A while back, when I was still travelling abroad for work, I was coming home from Cartagena, flying coach. The flight wasn’t full, and the young woman in my otherwise empty row was chatty.
Normally I’d put in headphones and avoid eye contact, because that’s the kind of selfish a-hole I can be, but this young lady had ‘frightened puppy’ stamped on her forehead. She kept looking at a photo of someone, maybe her sister or mom, then putting it to her chest, then looking out the window, then back at the photo, then the window. Had she turned the photo toward the window to share the view, I’d have changed rows. She didn’t.
Her English was as broken as my Spanish, but we managed to exchange small talk, mostly about immediate things: what’s on the menu, our flight attendant is pretty, and does that man’s snoring sound normal? The small talk seemed to soothe her, so I kept it up.
Eventually I guess we both fell asleep, or at least I did, because the next awareness I had was the captain announcing our approach into Chicago.
Since it was an international flight, after we got our luggage, we both headed for US Customs. We walked together, her decision, and she got in line right behind me. I pressed the search button and got treated to a patdown. I hadn’t smuggled anything in, nothing to declare, all was well. But once I was free to walk on, I overheard the customs agent behind me, addressing my flight companion, and stopped.
One of the features of adult life in America is awareness of the protruding ego of others. It’s an American pastime- or maybe it’s just my own- to diagnose the root cause of social irritants when we’re surrounded by them. A woman in a store arguing on her cellphone likes the sound of her own voice. A man whose music shakes the car windows didn’t get enough (any?) attention as a child. A woman in excessive mascara and a pushup bra lacks self-worth, etc.
These are innocuous, every day annoyances that don’t affect us personally. But on occasion, because we have to renew our drivers’ license, or pay property taxes at the window of a government worker, we all experience men and women with tiny chips of power that do affect us. You recognize them instantly as they exaggerate their own authority over miniscule matters, including yours. They crave agency. Their self-importance is so domineering one wonders what it’s like to live with them and hopes they live alone.
Well, this Customs agent, on this day, was that guy. He sniffed out my friend’s vulnerability like a truffle. She was Peruvian, and there was evidently some problem with her paperwork. He raised his voice and repeated whatever question it was he had for her. She started shaking, he relished her fear, and put his face close to hers, the better to smell it. His stance changed to a strut, and my memory may embellish here, but I’m pretty sure he thrust his thumbs into his belt and tipped back, southern sheriff like.
I’ll never know what happened to her, whether she was trying to enter the states illegally, her nervousness giving her away. But the unnecessary aggression of the customs agent got my back up. I stepped back toward the line and called back to her, “Are you ok?” She looked at me with giant eyes but didn’t respond. The Customs agent did. He left his target frozen in place and strutted toward me, relishing the plot twist. “Who do you think you are? Are you some kind of lawyer?” “Yes, in fact.” “Are you trying to be her lawyer?” “No, I’m trying to be her friend.” “Well, friend, unless you want to go where she’s going, what makes you think any of this is any of your business?”
To my eternal shame, as other customs agents circled around her, I walked on. I told myself it was because I was travelling on my client’s dime, and needed to get to the office. Also that I didn’t know immigration law so WTF did I think I was doing? But the truth is, I was intimidated. He was the worst kind of creep, a man of low intellect and high power. He enjoyed his authority. It was personal to him, so he made it personal for everyone else.
Reading about all the people Trump is having seized at the border, on mere suspicion or an unfortunate tattoo, I understand the travelers’ advisories issued by our allies. Citing instances of foreign nationals being detained for days or weeks, or expelled at the US border, our allies have begun warning their citizens about travelling here.
Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the UK are among many countries that have recoiled from ICE’s heavy hand and warned their citizens not to come, or, if they do, to be aware of what kind of place they are entering. Canada issued its advisory on April 4, warning about potential detentions. Denmark’s travel advisory, like those of France and Finland, warns people thinking about travelling to the US that they will be forced to declare a gender on ESTA and visa applications and that it better match whatever it says on their birth certificate.
Germany warns its citizens about excessive documentation requirements and heightened border checks, and spells out the chip of power dynamic I witnessed years ago: “Neither a valid ESTA authorization nor a valid U.S. visa constitutes a right to entry into the USA. The final decision regarding entry is made by the U.S. border official... There is no legal recourse against this decision. German diplomatic missions abroad are unable to influence the reversal of a denial of entry.” The UK warns people that, “even a slight overstay of their visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation.”
These warnings are not limited to tourism. International student enrollment, which exceeded 1.1 million last year, will drop dramatically this year, as will the tuition those universities relied on. Research scientists working in the U.S. are looking to get out. Foreign CEOs, en masse, have turned away from investing here.
Watching the men with shaved heads assembled like cattle in El Salvador’s CETOC, where Trump is imprisoning people for life with no process, I appreciate the travel advisories and hope they get louder, faster. Reading about the German girls on summer break who spent 12 days in detention for failure to make hotel reservations before they landed in Hawaii, I recall that my happiest trips were like the one they had in mind: unplanned, unmapped, and free.
I applaud the travelers’ advisories from our allies, even as I worry about universities losing tuition, our labs losing scientists, and small businesses losing tourism dollars. I think about Kilmar Garcia, the gay makeup artist sent to an El Salvador dungeon, and the young lady on the flight from Cartagena, and cry at what America has become.
Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
