As my Air France flight descended into Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, Georgia it was wonderful for me to see the dark hued greens of the American South I had enjoyed so many years ago while studying in the United States…my joy was to be short lived.
Upon disembarking from the plane my fellow passengers and I were put into a virtual cattle line of queues by black uniformed, machine gun touting officers of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. The acronym for this US police agency is ICE, and which is well suited in describing their intimidating manner of treating the guests of the United States and their morality in dealing with women and children.
“Step out of line again and you WILL be arrested!” came the sharp retort of an ICE officer towards a young English mother attempting to keep her young child from running out of the queue, a statement that shocked all who heard, but none dared protest against. For as Europeans we have long learned the lessons of police brutality from travels in the former communist nations of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
But, in America? In today’s world? …and against Europeans who have overcome centuries of warfare and bloodshed so that our continent can now be traveled in relative peace? Sadly yes, but in retrospect to be expected under the present circumstances of an America more resembling those Eastern European nations of old instead of the land of ‘freedom and liberty’ it once aspired to.
Upon the presentation of my passport to the ICE agents, and their comparing the information on it against whatever their computer monitor was saying, I was abruptly whisked out of the queue and brought by two ICE agents to a small room with two chairs, one small desk and no windows.
The efficiency of the ICE agents was matched only by their seemingly total lack of empathy and understanding for any ‘foreigner’ daring to come into their fearful presence, of which by the computer information they had received about me made such a person.
It was quickly told to me by the ICE agent in charge that my admittance to the United States was being denied because I had violated the provisions of the United States Visa Waiver Program ( a programme where citizens of many countries, including Ireland, are allowed visa free travel to the US for up to 90 days) as members of the foreign press were required to apply for a visa prior to entry into the US, and of which they considered me to be.
[It is interesting to note that after traveling to, and through, the United States for over 20 years no such requirement was ever placed upon me.]
I have long learned in my life that protests against state police authorities, from any totalitarian government, is futile at its best, downright dangerous at its worst, so my only questions were related to the procedures involved in repatriating myself to Ireland.
My first request to be able to talk by phone to an Irish counselor official were denied as I was not being ‘detained’, I was merely being denied entrance into the United States and therefore had no rights. (As I was clearly on American soil this answer seemed patently absurd, but when confronted by ICE agents with weapons the wisest course of action is inaction.
I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain a return flight to Heathrow via Lufthansa, and who accepted my Air France return ticket. The unfortunate part was the six hours it took to finally leave America and having to be ‘escorted’ by two armed ICE agents, the female one even having to accompany me into the loo.
It is one thing learning about the United States, and Americans, from afar, in seeing how far they have descended into a virtual police state is almost beyond description, other than the obvious comparisons with other brutish states around the world, both past, and present.
Most frightening about all of this to me, however, has nothing to do with myself, but rather what this is doing to the American people behind the black-uniformed ranks currently surrounding Americas borders. When a person, such as myself, is deemed such a ‘threat’ to the United States that the mere presence of my being in that country calls for my immediate expulsion, one must truly wonder how grave the situation is for those people imprisoned in the gulag called America.
As I look out the window to my left at the great expanse of the Arctic wastelands, with their ever white peaks grandly reaching towards the stark blue sky, I am at peace with this adventure, though saddened by it too.
For in a world ruled by madmen, when one of the greatest nations ever known has been reduced to a police state, one truly understands the great perils facing our world today.
With God,
Sorcha Faal
