On Sunday night, my dad was going through the security line at Washington Dulles International Airport to board a short domestic flight. It was, by his account, an uneventful evening, away from the protestors who were awaiting international arrivals.
According to his boarding pass, he'd been granted TSA Pre-check, the Transportation Security Administration protocol to expedite screening for passengers given an advance background check and deemed low-risk. Passengers can register for the program or, what is likely in this case, it is given to older travelers who don't fit the profile for a threat.
Still, he was directed to the regular security line anyway.
ID and boarding pass: Check. Bag, wallet, phone on the belt: check. Full body scanner: 1...2...3. Problem. He was asked to step aside by a security agent.
Instead of the public pat down or the hand-held metal detecting wand waved around travelers who has some sort of anomaly, he was taken into the separate room and asked to lift up his shirt, remove his shoes, pants and pull down his underwear. A visual check and pat down by a male TSA agent followed. He did as he was told.
They found nothing that would pose a threat and allowed him to board his plane without further inspections.
My dad is 68. He is a short, slight, bespectacled man who was born in India and has been an American citizen for 17 years. He had a green card, a visa for a legal permanent resident, for a nearly a decade before then. This was a domestic flight. So when he told me what happened, I had so many questions.
Had they seen his poonal, the sacred thread worn by some Hindu men across their chest? Was it because he had forgotten something in his pockets? Maybe he was just randomly selected for a search. He did not ask and was not told.
There is no evidence this search was related to the executive order that President Donald Trump signed on Friday. The TSA, I believe, has a difficult job in keeping us all safe and most employees are doing the best they can within the guidance they are given. I did not want to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, but I shared my dad’s story on Twitter because the strip search of an American citizen boarding a domestic flight is the type of security measures so many of us could face regularly because of Trump’s policies.
03/02/17 Mythili Sampathkumar/PRI
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According to his boarding pass, he'd been granted TSA Pre-check, the Transportation Security Administration protocol to expedite screening for passengers given an advance background check and deemed low-risk. Passengers can register for the program or, what is likely in this case, it is given to older travelers who don't fit the profile for a threat.
Still, he was directed to the regular security line anyway.
ID and boarding pass: Check. Bag, wallet, phone on the belt: check. Full body scanner: 1...2...3. Problem. He was asked to step aside by a security agent.
Instead of the public pat down or the hand-held metal detecting wand waved around travelers who has some sort of anomaly, he was taken into the separate room and asked to lift up his shirt, remove his shoes, pants and pull down his underwear. A visual check and pat down by a male TSA agent followed. He did as he was told.
They found nothing that would pose a threat and allowed him to board his plane without further inspections.
My dad is 68. He is a short, slight, bespectacled man who was born in India and has been an American citizen for 17 years. He had a green card, a visa for a legal permanent resident, for a nearly a decade before then. This was a domestic flight. So when he told me what happened, I had so many questions.
Had they seen his poonal, the sacred thread worn by some Hindu men across their chest? Was it because he had forgotten something in his pockets? Maybe he was just randomly selected for a search. He did not ask and was not told.
There is no evidence this search was related to the executive order that President Donald Trump signed on Friday. The TSA, I believe, has a difficult job in keeping us all safe and most employees are doing the best they can within the guidance they are given. I did not want to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, but I shared my dad’s story on Twitter because the strip search of an American citizen boarding a domestic flight is the type of security measures so many of us could face regularly because of Trump’s policies.
03/02/17 Mythili Sampathkumar/PRI
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