An American citizen says he and his wife were detained for hours by U.S. border agents when they returned to the United States after a short trip to Canada.
Bachir Atallah told CNN he and his wife, Jessica, were driving back into the U.S. Sunday evening after visiting family in Canada for the weekend when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped them for a secondary inspection at the Highgate Springs checkpoint in Vermont.
Atallah, who is originally from Lebanon, said he was told to park his Range Rover and hand over his keys. When he asked the officer why, the officer placed his hand on his gun and told him to exit his vehicle, Atallah said. He said he was then handcuffed and led into a cell, where his belongings were confiscated. He said his wife was put into a cell across from his.
“Seeing my wife’s mascara running because she was crying, it was heartbreaking,” Atallah said. “It wasn’t humane.”
I hope every single one of these cases results in a lawsuit.
I guess I’ll see about my uncle and his wife. They’re up in Canada this weekend for the holiday. Her family is there.
Because of Schindler’s list, Ann Frank’s diary and history classes, I totally understood why Vietnamese people here in the US wanted to change their name to a more American name. I found it funny at first when I met my first Viet person ever. But it was then pretty normal and I think the Chinese do it too. Now we are living the same pressures against other migrants. Will they go from Juanes to John’s? Will Maria become Jessica?
OMG! Even that is not possible due to the laws where one cannot change our name and also vote.
Slightly irrelevant, but I used to work with a guy who moved from Vietnam and changed his name to a more American one. Motherfucker was named Joe Cobra.
Even more irrelevant:
My grandfather was named Ignazio. He didn’t like people calling him Iggy, so he changed his name to Harry.
How the hell do you go from Ignazio to Harry?
Ah! Hilarious. I worked with a bunch. But my favorite one was Kevin. Imagine an elder skinny Vietnamese gentleman.
Anyway, I’m gonna be going from Francisco to Jake. Jake last name Fromstatefarm, mother’s middle name Wearingkakis.
It is awfully suspicious. Who in their right mind would return from Canada under the current circumstances?
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They were US citizens. Canada doesn’t let you stay longer than 6 months when just visiting. They had no choice but to return home at some point.
Pretty sure the comment you were responding to was sarcastic.
Anyone making sarcastic internet comments in text expects some subset of people to take it seriously. Its part of the fun!
You don’t say!
You are the one who said who in their right mind would return?
That implies they shouldn’t have returned.
I haven’t used a “/s” yet and I’ll be damned if I’m going to start now.
good. /s ruins the fun
oh come on, the best jokes are the ones that are either patiently explained, or where you’re informed it’s a joke in advance.
I hate using it too, but I also realise a lot of people are fucking stupid, so when I do use it, I’m using it mockingly.
And this will keep on happening until people react
Don’t tell that to Americans on Lemmy- they’re absolutely itching to get defensive and indignant at the suggestion that “being upset” doesn’t quite count as “action.”
Even if CBP had legal justification to detain them, can someone explain to me why the officer put his hand on his gun when asked a verbal question? Is that not brandishing?
Pretty sure they now have qualified immunity (and then some) anywhere within like 100 miles of any border or point of entry. Specifically included permission to detain anybody, citizen or not, without any paperwork. At least, best I can remember. It was one of many truly disgusting supreme court rulings in my life.
Edit: corrected the word “detain”
That’s not the question. Why did he put his hand on his gun?
Small dick energy.
It’s a standard cop intimidation tactic. There was this really toxic concept that cops were (still are?) taught that they need to “take command” of every situation and one of their first priorities is to intimidate and scare anyone who doesn’t immediately start blindly following their instructions. They perceive asking questions as a threat to their “authority” that needs to be eliminated at all costs.
As someone who believes in the right to bear arms for self defense, that guy should never be near a gun.
That seems to apply to the majority of law enforcement who in general seem to be the absolute last people that should have any kind of authority over anybody else. There’s a reason something crazy like 60%+ of police commit domestic abuse.
People who want authority over others/any kind of power should be prevented from having it.
Only people who don’t want to be cops due to moral issues should be cops.
But we live in a system that rewards the worst of us with the largest rewards (capitalism), so this won’t change until our whole society changes accordingly.
Umm, what do you mean it’s not. He put his hand on his gun because there are absolutely no consequences for doing so. To put it even more simply, he did it because he can.
Are you sure you’re asking the question you want answered???
Because he is an insecure little shit who needs to bully his betters.
Because we don’t have a legal system. We have fascism.
First, LEOs can do as much brandishing as they want. They are trained that any resistance or hesitation to their orders is a threat. They are only trained to escalate situations with threats of violence. That officer was communicating that they will not elaborate or answer any questions.
