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.”
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.