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These days, the strictness of the American border security system and immigration rules is becoming a cause of great trouble even for citizens traveling legally. In the latest case, Indian-origin American writer and entrepreneur Neil Bakshi has made serious allegations and said that while returning to America after spending his vacation in Greenland, American border officials detained him and interrogated him for a long time. Despite being an American citizen by birth and officially using the Global Entry facility, he had to go through this unexpected and mentally disturbing experience. While sharing a video on the social media platform Instagram, Neel Bakshi has openly mentioned this entire incident, after which once again a heated debate has erupted on the policies of immigration investigation and profiling in America.
Indian-origin American writer Neil Bakshi has narrated the entire story of this incident through his social media account. According to Bakshi, when he returned to the US after completing his trip to Greenland, he was stopped at the airport instead of going through the normal immigration process. They had valid documents and regularly avail the authorized ‘Global Entry’ facility for faster and smoother travel. Despite this, the border officials kept them under additional scrutiny and separated them from the main queue. Neil says that being an American citizen, he had occasionally faced random checking before, but this time the experience was completely different from all his previous experiences and was extremely uncomfortable.
In the name of additional investigation, Neel Bakshi was first made to sit in a big waiting area and then he was taken to a small and cramped room. Neel alleged that the condition of that room was quite pathetic, where the cushions of the sitting bench were torn and there was no lock on the bathroom door from inside. Inside that small room, customs and border officials started asking him for very personal information related to his life. The officers asked him sharp questions regarding his association with various organisations, ideological forums and certain groups. When Neel objected to such unprovoked and intense questioning, the officials defended their actions, saying that all this was being done keeping in mind his own safety, so that any possible security threat could be averted in time.
During his detention, Neel Bakshi not only faced his own interrogation, but he also witnessed closely the treatment of other travelers at the border. Referring to one particular incident, he said that there was also an elderly Hispanic woman present who was not able to speak or understand the English language. The attitude of the border officials towards that woman was very rude and inhuman. An officer made serious allegations of lying to the helpless elderly woman in public and mentally tortured her. After seeing this incident, Neel Bakshi believes that taking strict steps to protect the country’s security and borders and preventing security threats may be the priority of the government, but as part of this process, continuously distrusting a certain section of the population, constantly looking at it with suspicion and repeatedly bringing only certain groups of American citizens under more strict scrutiny is extremely worrying and discriminatory.
Experts and analysts believe that this sudden and unprecedented tightening of passenger screening at US borders and airports is a result of the extremely strict immigration rules implemented by former President Donald Trump’s administration. Since the strict enforcement of immigration laws, the security screening process of travelers traveling to and from America has become many times more complex. The concerned security agencies and officials consistently maintain that the sole and main objective of implementing all these strict measures is to make the security of the American nation impenetrable and to completely curb illegal immigration and illegal infiltration into the country. However, the biggest negative aspect of these policies is that due to this, even innocent citizens traveling by following the law with valid documents are facing serious administrative problems, lengthy interrogations and mental harassment.
Proponents of immigration reforms and human rights activists clearly argue that it is completely unfair to subject US citizens and legal green card holders to such lengthy and humiliating interrogations and random checks even when the travelers possess all valid documents approved by the government and are holders of prestigious and credible statuses like Global Entry. Incidents like Neel Bakshi’s prove that there is a severe lack of transparency in America’s current border security systems and cases of racial and ideological profiling are continuously increasing there. The kind of administrative harassment Bakshi had to undergo despite being an American citizen has given rise to a deep sense of insecurity among immigrants and minority communities living in America. In the coming times, it will be very interesting to see whether the US administration softens its repressive border policies or whether citizens traveling legally will continue to face similar administrative arbitrariness.