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Written by James Carroll, Boston.com
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Immigration
ONE TIME, a US Customs official sent a chill through me, and I feel it
still. We were returning from a ski trip to Canada. At the border, the
official was brusque as he interrogated me. To my horror, I realized
that I had neglected to declare a purchase made at the ski resort, and
he seemed to sense it. He began a rough search of our car. His rudeness
prompted me to say at one point: ''You can't treat me like this. I have
rights. I am an American."
ONE TIME, a US Customs official sent a chill through me, and I feel it
still. We were returning from a ski trip to Canada. At the border, the
official was brusque as he interrogated me. To my horror, I realized
that I had neglected to declare a purchase made at the ski resort, and
he seemed to sense it. He began a rough search of our car. His rudeness
prompted me to say at one point: ''You can't treat me like this. I have
rights. I am an American."
He looked at me coldly. ''You're not in America yet, Bub. You don't
have rights until I say you do." I felt humiliated, but instructed. A
border by definition is the territory of absolute power, and such power
by definition demeans.
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