Mem Fox, Australian author, gets apology after being wrongfully detained at LA airport

Australian author Mem Fox has received a written apology from the United States after what she said was a traumatic detention by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport.

Fox, who was questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers for two hours earlier this month as she was on her way to Milwaukee to address a conference, said she collapsed and sobbed at her hotel after she was released.

She said the border agents appeared to have been given "turbocharged power" by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to "humiliate and insult" a room full of people they detained to check visas.

That executive order was eventually halted by Federal Courts and it was expected a new order would be signed this week, designed to avoid the confusion caused by the original.

"I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness," Fox said.

"The entire interview took place with me standing, with my back to a room full of people in total public hearing and view — it was disgraceful.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-...t-los-angeles-airport-by-us-officials/8303366

 

Just curious. How well would you hold up being forced to stand with hostile men asking questions and being insolent and being treated with disdain?

You sympathy for a fellow woman is not very touching.

Note: Immigration made the mistake. Her visa was fine.

Is this any way to treat any 70 year old woman?

 

Rolfe, thanks for you concern. I appreciate it.

I need no apology from such a person as Righteous. I understand he can't help himself. I actually get good laughs from his irrational pontificating and unthinking replies.

Wonder if he worried about Rev's mental health with the hundreds upon hundreds of anti-Obama posts the last 8 years?

My concern is the damage Trump is inflicting on our country and on the image of America people around the world will have of us. My hope is that they will realize that Trump does not represent the majority view of Americans.

 

Yep, been in many countries. Never been bothered in other countries. In Brazil one searched through the airport looking for me to tell me my lost luggage had been returned from another airport and I could pick it up at the luggage room. When It was obvious my luggage had been sent on to another country I politely ask what I could do. I could see he was expecting me, an American, to be hostile to him. He reply was "I will see what I can do." Honey goes much further than vinegar in these cases.

The most impolite customs officials I have met were those here in the US.

I have seen Americans detained in other countries and each time it was their own stupid fault in thinking that being an American gave them special privileges and making demands. How you dress is also important.