We need new laws because that is bullshit
Agreed
Perfectly legal in maga 'merica.
Due process what…?
Because he would not be socially acceptable for him to put us hand on is dick.
Bachir Atallah
Yeah, I think I know why they detained him.
Fuck this country.
He also voted for trump
If he did, then I guess he’s having the day he voted for. But I still detest that I live in the kind of country that would do this shit.
Absolutely, I would hate it where I am if it happened here
First they came for…
Move up the list.
They came for…
They are coming for us all. Act accordingly.
If a country claim you have nukes, you have to acquire them quickly.
If a government claims you are a terrorist, then become what they are claiming.
But not even the OK half of that chart is set in stone unless you have an obviously American surname like Smith or Jones. You could be a white fifth generation American with a surname that sounds remotely middle Eastern, east European, etc. and you could be in for a rude awakening…
You could be a white fifth generation American with a surname that sounds remotely middle Eastern, east European, etc. and you could be in for a rude awakening…
Or if they think you may have said something vaguely critical of dear leader online.
We all knew Trump was a dictator, he said so himself. I did not expect this level of buy in from the rest of the country though.
It has never been this explicit.
Well since the 90s anyway.
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it’s never been this explicit
Meanwhile every non-white group can tell you how they’ve been oppressed in the US for decades.
So basically anyone non-white should never visit, and if youre not white and plan to leave, plan on it just being for good.
Murica
Magats will jerk off to this, this is what they wanted with their vote
Multiple orgasms for the first time…
The victims in this case are magats.
“My brother voted for President Trump. What he and his wife regret is the trauma they endured on U.S. soil—both handcuffed without cause, separated, humiliated, and treated like threats instead of citizens.”
They’ll jerk off to it until it’s their turn.
yeah - the dogwhistle language was pretty much “jail the brown people”.
i’m sure my mother is estatic. she told me she is scared all the time because one of her neighbors is chinese (she doesnt know them or talk to them; i have never met them… and neither has she, officially). that is the only basis for her fear - she makes up stories about them and everything. the last story she made up was how they were running an international crime ring to get more chinese people to live near her…
fucking white people :(
Fucking hell, doesn’t sound far off from my mom other than the situation. I finally had to just block her number cos she wouldn’t respect my wishes of not talking about religion or politics cos she’s just a hate filled little shit bag
Dr Fu Manchu is your neighbor!
To be honest, secondary inspections are fairly commonplace at the US-CAN border. A (white) Canadian friend of ours was deported back to BC and barred from entry for 5yr because she overstayed her tourist visa. This article said he was detained Sunday evening and released by 11pm, which is like 6 hours tops- I’ve heard of people staying 8+ hours.
CLEARLY the fact that his name is Atallah and he and his wife are Lebanese had everything to do with this, but at some point it’s like, read the room. Don’t do int’l travel and expect it to go well in Trump’s Amerika
he and his wife are Lebanese
The article only says that Bachir Atallah was originally from Lebanon, his wife, only referred to as Jessica, might not be.
Not that I disagree with the fundamental notion, I just noticed that it was never said where she was from.
Flying home from international now.
Wish me luck my homies!
Just be white, and you’ll be fine. Kinda like my other advice. Just be rich and you’ll be fine.
<Sigh>
It’s not like they have thrown white Tourists from Germany or Canada in the prison the last few weeks instead of refusing them at the border
White people may be detained to. I know one elderly white man who was made to repeat ‘I love the US’ three times before being allowed entry.
He did it and managed to get in unscathed so perhaps this is not the best example. But I imagine they would have detained him if he refused.
Ya, I’m sure, but I’d bet your odds of being harassed are greatly reduced. That is a special kind of CBP agent that required them to recite that to continue… What a world we’re in…
Good luck! Let us know how it went!
If you don’t hear from me hello from El Salvador!
Funny how so many of these detained US citizens share certain, ahem, characteristics about their names
Trump might as well just make it illegal to travel in or out of the Untied States
Wouldn’t surprise me if that is his plan. We can both name a few countries where it is very hard to travel in or out of the country. They aren’t nice places to live
Without reason??? His name is “Bachir Atallah”! Clearly, a sinister sounding name like this must be detained, whereas John Smith will be allowed to enter. Part of Making America Great Again is returning to the xenophobia of the 1950s and earlier. Isn’t this what ~half of the voters wanted?
They probably thought they’d caught Atalla the Hun.
I think people in here didn’t read the article. Border patrol explained that he was just overreacting. Being cuffed and placed in a cell for hours is part of normal operating procedure. It’s all fine. Everything is fine.
