U.S. IMMIGRATION OFFICER LIES TO EXECUTE IMPERIAL VIOLENCEYesterday afternoon I arrived to Newark Li
U.S. IMMIGRATION OFFICER LIES TO EXECUTE IMPERIAL VIOLENCEYesterday afternoon I arrived to Newark Liberty International Airport from Bogotá, Colombia. I was welcomed into this country by the heteronormative world of a white U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Immigration Officer who accused me of being a liar. My long hair was untied and as I gave my U.S. passport to the officer I became the object of an enemy logic that is fueled by the production of people of color being terrorists and criminals. His first words to me were, “how did your hair grow that long in a month?” To the officer the person in the passport photograph and in front of him was not the same. He continued his analysis of my being by asking all sorts of questions regarding my identity. After answering all of his questions I was still a suspicious subject. Through my discomfort of such a situation I tied my hair into a ponytail to show the officer how I look when my hair is tied up. His performance was not over, he then asked for my Colombian passport. Once I gave him my native country’s passport, both my U.S. and Colombian passports became part of his scrutiny. He stamped my U.S. passport. But just as I was about to leave his counter the officer articulated a false hyper nationalistic statement regarding my dual citizenship, which to him deems me as a criminal who must be punished. “You lied when taking the oath!” the officer expressed as he simultaneously implied that I could lose my U.S. Citizenship for lying. According to this immigration officer when I took the oath to become a naturalized citizen in 2008 I lied because three years after taking such an oath I have not given up my native country’s citizenship. I did not know what to say, is he right? I suppose. This event was an epic welcome into this empire. But I had to do my job and verify if I had in fact lied when taking the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America. “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.” In fact I am a liar because: I will not renounce the citizenship of the nation in which I was born.I will not support and defend the entire Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, because I refuse being seduced into the series of wars in which the U.S. empire forces me to participate.That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. (What is this?)I will not bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law.I will not perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law.I will not perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law.I did take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion then.I do not need God’s help. However, the fascinating thing in all of this is that the immigration officer is actually wrong! The U.S Department of State considers that a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth; and that U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another. Had I known this at the moment in which that man was spewing his nationalistic lies about dual citizenship I would have asked for his supervisor to make sure that such an officer stops making comments that are solely based on pure opinion and not the facts related to the laws he must enforce in his job. Yesterday I experienced the vivid ways in which people in uniform exploit people’s sensibilities to engage in the participation of imperial violence. His actions have made me think of the ways in which this nation asks us to participate in the utterly deadly logics of empire-building. I must be everything I do not believe I should be in order to be a true citizen of a country whose name drips blood. Now is the time to think of alternative ways to complicate the problematic forces that shape this country’s glamorization of a democracy. -- source link