Yet the trip is hard for me and that, in addition to the farewell of friends and family, has a lot to do with the arrival. At Dulles airport, the ever -long line is waiting for passport control.
Paul Jansen: ‘I always realize that it may be the last time that I close my parents in my arms’
The waiting time is usually at least an hour. A long ribbon of aircraft passengers shuffles towards the boxes with border guards. They form the front line of the hard migration policy of the Trump government and shine all the way anyway zero tolerance out.
In recent months there have been the necessary border dramas in the press. Imaging around the ‘Boeeman’ in the White House plays a role in this. Also among previous presidents, the border police at American airports was inexorable. Nevertheless, the number of visitors from the Netherlands in recent months was about ten percent lower than last year.
I close with confidence in line, because my papers are fine. When it is finally my turn, after checking passport and visa on the other side of the glass, it does not sound the usual ‘Safe Travels Home ‘.
This time the border guard says: “You are almost there, but you have to do one more thing for me.” My passport disappears in a plastic safe with a form on which the customs officer scribbles something. He points to a desk at the end of the hall: “Register there.”
The agency appears to be the marker of a blinded corridor. When I get that entry, I end up with a room where there is ‘secondary control’ at the entrance. In the room people hang on chairs in positions that betray that they have been there for a long time. Oh no! I think. Do I now get entangled in the tentacles of a angular American government?!
Paul Jansen has to pay $ 1500 to be allowed to swim and also have to take a littermager elderly with you
While I take a seat, I see travelers standing at counters, gesturing with piles of papers. This can sometimes be a long seat. And what if they refuse me? Shoot through my head. Can’t, I tell myself. But still.
Paul and his family sit on a stair bike and see how escapers are caught in the collar
After an hour of basting, my name sounds, along with those of a few other people waiting. A cop asks if I am a journalist and if I have something to indicate. A strange combination. Horror stories about electronic checks devices Ghosts through my head, but instead the man says after I have answered: “Follow me.”
Let off
The official leads our group to another lock. When we walk through it, we are ‘released’ in the luggage hall. We are back at other passengers arrived. Somehow it feels like a liberation. There was a computer failure, the border guard explains, which is why travelers with unusual visas were picked out.
Relieved I get in a taxi. Almost at home!