Ali Jr., 44, who confirmed his Muslim faith, was detained about two hours, despite telling officials that he’s Ali’s son and a native-born U.S. citizen, Mancini said. It was the first time Ali Jr. and his mother have ever been asked if they’re Muslim when re-entering the United States, he said.
“From the way they were treated, from what was said to them, they can come up with no other rational explanation except they fell into a profiling program run by customs, which is designed to obtain information from anyone who says they’re a Muslim,” Mancini said in a phone interview. “It’s quite clear that what triggered his detention was his Arabic name and his religion.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Daniel Hetlage confirmed Saturday evening that Ali Jr. was held for questioning by customs officers, but said “it wasn’t because he’s a Muslim and it wasn’t because of his Arabic-sounding name.”
The agency said in a statement that its officers process more than 1.2 million international travelers daily with “vigilance and in accordance with the law.” It said it does not discriminate based on religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
“We treat all travelers with respect and sensitivity,” the agency said. “Integrity is our cornerstone. We are guided by the highest ethical and moral principles.”
During his detention, Ali Jr. was asked repeatedly about his lineage and his name, “as if that was a pre-programmed question that was part of a profile,” Mancini said.
Some of y’all might remember the Profiling at gunpoint that I experienced in Texas. The Border Patrol lied about their profiling then. They’re doing it again, this time with Muhammad Ali Jr and his mother. Where the PIG ass-hats questioned him for a couple of hours about his name, his RACE, his Nationality, and RELIGION and subsequently LIED THEIR COLLECTIVE COWARDLY RACIST ASS OFF ABOUT PROFILING.
The Border Pigs have detained me repeatedly, twice at gunpoint, and twice they admitted they stopped me because I “looked Mex”. If they can’t tell the difference between an Indian born on this side of the border and one born on the other side, that’s racist profiling. The second time at gunpoint, near the corner of Alameda and Copia in El Paso, five in the morning in early March 1986. I had walked from Sun Valley Drive, on the northeast side of town, to within spitting distance of the border. I started before midnight. About 15 miles.
My friend and sometimes employer who owned a print shop there, and I wanted to see if he could work me that day, putting circulars on doors, wasn’t there yet. It’s one of those jobs you need to start at dawn working. Like farming. And for the same reason, it gets kind of warm in El Paso in the spring. More so in summer, but walking all day in the desert (even in town) Mister Sun is not your friend. So I was waiting for Jonathan to show up. There were a couple of migrant workers a block away, no big deal. An unmarked black van did a u-turn right in front of me, the sliding door opens and 5 dudes dressed in black fatigues, masks, no insignia, and those pocket sized machine guns in their hand. And no, I did not check to see what brand make or model they they were. It’s one of those “form follows function” thing and they really look alike at 0 dark thirty in the morning Especially as your eyes get fixated on the muzzle, which might be 38 or 45 hundredths of an inch across but (picture me with my arms spread wide) it looks THIS BIG!!! And they were screaming at me in Spanish, which I didn’t speak at the time, I caught a couple of phrases,… so here’s the scene, right? I’ve got 5 really hopped-up fanatics wearing all black and pointing machine guns at me and screaming. I thought they were one of the Salvadoran death squads we had to endure at the time, thank you Ronald Reagan, Ollie North, CIA. And where the border enforcement pigs when that particular Foreign Terrorist Threat was going down? Why, they were shaking down an Indian born in Topeka, which is in the God-Damn middle of America, more on that theme soon… who was waiting for his chance to be an exploited worker at just before dawn. Land of the Free, give me a fucking break.
My thoughts, from what I caught of their hysteria-infected Spanish screaming, that my friend Nacho had ripped off the the Colombians and I was about to die right then. I pulled out my best elementary school Spanish and asked them to please speak English as I didn’t speak any Spanish. Now I do, then I didn’t. What I heard as “¿donde esta Nacho?” was instead ¿Donde Nació? which is, to quote Cheech Marin “answer, in English if you can, like, Where Were You Born, Man?”
They got pissed off and a couple of them took off their masks, i think it’s called a balaclava? not important. A “ninja mask” you know the ones. They asked for my ID. I whipped out my DD214 Honorable Discharge papers, which actually work as acceptable ID. It was showing a little wear BECAUSE I HAD TO IDENTIFY MYSELF TO THE FUCKING PIGS SO OFTEN. Mostly because they profile people by race. They mocked the fact that it kind of beat up, then made a radio call to their Superiors (hey, Police State enthusiasts, if your boss is a “Superior” that makes YOU an “inferior”. Chew on that you stupid rat bastard fascists) to check if I was some kind of international terrorist mercenary like themselves. They ordered me to leave the area and since they were Still Pointing Machine Guns at me I did. In the meantime they were telling me it was because I Looked Mex. Therefore My Fault, but they assured me they weren’t doing racial profiling. Just like the pigs told Muhammad Ali Jr. Oh, and Kansas, yes, let me expound on Kansas as promised.
Topeka is, in Kansas, the western edge of civilization. It’s near the Missouri border. There’s alleged to be a sign on the western edge of Topeka on I-50 that says “Warning: No Civilization Next 800 miles”.
Even closer to the Missouri border is Olathe. The capital, if you will, of the Shawnee Nation. You heard the news. The “lone wolf independent of all control by the Right Wing Racist Extremists” you know the ones, like Jim Adkisson, Dylann Roof, punk-ass bitches lie them, all of whom have Shooters Manifesto papers left in their pickups or SUVs when they go into a church or political meeting to blow away their fellow Americans, who of course aren’t “Real Americans” because they’re of a different race, church, political orientation…
You know, like the questions the Pigs asked Muhammad Ali Jr. But it’s not “profiling” and we know this because the Church Shooters and Lynch Mob Klansmen or Border Patrol tell us they’re not profiling. Just like the smug smirking Fascist Pig in the white house keeps saying that the anti-Muslim orders aren’t racist or a violation of religious freedom Funny how the Right Wing Fascist Cult Followers of the Commander in Thief chant the same words every time one of their Cult members does a racist shooting, that the immigration hysteria they generate and propagate is NOT actually racial hatred and that it’s somehow NOT a call to arms and NOT a green light to just Murder anybody who has darker skin. Topeka and Olathe and Lawrence are pretty much the Civilized part of Kansas.
