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CNN and a a lot of other outlets are reporting that JPL engineer Sidd Bikkannavar, an American-born citizen, was detained at the border when returning from racing solar powered cars overseas.
The border guards demanded he turn over his government-issued NASA phone and its PIN and held him in their detention area.
Bikkannavar also was interviewed by The Verge:
"It was not that they were concerned with me bringing something dangerous in, because they didn't even touch the bags. They had no way of knowing I could have had something in there," he says. "You can say, 'Okay well maybe it's about making sure I'm not a dangerous person,' but they have all the information to verify that."
Bikkannavar says he's still unsure why he was singled out for the electronic search. He says he understands that his name is foreign — its roots go back to southern India. He didn't think it would be a trigger for extra scrutiny, he says. "Sometimes I get stopped and searched, but never anything like this. Maybe you could say it was one huge coincidence that this thing happens right at the travel ban."
Land of the free? Home of the brave?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 15 2017, @03:33PM
There was speculation that it had to do with his apparent racial background. That could be true, although I'd consider it more likely if his name was, say, "Mahmoud" or "Hussein".
But there's another potential explanation: Recently, NASA employees have been taking their research data and ensuring it gets stored off government systems, because the Trump administration has been making it perfectly clear that they'll be trying to get rid of data that doesn't conform to their ideology. The NASA employees' actions are not illegal, because that data was public information, but it is also obviously considered contrary to what the POTUS wants them to do. That combination would be exactly the kind of thing that would get the federal government harassing NASA people using every barely-legal dirty trick in the book.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @03:53PM
Pretty sure any Americans named Hussein carry the long form birth certificate by now...even if it's their middle name.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @08:05PM
There was speculation that it had to do with his apparent racial background. That could be true, although I'd consider it more likely if his name was, say, "Mahmoud" or "Hussein".
You give these guys way too much credit.
He's brown, his name sounds indiany and there are 300M+ muslims in india.
You always hear the apologists say "islam is not a race" but to the actual racists its a distinction without a difference - especially when you hear about sikhs getting attacked by people who think they are muslim. Orientalism has been mixing up all the eastern brown people for centuries. Hindu, muslim, sikh, buddhist, parsi, etc — they are all a bunch of hajjis...