30 July 1997
I'm mad. I mean really upset. Two days ago we went to Canada for my Grandmother’s funeral. In attendance were my wife, infant daughter, sister, and sister-in-law. For the sake of background I will tell you that my grandparents were German and Latvian and my sister is of Korean ancestry. My wife’s ancestry is Italian-Colombian and, as a consequence, my sister-in-law has tan skin, something like a Polynesian. Every one of us is a United States citizen. In fact, we have all grown up here in the United States and three of us have college degrees. We are as typical as you might expect from US Citizens. The significance of this information is to provide a backdrop for the following incident.
The US-Canadian border patrol is notorious for asking generally ridiculous-sounding questions, regardless of which way you may be heading, and for their acute lack of humor (some might use the word personality instead). What prompted this open-ended letter, however, is that two weeks ago, we made a visit to my Grandmother in Canada. My sister-in-law was not present and we encountered no unusual delays when crossing the border into Canada. This last time, however, with my sister-in-law present we were asked, by the Canadian border guard, “what is the relationship of everyone in the vehicle?” I explained the relationships, and the border guard asked for clarification that my wife and I were the legal guardians of our daughter (we’re her biological parents and legal guardians). That seemed odd, but we were soon on our way so I paid it no further thought.
On our return trip, we had to pass through the American border guard. He asked us the usual questions but then asked what I thought was a very unusual question, “Does everyone have ID?” I replied, “Well, the baby obviously doesn't have a driver's license.” He proceeded to lecture me about having to carry a birth certificate and then demanded, “OK, everybody break out their ID.” My wife and sister-in-law had their ID in the trunk. In a voice loud enough for the guard to hear and while facing him I told them to go get their ID. The guard waited until they were out of the vehicle and at the back of the car, our 1986 Mercedes-Benz 300E, before yelling at my pregnant wife to get back into the car. And, perhaps betraying his thoughts, he barked at my sister-in-law, “Hey you! You speak English? Get back in the car!” Then, just to flex his authority muscle, he ordered us over to the side to talk to yet another border guard.
This second guard saw that I was bothered by this whole incident and wanted to know why I was so “put out.” He then suggested that I should appreciate their intimidation and harassment since, he claimed, they were doing their heroic part to recover abducted children. But the only image that came to my mind was Nazi Germany of the 1940s: “Papers! Where are your papers?” The unspoken, horrifying threat being waved before me was the separation of our precious daughter from the arms of her parents. The very weaponry that I, as a tax-paying citizen, am funding was being pointed right at me. Perhaps I’m irresponsible for not constantly carrying my daughter’s birth certificate and her social security card; I was always told to keep them safely stored from theft and loss. I was also told that a photocopy is unacceptable for use as an official document.
It turns out, however, that our US border guard isn’t so concerned with child abductions. On the contrary, that was just a convenient excuse to get ID from my sister-in-law. Looking back it is obvious to me that this whole border-patrol exercise took place for just one reason: because of my sister-in-law's skin color. They thought we were smuggling a housemaid into the US. And seeing a young couple in a Mercedes-Benz (which, I might add, we bought used; it now has over 173,000 miles on it) only made them feel certain of their bias.
My wife and her sister were both deeply offended at the way we were treated. We have all been raised to respect authority and to be honest, tax-paying citizens. So, why? Why do we spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually to hire power-hungry, closed-minded automatons to vigorously patrol a border with one of our NAFTA partners, the one country which arguably has the most in common with the United States? Is illegal immigration from Canada such a threat?
All the previous information is really only a background to the real issue: What are we willing to trade in order to “feel” safer? Terrorists can drive trucks of explosives into the World Trade Center and park them in front of Federal buildings and our only answer is to become even more suspicious of the average citizen? I, for one, am not willing to trade my constitutional rights for an intangible edge in safety, especially since I realize that it is physically impossible to simultaneously protect every single citizen in the US, regardless of how many freedoms we concede. I am not willing to have my family treated poorly due to the whims of anti-social law enforcement persons. Are you? Consider our so-called airport “security.” Are we the people receiving anything for our concessions?
Your answers should be heard through your vote and your letters to elected officials. Don’t let our country hand itself over to increased militant rule because of fear.
Matt Warner
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