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[bekitty]

I, like Catiecat, have recently had a brush with the US Customs and Border Patrol, and been shown the benefits of privilege. Only my experience was a bit more, well, intenseA bit of background: In August of 2007, I moved with my partner David to Knoxville in Tennessee. He'd been headhunted by the folks at Oak Ridge National Laborotory, and he'd

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[hpstrangelove]

I live in South Texas and used to travel to the border twice a year; I loved going shopping and sightseeing in Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo.

I was born here, but I'm 1/2 Mexican heritage - my dad was born in the United States, but his parents were from Mexico.

However, I look like I'm Mexican: black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin that tans even darker.

Coming back into the United States was always a scary experience. I never knew how I would be treated. Sometimes it was no big deal and I was waved on through - other times it was the third degree! At least I never had to deal with any physical searches, but the threat was always there.

I don't go across the border any more - it's just not worth the aggravation.

But we still travel along border areas and still have to go through Border Patrol checkpoints on our way to Big Bend. The threat is always there too - they have the power, plain and simple, and if they feel like abusing it, there isn't anything I can do to stop them - except what you've done and get the word out later as to what happened.

Thank you for taking thte time to post it all - I'm so sorry you had to deal with it. I don't think you're whining in any way.