I feel comfortable passing this story on because someone I know went to school with this guy abd verifies its veracity.
www.theverge.com/...
He is an American born citizen named Sidd Bikkannavar, employed at JPL (so has some level of security clearance), he’s also enrolled in Global Entry — a program through CBP that allows individuals who have undergone background checks to have expedited entry into the country. He left the US during Obama to go to Chile and returned under BLOTUS. He was detained at the airport on the way home. It appears Customs officials not only lied to him about what he had to do vs what was required, but they forced him to give up his phone’s password. A phone that technically belongs to NASA, thus increasing the chance of a security breach.
“Nevertheless, Bikkannavar was not allowed to leave until he gave CBP his PIN. The officer insisted that CBP had the authority to search the phone. The document given to Bikkannavar listed a series of consequences for failure to offer information that would allow CBP to copy the contents of the device. “I didn’t really want to explore all those consequences,” he says. “It mentioned detention and seizure.” Ultimately, he agreed to hand over the phone and PIN. The officer left with the device and didn’t return for another 30 minutes.”
I was appalled about the EO. I felt it ridiculous and illegal. But now we learn that Customs has overreached by an incredible amount and also detained native born citizens. I point out that they should not have been detaining anyone, but how can you justify this EO when citizens WHO WERE BORN HERE were also detained? Because his name was different? He was coming from South America, not any of the countries on the “list”.
My friend from Nicaragua has been a US citizen for over 40 years. When t***p won the election she asked me, very seriously, if I was willing to hide her and her husband if need be. Of course I would, but I assured her it would never happen that she would be rounded up. Her response? It has happened before in this country.
So one serious question. Did anyone really think that, here in America, it would be coming to this? That any of us could be detained at the airport and forced to turn over our life as it exists in social media? We heard about visa and green card holders in limbo during that weekend, which was bad enough? But some guy who probably has better credentials than I do? And one federal agency infringing on another’s security for no reason?
Why didn’t they call NASA and ask about this kid? You know why? Because the union or whatever of the Customs employees heartily endorsed t***p. Remember? Have they been sitting around waiting for a fascist to come into power so they could harass people at random and satisfy some strange internal need of theirs to flex their muscles?
I have been sick to my stomach since the election. It only increased after the inauguration. But 3 weeks into this, I am as disgusted as I can be, This orange troll not only needs to go down. The entire GOP needs to go down with him.