Just another day at the office when Homeboy walks up and
\nhands me his passport, green card and Customs Declaration. In one motion I
\ncompare him to the pictures on his documents, swipe the machine-readable
\nstrip in his passport, annotate his Dec and ask “How long were you out of
\nthe United States?”<\/p>\n
”A few months,” he replies.<\/p>\n
”How many months?” I ask, examining his green card’s
\nsecurity features (it’s legit).<\/p>\n
”I don’t know,” he replies. Sigh.<\/p>\n
The computer says he’s not known evildoer and his
\ndocuments are real (or really good fakes). All he has to do is answer a
\ncouple simple questions correctly and I’ll let him walk away. I look him
\nin the eyes with my “just spit it out, will ya?” look.<\/p>\n
”When did you leave the U.S.?” I get the feeling he
\ndoesn’t want to tell me and I’m getting annoyed. This happens when someone
\nmakes me ask the same question three times. I don’t mind when they don’t
\nunderstand, but when they’re trying to hide the answer it urkes me.<\/p>\n
He looks down. The answer inaudible.<\/p>\n
”When!” He looks up suprised, maybe shocked.<\/p>\n
”October,” he says quietly. He knows I’m annoyed. I
\nwas smiling, now I’m as stern as every other Inspector.
\n“That’s four months.” Just the facts maam’. “You were gone for four
\nmonths. That’s a long time. Why were you gone for four months?”<\/p>\n
He hesitates. “I was sick.” He looks like a healthy
\n32 year old. When someone is sick they tell you what they had. I don’t
\nwhy, but they do.<\/p>\n
I open his passport and see half a page of stamps.
\n“How long were you out of the United States last time?”
\n“I don’t remember.” Grrr. I look back at the stamp and recognize the only
\nAmerican admission number.<\/p>\n
”What’s the problem?” he asks.<\/p>\n
You’re making this harder than it needs to be, I
\nthink, as I flip through the pages of his passport. “You left the U.S. to
\n$country on July Nth and returned on October Nth. That’s four months. You
\nleft the U.S. again on October Nth and are re-entering today. That’s four
\nmonths. In the last nine months you’ve been gone eight.”<\/p>\n
”What do I have to do if I want to be gone for that
\nlong?” He asks.<\/p>\n
”You’re supposed to get a travel document from the
\nINS,” I say. I wouldn’t normally care but you made me look for the truth.<\/p>\n
He’s broken. He’d answer anything. “I lost my job,”
\nhe says. I know you lost your job, that’s why you moved back to $country.
\nIt wasn’t you that got sick, it was the economy. I could grill him more,
\nbut there’s no way we’re going to send him back. I know everything I want
\nto, but I’m not about to let him walk away without a lesson.<\/p>\n
”We gave you the green card so you could live and
\nwork here. If you’re not going to use it we can give it to someone else. I
\nwant you to go to secondary.”<\/p>\n
”I don’t understand,” he says as he turns away. “It
\nwasn’t a big deal last time.”<\/p>\n
”That’s because you answered my questions last
\ntime,” I reply. He looks back alarmed. I think he understood.<\/p>\n
”Next!” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just another day at the office when Homeboy walks up and hands me his passport, green card and Customs Declaration. In one motion I compare him to the pictures on his documents, swipe the machine-readable strip in his passport, annotate his Dec and ask “How long were you out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[20,23],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-line","tag-immigration","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opendna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}