an American and has lived here forever. She has other 'green-card' friends of course and one of them sent her an email:

IMMIGRATION AGENTS BOARD A TRAIN IN SYRACUSE NY

It was around 10 pm of October 23rd and a train that was going from NYC to Chicago made its stop in Syracuse, NY. It wasn’t just a normal stop as immigration agents boarded the train and started looking for illegal immigrants which made the train delay for almost half and hour. They started asking every passenger if they were US Citizens, if the answer was negative, the passenger was required to show them proof of their legal status.

I’m a legal resident, not a citizen so I become a main character of this terrible story. I showed my Learners Driver License ID, which allows me to go through security in the airports for domestic flights. But the agent told me that it wasn’t valid as proof of my legal status and demanded my Green Card. I told him that I wasn’t carrying it with me as I remember that when I got it there was a note saying to keep it in a safe place unless traveling abroad. Who knew that in the middle of NY State I would need it! The agent made a call to prove my ‘legality’ in the US and when he could finally confirm that I was saying the truth he told me that this had been my ‘’lucky day’’ and that if I had been a citizen this wouldn’t have happened.

Besides the public humiliation, the violation of my privacy and his unfortunate last comment, I felt discriminated for not being an American citizen, and I felt sad to see that the passengers were in their own world, indifferent at what was going on.

The train was able to depart after a young woman with a baby weren’t able to proof identity to the satisfaction of the U.S.Border Patrol and they were taken off the train. I felt infuriated and asked a train employee about it. He told me that immigration officers boarded the trains in that station regularly in search of illegal immigrants. He told me that it made him feel safe. I thought of the woman and the baby.

This is what a police state looks like.

Get used to it.

Or not.

It's your decision.

Labels: police state