Monday, March 24, 2008

Yeah, about that little day trip across the border...

Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, from the Islamic Republic of, err, Iceland, describes the punishment inflicted upon her by Homeland Security for overstaying her VISA by three weeks in 1995.
During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned.

She was over the course of 24 hours repeatedly interrogated; deprived of food, water, sleep and her belongings; twice publicly humiliated at JFK; and, transported across state lines and locked in what appears to have been a solitary confinement cell. Oh yeah, and Lillendahl's family, not to mention the Icelandic consul, was lied to about her whereabouts.

h/t