getting in

Last night I entered the US after a prolonged absence of more than three years, crossing Rainbow Bridge in full view of the American Falls, the evening sun coloring the mist golden. Just showing my passport was not enough. I had to pull off to the side and enter the main Border Patrol building like any other asylum seeker, illegal immigrant, and non-Western tourist. There were a few of them there already, waiting to have their case heard and, possibly, denied.

Barely arrived and with no time for the TV that's the only bit of entertainment in a drab room, I hear my name and country called. While I walk towards the open door into the interrogation chamber, I feel big black eyes in brown faces staring at me dejectedly, asking, why you, why not us, we were here first. Blessing my adopted fatherland, the country that adopted me nineteen years ago without my ever asking, I follow the officer into the adjacent room and sit down on the last chair.

Approaching the border I had wondered what it would take to cross, given that I'm not holding a visa anymore. Canada just let me in. The US was a bit more formal, but not by much. I have to answer innocuous questions about when I have last been here, what I am doing, where I'll be staying and for how long. This small talk is just the warm-up for one serious question. The officer sits up straight, looks me in the eye and asks, What have been doing in Syria?

Oops, a visa and a stamp from an axis-of-evil country surely catches their eyes. Is that reason enough for a denial? I stammer, truthfully but nervous in the face of mean-looking authority, that I was just visiting for a couple of days, tell about my Jordanian friends from graduate school, and wonder how this will continue.

It doesn't. The officer hands me a little survey with yes/no questions about previous criminal and terrorist activities, about attempts to wrest children from Americans who possessed their custody, about visa denials and unlawful entries. I answer in the negative, pay six dollars, get a stamp, and am admitted to the US. The Empire State welcomes me.