Late last year, I visited Arizona—a beautiful state that offered me many unique experiences. Unfortunately, one of the unique experiences of the trip was the series of not-so-random searches at the airports.
The first one was at Detroit Metro Airport. While not entirely happy, the inspection could have been much more embarrassing. For all the hassle of “screening” me, the TSA agent didn’t do much more than ask me questions to establish which bag was mine. He patted me down and, then, proceeded to swab my shoes, jacket and bags. The agent ran the pieces of cloth through a machine, which showed that I was carrying nothing more than a few books and notebooks. Once cleared, I was off to my gate to wait for my plane.
I would have been over this if it was the only time, but it wasn’t. On the way back, the same thing happened. A TSA agent told me that I was selected for a “random search.” Now, the New Oxford American Dictionary defines random as “made, done, happening or chosen without method or conscious decision.” Considering that I was inspected on those two flights and also anytime that I travel, I can only conclude that there is nothing random about those inspections.
What makes this really frustrating is that there seems to be little that I have been able to do. I have contacted a few people at DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and only seemed to receive sympathy. I have to say that the sympathy that I received from the person I spoke with was indeed consoling. There are still US congresspeople to contact and perhaps even President Obama.
While I know that the presumed idea is to throw out the “net” and capture the bad guys, the net is too wide. You would think that if it were this easy to put a flag on me, then there should be some procedure to “unflag” me. If there is such a way, then nobody seems to be able to let me in on it.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for security and maintaining safe borders. However, I feel that there is something wrong when I’m being detained every single time that I travel. Where is the terrorist? Where is the criminal? Have they been caught? TSA’s guess is as good as mine.
Author: Jose A. Rodriguez
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