Showing posts with label US airports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US airports. Show all posts

Friday, March 9, 2018

Paranoia in the Fourth Reich?

After a sleepless 12-hour flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam, followed by another sleepless 9-hour flight to Atlanta GA, and with my Automated Passport Control receipt in hand, I respond to a crooked-finger summons and step up to the stern and blank-faced Customs & Border Protection officer and hand over my APC receipt, passport and US Permanent Residence Green-card. No greeting or welcome home from this unsmiling Gestapo agent. Just a number of questions. Where have you been? South Africa. How long? A month. Why so long? I went to bury my sister and take care of my mother. How much money are you bringing into the USA? About US$200 and about ZAR3000. How many bags did you check? Two. Do your bags contain any prohibited items such as meat, dairy or agricultural products? No.

My passport and Green-card are placed in a clear plastic folder and handed to another unsmiling CBP officer who beckons me to follow him to the baggage area where I collect my 2 pieces of checked luggage. We move to an inspection area where I am questioned again. Did you pack all of your bags? Yes. Are you carrying anything for anyone else? No.  Have your bags been in your possession all the time. Yes, but only until I checked my bags with the airline in Cape Town after having had them shrink-wrapped. Does your luggage contain any prohibited items? No. Do you take full responsibility for the contents of your bags? Yes. The officer thereupon proceeds to unpack and search both of my checked bags and my 2 items of cabin baggage. I am questioned about everything. Why so many chocolates? My family loves chocolate and Cadbury tastes better than Hershey. What are these bags of powdered Pepper Sauce? Mixed with boiling water, Pepper Sauce is great for steaks. What is this Durban Curry? It’s an Indian cooking spice. Referring to some Panado and Venteze, what are these medicines? Non-prescription over-the counter items from my father’s pharmacy – Panado is paracetamol, safer than ibuprofen, and Venteze is albuterol for my son’s asthma. An hour later I am instructed to repack my bags. I am then told to wait. My passport and Green-card are still in the plastic folder, lying on the officer’s counter. Another period of waiting. Then without another word, my passport and Green-card are handed to me and I am told to exit the inspection hall. The whole process has taken almost 2 hours. I smile at the officer with a “Thank you Sir. I hope you found what you were looking for.” Silence from his side. Clearly I have disappointed him.

Now I understand and appreciate the need for security. But I am a lawful permanent resident of the United States of America. I have earned this privilege through hard work and not through accident of birth.  And I am a tax-payer. Those Customs and Border Protection officers are there on my dime. They are public servants and they are the first face of America that arrivals see.  Would a “Good Morning” be too difficult?  There was a time when a CBP officer, on seeing my Green-card, smiled at me with a “Welcome back to America, Sir.”

But no more. The paranoia of this Fourth Reich seems to operate under a presumption of guilt. A suspicion that everyone coming to the USA has ill-intent. An attitude of hostility towards every arrival. And apparently makes no distinction between visa-holders and legal permanent residents. Or has my family been ear-marked for some sort of special treatment? Just 6 months ago, my wife had an even worse experience at the hands of the CBP officers at JFK Airport in New York. There’s nothing quite like having to use the ladies bathroom in full open-door view of a watchful CBP agent and then finding that there’s no toilet-paper, wash-basin or paper-towels, to develop just a bit of a dislike for this so-called bastion of civilization.


Come on America. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Be firm. Be strict. But courteousness, politeness, civility and human decency are currencies with immeasurable investment returns.