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| "Bad hombres"? CBP detained Colombian sisters for 36 hours, won't say why |
Another example of the Border Patrol out
of control. Two Colombian sisters—Laura Gómez, 11, and Dayana Gómez,
20—arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport the night of March 29 to visit their
mother and stepfather. The sisters have Colombian and Spanish citizenship; as
Spanish citizens they qualify for the visa waiver program, which allows them to
stay in the U.S. for up to three months. Instead of admitting the Gómez sisters,
CBP agents detained them for 36 hours, questioned them without an attorney
present, and then deported them on March 31. During the ordeal, the younger
sister had to be rushed to an emergency room because of severe stomach pains;
she was then returned to Logan for further questioning. The CBP refuses to
comment on the case, claiming privacy concerns. The CPB’s regional press
officer for New England is Stephanie Malin, Stephanie.malin@cbp.dhs.gov,
617-565-6006.
If this is how CBP agents treat middle-class children
with European Union citizenship in Boston, we can imagine how they deal the
with the poor Mexicans and Central Americans they detain in the relative
obscurity of the southwestern border.—TPOI editor
Colombian Sisters, Including 11-Year-Old With Medical
Condition, Detained at Logan Airport
By Michael Rosenfield, NBC Boston
March 30, 2017
Laura and Dayana Gomez flew from Colombia Wednesday night
into Boston's Logan International Airport, but they couldn't get far. The
sisters, who live in Colombia and traveled to Massachusetts to visit their
mother and stepfather, have been detained and questioned since their arrival.
Their mother, who lives in Lowell, is extremely worried, and
not just because of the lengthy detainment. Laura, who's just 11, was rushed to
Massachusetts General Hospital Thursday morning for severe stomach pains. She
was then taken back to the airport, where the questioning has continued.
Read full article or view report:
11-Year-Old Girl And Her Sister, 20, Detained At Logan
Airport Wednesday
By Fred Thys, WBUR News
March 31, 2017
The two young sisters, ages 11 and 20, who were detained by
Customs and Border Protection agents at Boston's Logan Airport Wednesday after
arriving from Panama, have been put on a flight back Friday morning, according
to an attorney representing the younger sister.
The sisters, who are Spanish citizens, flew into Logan to
visit their mother in Lowell. They are expected to fly on from Panama to
Colombia, where their grandmother resides, the lawyer said.
Citing privacy laws, Customs and Border Protection have not
said why the sisters were detained for two days or why they were put on a
flight back to Panama.[…]
Read the full article:
2 comments:
They left out the part of the story - "they had school documents with them. They have applied for green cards" - USCIS raises a red flag and warns people not to travel if they have applications in process that has not yet to be approved .
And that justifies interrogating a child of 11 until she has to be taken to the emergency room?
Normal human beings can hardly be expected to understand the morass of absurd regulations that govern the immigration process. The relevant rule here is based on a presumption that the sisters' green card applications indicated an "immigrant intent"--that is, in non-bureaucratic language, an intention to stay in the country instead of leaving when their visitor's visas expired. Actually, people who have applied for resident status are probably less likely to overstay their visas, since that could jeopardize their cases. And an ordinary mortal could understand why a mother would want to start the school enrollment process for children she expects will receive green cards in the near future. Not to mention that a parent might simply want to see her children.
But the real point here is that the government claims the immigration enforcement apparatus, which costs us nearly $20 billion a year already, is protecting us from terrorism and crime. Did the border agents really think these two sisters were criminals or terrorists?
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