Are you on the watch list?

LastLion · #1 (**permalink**) 12-28-2008, 12:12 PM

UNFORTUNATELY, I can relate to this guy's aritcle due to my infamous Irish name in which I share with a still sought after IRA terrorist.. I get stopped travelling domestically as well as internationally, more so than anyone else I know

Why Can't I Get Off This List?

By Juan Fernando Gómez
Sunday, December 28, 2008; Page B03

I call it the little room. In most cases it's actually not that small, but my claustrophobia seems to kick in as soon as the immigration officer separates me from the other passengers on my flight and escorts me through a door into my own private travel hell.
As you sit in crowded airports waiting for your long-delayed flights, cursing yourself for traveling over the holidays, remember: It could be worse. You could be me. My ordeal begins before the plane touches down in the United States, some time between the moment when the flight attendant begins handing out blank immigration and customs forms and when I hear the wheels disengaging in the belly of the plane. Will I sail through immigration and customs, I wonder, or will this be the time that they get me? Might I even be whisked off to Guantanamo?
The crazy thing is that I have done nothing wrong. I am a U.S. citizen and have no criminal record. I pay my taxes (well, except for those few years when, right out of grad school, I was convinced that taxes did not apply to me). I don't litter. The problem is that I happen to share a name with at least one shady character on the Terrorist Screening Center's watch list. At least, that's the list that I believe I am on, although no official will tell me for sure.

My name is common in Latin America, the Spanish equivalent of John Smith. It also seems to be particularly popular among law-breakers. I once sneaked a peek at an immigration officer's computer and saw an entire screen full of my doppelgangers. Who knows how many of them were bad guys and how many were law-abiding saps like me?

HERE is the rest of the article;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...122601120.html

***BIG E*** · #2 (**permalink**) 12-29-2008, 03:13 AM

Thats ok LL.

I was pulled over for speeding in San Antonio once. I was in uniform on my way to the airport. The guy came back and asked me to step out of the car and asked if I was on parole for armed robbery in Brownsville. I laughed and asked him what he thought. He said it seemed I was, as my name brought up someone on parole. The only difference was our date of birth.

LastLion · #3 (**permalink**) 12-29-2008, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big E

Thats ok LL.

I was pulled over for speeding in San Antonio once. I was in uniform on my way to the airport. The guy came back and asked me to step out of the car and asked if I was on parole for armed robbery in Brownsville. I laughed and asked him what he thought. He said it seemed I was, as my name brought up someone on parole. The only difference was our date of birth.

Its all racial profiling!!! You latino me irish,, its all bull****! hahaahahah