An Our Insane World “Shortie”

Just a follow-up to my post on why I feel traveler profiling needs to be implemented to provide greater security to the traveling public. The original post is here:

Profiling_Post

Yesterday, I arrived from Europe via Boston. When I got to passport control, there was a serpentine line-up that was being tightly managed by a woman. She was there to make sure the people in her line-up were either US citizens, or US permanent residents (green card holders, etc.). She appeared to be an employee of a contract security firm. She was clearly an immigrant to the US. English was certainly not her first language either.

The person in front of me was allowed through. I was asked to stand behind her in line 9. When she walked up to the Border Patrol officer, he raised his hand with her passport and called out, “Passport!” The lady managing the line replied, “It’s OK, she’s got a Canadian passport!” The officer shook his head no ... and in a bit of a huff.

The person in front of me was then asked to move to another line.

When I got to the officer, I asked him what happened.

Her passport was a passport from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A few problems here:

1) Bosnia-Herzegovina is not the US.
2) A passport from Bosnia-Herzegovina is not a Canadian passport.
3) Neither passport is a document of US citizenship or US permanent residency.
4) The woman may not be able to read.

One thought just struck me like a right hook:

How safe should one feel when our airport security is being managed by people like this?