Alienated by unwelcome questions on character

South Asians and Middle Easterners often feel they are targets of racial profiling by US immigration and security agencies.

The brouhaha over the "secondary inspection" to which Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan was recently subjected at New Jersey's Newark airport has drawn attention to the humiliating treatment meted out by immigration officials to Middle Easterners and South Asians on account of their name, religion or appearance.

While Khan's treatment at Newark was hyped in India - some Indian politicians always wait for an opportunity to side with the rich and famous, and India's Information Minister Ambika Soni even demanded that Americans visiting India be treated similarly - one should put the incident in proper perspective.

"Upon arrival at any port of entry [in the United States], customs and border patrol (CBP) officials routinely examine the passengers' passports and visas to determine whether the person should be allowed to enter the United States. This is done at a primary inspection station where foreign nationals are questioned to confirm their identity and nationality," says Jonathan Abraham, a New York-based immigration lawyer whose clients include South Asians. If the passenger is admitted, the CBP official also decides how long the passenger will be allowed to stay in the US and the status under which he has been admitted. The CBP officials also compare fingerprint records, check databases for any alerts on foreign visitors and determine if the person has any preconceived intent behind his visit to the US.

According to immigration experts, if the officials are not satisfied, they can subject foreign nationals - and US citizens - to what is known in official parlance as a "secondary inspection". In the secondary inspection, the foreign nationals may be asked details about their travel plans in the US or required to produce additional identification and other documentation to determine the actual intent behind their visit to the US. The review may even include a physical search of the belongings of the foreign national and getting a full set of fingerprints.

While many foreign nationals feel the checks at US entry points are humiliating and intrusive, the authorities contend that even prominent American personalities are checked because the computer highlights their names, which may be similar to those of wanted terrorists or criminals. Even the late Edward Kennedy, an American political icon, and former vice-president Al Gore have been subjected to extra review.

The lengthy wanted list, which CBS officials use to compare names of arriving visitors, contains more than 700,000 names. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is responsible for security at US entry points, says it is aware of the hardships caused to wrongly-identified foreign nationals arriving in the United States. Such travellers can file a complaint with the agency, which will then try to resolve the case as quickly as possible, the TSA added.

The agency, which receives an average of about 2,000 complaints a month, is working on a more modern version of its register to obviate false identification of arriving foreign nationals. The upgraded system will have additional information such as a person's date of birth, thus reducing the agency's reliance on names alone.

But the South Asian community is divided over Khan's treatment. Many say India will not have problems of terrorism if the country's politicians refrain from interfering in the work of Indian security agencies.

"American politicians do not interfere in security matters and allow their security officials to check everyone, including foreign VIPs. Indian politicians should emulate their American counterparts and not interfere in the work of the Indian security agencies. After strict security measures were enforced in the US, there has been no terrorist incident since September 11, 2001. India, on the other hand, has faced a number of terrorist incidents," says Rajesh Nair, a naturalised US citizen of Indian origin, who works with an IT company. Indians live in a "VIP dream world" and the sooner they get out of it, the better it would be for their country, he added.

In a private conversation, an American official said: "We do not spare our senators and congressmen at airports. Why should Indians be given special treatment?"

But Khan's interrogation has drawn attention to the treatment meted out to lesser-known travellers whose cases usually go unreported.

Jagdish R. Patel, a New Jersey businessman, says many people of South Asian descent - and this includes not just Muslims but also Sikhs, Hindus and Christians - entering the US are questioned or searched by immigration and customs officials, not all of whom are aware of the cultural sensitivities of foreigners.

Patel recalls an incident when he was flying to Houston, Texas. When the red light of a scanning machine beeped, a security checker at the La Guardia airport in New York laughed and said: "You are in big trouble, buddy." Patel says he was shaken by his words. "What had I done, I asked myself. It turned out that the comment was a joke in bad taste by the checker who obviously did not know anything about cultural sensitivities," Patel said.

There have been cases of excesses committed by US security and police officials. Recently an incident involving Ravi Shankar, an associate professor at the Central Connecticut State University and editor of Drunkenboat.com, shocked the South Asian community. Shankar, an American of Indian origin, was detained for 36 hours in a Manhattan jail because of the colour of his skin and an unpaid speeding ticket. His nightmare began when he was returning home to Connecticut after attending a literary event in Manhattan. He was stopped by policemen and asked to take a breathalyser test on the suspicion of drunken driving. Although he tested negative, the policemen arrested him, claiming there was a warrant against him.

With his hands cuffed behind his back, the professor was pushed like a common criminal into the police van, with one policeman uttering "sand nigger", a racial slur. After taking his fingerprints and photograph and recording his personal data, the police showed Shankar an arrest warrant issued for a 5-foot-10 white Caucasian man. Shankar stands 6-foot-2 and looks, as South Asians would describe him, a "pakka desi" [a reference to Indians].

Although the case against Shankar was dismissed at the first hearing, it took a bizarre turn when the judge ruled that Shankar, a well-to-do individual, should not have been given a public defendant and should get his own lawyer to present his case.

South Asians despair at "what man can do to man" in a society that professes to be fair to everyone, regardless of skin colour, religion or beliefs. There are complaints that the Patriot Act, enacted after 9/11 to prevent terrorist acts, has been misused by the police and other law enforcement officers. South Asians wonder if President Barack Obama would speak up for them as he had against the recent arrest of his African-American friend, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

According to many South Asians, the attitude of US enforcement officials in the country is often biased. A Rand Corporation study suggests, for example, that 89 per cent of traffic stops by the New York Police Department in 2006 involved non-white drivers.

Observers feel the Obama administration should adopt a "middle path" that marries security needs with respect for civil rights to prevent alienation of the growing South Asian community.

Manik Mehta is a commentator on Asian affairs.