Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Wednesday February 15 2017, @05:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-the-government's-data-already dept.

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?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @06:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @06:07PM (#467498)

    Yeah, you're an Internet tough guy. You'd do wonders and sh*t blunders.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @07:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @07:17PM (#467547)

    you don't know that. just like i don't know if you're really a pig.