Homeland Security? Passport Art in the US of A

http://www.sabotage.at/allgemein/february-9-2005


This story reminds me of my own adventure with Detroit immigration, back in May 2001, when the service was still called the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service). Since 2003 it is part of the Department for Homeland Security.

Nothing of my stuff was confiscated, as the fake passports in the link above. No, I was deported from the USA. Sent back to Holland in about 6 hours on a ticket the INS officers kindly arranged for me. They even drove me all the way to the plane, gave my passport to the stewardess on duty, who politely walked me to my seat. A real VIP treatment!

Why?

The official reason was that I lacked a working visa to translate an English book into Dutch, which was an assignment from a Dutch publisher. I thought I could easily do this, since translating from English to Dutch doesnt seem to pose a threat to the unemployed in the USA. The INS officials however were touchingly concerned with their fellow Americans without jobs and, after interrogating me for hours, accompanied me and my luggage to one of their cars, where I had to sit behind bars at the back seat. I could hardly talk from shock all the way back home, which is 9 hours by plane, and I got totally lost at the airport of Schiphol, so I had to call a girlfriend to pick me up. In pieces.

In the report of the INS I was called an alien, which they call all foreigners in the USA, but I always have associations with a being from outer space when I hear this word.

It took me months to recover from this 'patriotic service' and whenever I read about strange immigration measures, I see those uniformed officers again, and how they treat the aliens who want to visit their precious 'homeland'.