Police-Chief Detained & Profiled By Immigration Officials For Muslim Name On Flight Back To The U.S.

Police-Chief Detained & Profiled By Immigration Officials For Muslim Name On Flight Back To The U.S.

‘No one is safe’: Ex-North Carolina police chief rips customs agents for detaining him because of his name. A retired police chief from Greenville, North Carolina harshly criticized immigration officials who pulled him out of line, stripped him of his possessions and detained him due to his name. Writing on Facebook on Saturday, retired cop Hassan Aden said he was returning from Paris where he helped his mother celebrate her 80th birthday when he was singled out and pulled from line by a customs official at John F. Kennedy International Airport who asked, “Are you traveling alone? Let’s take a walk.” Writing on Facebook on Saturday, retired cop Hassan Aden said he was returning from Paris where he helped his mother celebrate her 80th birthday when he was singled out and pulled from line by a customs official at John F. Kennedy International Airport who asked, “Are you traveling alone? Let’s take a walk.” According to Aden after handing his passport over he was told that someone was using his name and that he had had to be cleared “so that I could gain passage into the United States… my own country!!!” Aden said that he was not allowed to leave or contact his family at the same time an official told him he wasn’t being detained. “He had the audacity to tell me I was not being detained. His ignorance of the law and the Fourth Amendment should disqualify him from being able to wear a CBP badge—but maybe fear and detention is the new mission of the CBP and the Constitution is a mere suggestion,” he wrote. “I certainly was not free to leave. As former law enforcement, believe me, I agree that if certain criteria is met, a reasonable investigative detention is not inappropriate-the key here being ‘reasonable.’” The retired police chief then warned anyone can be profiled, even when they can prove they are also in law enforcement. “I spent nearly 30 years serving the public in law enforcement. I interface with high level U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Court officials almost daily,” he wrote. “Prior to this administration, I frequently attended meetings at the White House and advised on national police policy reforms. All that to say, if this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone with attributes that can be ‘profiled.’ No one is safe from this type of unlawful government intrusion.” The former Greenville police chief, a regular overseas traveler, said he was accustomed to being welcomed back into the United States by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers “with a warm smile and the usual, ‘Welcome home sir.’ ” But, he says, when he flew back from his mother’s 80th birthday party in Paris, the officer instead asked whether he was traveling alone and then said, “Let’s take a walk.”

Hassan Aden says customs officers detained him for an hour and a half after he landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 13. Hassan Aden says customs officers detained him for an hour and a half after he landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 13. NEW YORK - Former Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden claims he was racially profiled when he was recently detained at JFK Airport in New York for more than an hour. Aden took to his Facebook page Saturday night to describe his ordeal, which happened on a trip back from Paris, France on March 15. Aden said he was returning to the United States after celebrating his mother's 80th birthday in Paris when the incident occurred. Upon his arrival in New York, Aden, a U.S. citizen and retired career police man, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers called him aside and proceeded to take him to a back room. That's where, according to Aden's account, officers told him he was being detained because his name had been used as an alias by someone on a watch list. Aden said his detention lasted for an hour and a half before CBP officers cleared him from entry in to the country and onwards to his journey home. He believes that.

--

Connect With The Host!

- BECOME A MEMBER:

- LIKE MY NEW FACEBOOK PAGE

- CHECK OUT MY ARTICLES:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PROGRESSIVE VOICE

- FOLLOW THE PROGRESSIVE VOICE ON TWITTER:

- GO TO THE NEW WEBSITE FOR ALL ACCESS