TSA Now Joining ICE And CPB In Harrassing US Citizens

It looks like the TSA is learning a few tricks from CPB and ICE as the DHS continues its harassment of US citizens in clear violation of law. Muhammed Ali, Jr., who was detained at a Florida airport when he tried to re-enter the country from Jamaica and was asked whether he was a Muslim, was held up again as he tried to return to Illinois from Washington DC where he had been testifying about the earlier incident.

Ali claims that when he went to check in and provided his info, he was told that the agent would have to contact the DHS. After a delay, he was asked for his Social Security number and his date of birth. He was then informed that the Illinois drivers license that he had provided as ID and had used on his trip to get to Washington was not a valid federal ID for air travel. Ali then produced his US passport and was allowed to continue his journey.

All told the delay was under 30 minutes but the nearly immediate reaction of the agent to call the DHS does leave a strong suspicion that Ali had once again been targeted by DHS. If his identification was the real issue, wouldn't the agent have asked if he had any other federally accepted ID before calling DHS.

In a related story, the head of the DHS, John Kelly, was in Canada on Friday to meet with his Canadian counterpart, Ralph Goodale. There were two thorny issues that Goodale needed to address. First, a number of legal Canadian citizens have been stopped from entering the US for no apparent reason and virtually all of them have been minorities. Kelly' response was that "There is a reason why", saying either their credentials were not in order or that they appeared on a watch list. This seems highly dubious since some of those turned away had entered the US without issue on recent occasions. He continued, "It’s not their race, it’s not their religion, it’s not the language they speak." It is hard to believe there is any other explanation, though.

The second issue is the influx of refugees entering Canada from the United States, especially into the provinces of Manitoba, Quebec, and British Columbia. The belief is that these refugees no longer feel safe asking for asylum in the US and feel their chances and their safety will be better in Canada. Kelly had an especially bizarre comment in regard to this issue, saying that many of those refugees were already in the United States legally. He continued, "Everyone was perplexed. Many of them have only been in the United States a few days before they made the trek north, so it’s something we’re certainly trying to figure out."

Is Kelly really that dumb or is he being willfully ignorant? The rhetoric from the top of the Trump administration on down has been extremely anti-immigrant and xenophobic. There are rumored plans for a mass deportation force, families are being separated, and the Muslim ban 2.0 is in place. ICE, CPB, and now TSA are being highly aggressive and overstepping their authority regularly. The message is pretty clear that the US does not want immigrants. And Kelly is perplexed. And he says this with a straight face. Give me a break.