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.

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.”

  • j0ester@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    I guess I’ll see about my uncle and his wife. They’re up in Canada this weekend for the holiday. Her family is there.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
        0·
        11 days ago

        Not enough to make any material impact … yet, if ever.

        Wait until a celebrity is handcuffed at the border whilst live streaming the experience.

        Even then, the brainwashed will still claim that it was justified.

        Not until it happens to them will anything like this resonate.

        I think things like DHL no longer accepting personal shipments into the USA valued at over $800 will have a bigger impact than this all too familiar story.

  • hddsx@lemmy.ca
    0·
    11 days ago

    Even if CBP had legal justification to detain them, can someone explain to me why the officer put his hand on his gun when asked a verbal question? Is that not brandishing?

    • Opi@lemm.ee
      0·
      11 days ago

      Because he would not be socially acceptable for him to put us hand on is dick.

    • Souroak@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      10 days ago

      First, LEOs can do as much brandishing as they want. They are trained that any resistance or hesitation to their orders is a threat. They are only trained to escalate situations with threats of violence. That officer was communicating that they will not elaborate or answer any questions.

    • forrgott@lemm.ee
      0·
      11 days ago

      Pretty sure they now have qualified immunity (and then some) anywhere within like 100 miles of any border or point of entry. Specifically included permission to detail anybody, citizen or not, without any paperwork. At least, best I can remember. It was one of many truly disgusting supreme court rulings in my life.

        • orclev@lemmy.world
          0·
          11 days ago

          Small dick energy.

          It’s a standard cop intimidation tactic. There was this really toxic concept that cops were (still are?) taught that they need to “take command” of every situation and one of their first priorities is to intimidate and scare anyone who doesn’t immediately start blindly following their instructions. They perceive asking questions as a threat to their “authority” that needs to be eliminated at all costs.

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
            0·
            11 days ago

            As someone who believes in the right to bear arms for self defense, that guy should never be near a gun.

            • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
              0·
              10 days ago

              People who want authority over others/any kind of power should be prevented from having it.

              Only people who don’t want to be cops due to moral issues should be cops.

              But we live in a system that rewards the worst of us with the largest rewards (capitalism), so this won’t change until our whole society changes accordingly.

            • orclev@lemmy.world
              0·
              11 days ago

              That seems to apply to the majority of law enforcement who in general seem to be the absolute last people that should have any kind of authority over anybody else. There’s a reason something crazy like 60%+ of police commit domestic abuse.

        • forrgott@lemm.ee
          0·
          11 days ago

          Umm, what do you mean it’s not. He put his hand on his gun because there are absolutely no consequences for doing so. To put it even more simply, he did it because he can.

          Are you sure you’re asking the question you want answered???

        • Ooops@feddit.org
          0·
          11 days ago

          Yes it was. The short answer to your question is very obvious: because he can get away with it and it gives him a feeling of power to threaten people. It’s the why OP answered for you.

    • dmtalon@infosec.pub
      0·
      11 days ago

      Just be white, and you’ll be fine. Kinda like my other advice. Just be rich and you’ll be fine.

      <Sigh>

      • albert180@piefed.socialDeutsch
        0·
        11 days ago

        It’s not like they have thrown white Tourists from Germany or Canada in the prison the last few weeks instead of refusing them at the border

      • shawn1122@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        White people may be detained to. I know one elderly white man who was made to repeat ‘I love the US’ three times before being allowed entry.

        He did it and managed to get in unscathed so perhaps this is not the best example. But I imagine they would have detained him if he refused.

  • Ileftreddit@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    To be honest, secondary inspections are fairly commonplace at the US-CAN border. A (white) Canadian friend of ours was deported back to BC and barred from entry for 5yr because she overstayed her tourist visa. This article said he was detained Sunday evening and released by 11pm, which is like 6 hours tops- I’ve heard of people staying 8+ hours.

    CLEARLY the fact that his name is Atallah and he and his wife are Lebanese had everything to do with this, but at some point it’s like, read the room. Don’t do int’l travel and expect it to go well in Trump’s Amerika

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      10 days ago

      he and his wife are Lebanese

      The article only says that Bachir Atallah was originally from Lebanon, his wife, only referred to as Jessica, might not be.

      Not that I disagree with the fundamental notion, I just noticed that it was never said where she was from.

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
    0·
    11 days ago

    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.

    • Tujio@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      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.

      • altphoto@lemmy.today
        0·
        11 days ago

        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.

      • NABDad@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        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?

        • orcrist@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          That depends how you count. Guantanamo Bay was used after 9/11 and many or most of the people who were locked up there didn’t commit any kind of crime. Although, I suppose most of them were not kidnapped on US soil, so it’s not quite the same of course.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        But not even the OK half of that chart is set in stone unless you have an obviously American surname like Smith or Jones. You could be a white fifth generation American with a surname that sounds remotely middle Eastern, east European, etc. and you could be in for a rude awakening…

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
          0·
          10 days ago

          You could be a white fifth generation American with a surname that sounds remotely middle Eastern, east European, etc. and you could be in for a rude awakening…

          Or if they think you may have said something vaguely critical of dear leader online.

          We all knew Trump was a dictator, he said so himself. I did not expect this level of buy in from the rest of the country though.

        • superkret@feddit.org
          0·
          10 days ago

          They detained a white German tourist trying to enter with a German passport and valid visa for several weeks, while he begged them to just let him book the next flight back to Germany.

    • whodrankarnoldpalmer@startrek.websiteEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Don’t tell that to Americans on Lemmy- they’re absolutely itching to get defensive and indignant at the suggestion that “being upset” doesn’t quite count as “action.”

    • NABDad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      The victims in this case are magats.

      “My brother voted for President Trump. What he and his wife regret is the trauma they endured on U.S. soil—both handcuffed without cause, separated, humiliated, and treated like threats instead of citizens.”

      They’ll jerk off to it until it’s their turn.

    • AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      yeah - the dogwhistle language was pretty much “jail the brown people”.

      i’m sure my mother is estatic. she told me she is scared all the time because one of her neighbors is chinese (she doesnt know them or talk to them; i have never met them… and neither has she, officially). that is the only basis for her fear - she makes up stories about them and everything. the last story she made up was how they were running an international crime ring to get more chinese people to live near her…

      fucking white people :(

      • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
        0·
        11 days ago

        Fucking hell, doesn’t sound far off from my mom other than the situation. I finally had to just block her number cos she wouldn’t respect my wishes of not talking about religion or politics cos she’s just a hate filled little shit bag

    • andrewta@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      Wouldn’t surprise me if that is his plan. We can both name a few countries where it is very hard to travel in or out of the country. They aren’t nice places to live

  • yarr@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Without reason??? His name is “Bachir Atallah”! Clearly, a sinister sounding name like this must be detained, whereas John Smith will be allowed to enter. Part of Making America Great Again is returning to the xenophobia of the 1950s and earlier. Isn’t this what ~half of the voters wanted?