Scary US Immigration Behavior

Don't say "blogger" to U.S. Immigration -- or else



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Don't say 'blogger' to US Immigration
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 04:48:03 -0600 (CST)
From: William Knowles
Organization: C4I.org - http://www.c4i.org
To: Declan McCullagh

http://www.nevon.net/nevon/2005/03/dont_say_blogge.html

17 March 2005
Don't say 'blogger' to US Immigration

This sounds like an unbelievable story, but it happened to Canadian
blogger Jeremy Wright last week.

As already reported on quite a few blogs, Jeremy was detained and
interrogated by US Immigration when he arrived in New York last week
for a meeting with McGraw-Hill to discuss a great business opportunity
for Jeremy in the area of blogging.

It appears that the immigration people simply did not believe that
Jeremy could make a living as a blogger. And they gave him the third
degree - including an humiliating strip search - as a result for some
hours. And banned him from entering the US.

Incredible. Jeremy wrote detailed commentary on his blog about his
experience, but he's now pulled those posts (this post explains why).

While the details aren't yet clear on exactly why Jeremy had such an
awful experience at the hands of the guardians of freedom and liberty
(hard to get true irony here), this appears to be disgraceful
behaviour on their part.

I met Jeremy in the US in January. Shel and I interviewed him for a
podcast. You couldn't meet a nicer and more honourable bloke!

Hang in there, Jeremy. I bet McGraw-Hill will find a way to have that
meeting with you.

Update 17 Mar: Jeremy has posted The End of The Story.