I just came across this in the Washington Post:
Zakariya Reed, a Toledo firefighter, said in an interview that he has been detained at least seven times at the Michigan border since fall 2006. Twice, he said, he was questioned by border officials about "politically charged" opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper. The essays were critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East, he said. Once, during a secondary interview, he said, "they had them printed out on the table in front of me."
It turns out the guy is not only a firefighter, he also served in the National Guard for 20 years. It gets better -- though I really should say worse.
Here's some snippets of what happened to him at the border (from an excellent article in The Progressive):
After about an hour more of waiting and answering questions, Reed was getting impatient.
"Can I go see my kids and talk to my wife?"
"No, you need to stay here. Your kids are being taken care of."
Not true, his wife told him.
"They wouldn’t even let her go to the car to get a diaper bag to change their dirty diapers," he says.
He also says the guards engaged in some nasty banter.
"You know, we’re really too good to these detainees," one said, according to Reed. "We should treat them like we do in the desert. We should put a bag over their heads and zip tie their hands together."
After about three hours, Reed says they took his photo and his fingerprints, and made him wait a half hour longer before giving him his passport back and telling he could go.
"Our car was completely trashed," he says. "My son’s portable DVD player was broken, and I have a decorative Koran on the dashboard that was thrown on the floor."