Because, they can?
To start the normalization of this process.
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What puzzles me is why more people aren’t telling CPB agents to fuck right on off for boarding any form of domestic transport?
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Ok, so as a demand, it doesn’t sound at all legal. But since no one failed to comply with the “request,” it was never escalated into a “demand.”
Asked to clarify CBP’s authority over domestic passengers, the spokesman replied that “at this time this is all I have.”
That being nothing.
When first reading about this, I was tempted to print out something that superficially looked like some kind of ID card I could keep in my wallet that just said something like, “Fuck off you unconstitutional authoritarian” that I could present in such situations, but now I’m thinking I just need a 3rd Reich-style identify document, in German, to carry around. (Kennkarte - Wikipedia) Maybe that’s too subtle, though…
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Perhaps it is, but looks like I have some photoshopping and crafting for this weekend…
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This seems like a good place for this video
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Poor Charlie!
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It’s about “putting people in their place” and creating a compliant populace.
It may sound paranoid, but it’s the thin edge of the police state wedge. Sure, it’s no big deal, you have to have ID anyway to fly, but it’s about making everyone comfortable with the process of willingly subjugating themselves to anyone in a position of authority.
When people are comfortable being inmates, they won’t have the fortitude to do anything when this action is followed up by disappearing those people they decide need to not be part of society.
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I’ve never really been too sure how I feel about these videos…
I have to share a serious incident that happened to one of my wife’s colleagues just last week.
Without giving out too many details, a co-worker was flying home from a southern border town with a group of senior executives from a major US corporation after a week of meetings. As they attempted to approach the TSA checkpoint at the tiny regional airport, a CBP officer was inspecting documents and confirming that everyone was a US citizen. This colleague is a legal immigrant from India with permanent resident status and a Green card. He’s lived in the US for decades. He also happens to be dark skinned and has a name that is difficult to pronounce.
It was described to me by a person who witnessed the entire event that when he approached the CBP officer and handed him his identification, we was pulled out of the line, questioned at length and quite seriously harassed and threatened with detention and deportation. For what reason? Nobody can tell other than he was obviously profiled due to his skin color and foreign sounding name. There is no other explanation as this person is a gentle, soft spoken man with absolutely no criminal history and is a respected, dedicated professional executive.
The event lasted almost 30 minutes before he was finally released. By then the flight had departed and he would be forced to repeat the process waiting for the next flight several hours later. He was badly shaken and traumatized by the experience. Fortunately some of his colleagues waited for him and they proceeded to rent a car and drove for 10 hours to get him out of the area and to a major city airport for a direct flight home.
I personally know many of the people involved and this entire experience has not only impacted them but my wife and I very deeply. This is some serious gestapo shit and it just angers me to my core that people can be treated this way with impunity. I have no idea what kind of recourse is even possible in the current political climate but rest assured that mine and my wife’s activism level has just increased dramatically from this point forward. I will no longer stand silent as my country deteriorates into fascism.
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A friend of mine - a Unites States citizen - had his cell phone confiscated by customs. When he resisted, asking what right they had to do so, the response was a dry Nazi-like “You want things to go well for you, don’t you?” Damn
This is no bullshit. The ACLU is going to be vital in the coming months and years.
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I wish I had been there. I would refuse to show immigration my ID on a domestic flight, and INSIST they deport me to my nation of origin.
Interfering with domestic commerce is strictly outside their mandate.
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I am so looking forward to trying to get back into the country on my green card after our upcoming vacation.
Really should have sorted that citizenship out earlier.
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I have a friend, naturalized citizen from Nigeria. Global Entry.
Gets pulled aside for a random check every time.
Every. Time.
His wife literally works eradicating polio and other nasties in the world and if she wanted to, has the ability to sow anthrax over the majority of a major city, but he’s the one who gets pulled out of line. So it’s totally not racism and stuff.
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Hopefully this hits the airlines right in the pocketbook. If they lose enough money, they’ll start telling CBP to piss off.
I salute you sir and will help in any way I can.
Yes they are.
They feel like they have the power now.
It’s just random and a coincidence that he gets pulled over and Bubba over there drinking his beer and cleaning his gun while driving isn’t!
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Try me, literally!
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I hope the CEO hears about this. If we’re going to have lobbyists and corporate big money in politics, let them do some good.
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Am I the only one who would probably just buckle? My ID? Right away! Am I a citizen? I sure am!
I feel real admiration for the people who make those videos, the people who aren’t afraid to be pains in the ass or risk the anger and vindictiveness of officials propped up by their badges.
I assume I’d cave right away.
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