A comedian from Libya, granted U.S. asylum, accuses Customs and Border Protection agents of racially profiling him and holding him without cause. He says the incident gave him nightmares and that his federal suit is serious — but he's worked it into his stand-up act.
Libyan funny guy Mohanad Elshieky often riffs on cross-cultural quirks, such as the tendency of Americans to tell him that in this country, his name is pronounced “Mohammed.”
Greyhound representatives, who did not respond to requests for comment, have said that federal law requires the company to allow agents to board the buses. But aobtained recently by the Associated Press said that the Constitution’s 4th Amendment bars agents from boarding buses and questioning passengers without a warrant or consent of the company.
Enforcement operations away from the border “function as a means of preventing smuggling and other criminal organizations from exploitation of existing transportation hubs to travel further into the United States,” the statement said. In his recurring dream, he said, he’s trying to return to the United States after having being deported. “It takes place at an airport somewhere in Libya,” he said. “I’m trying to fly back to the U.S. and they’re telling me, ‘You don’t have the papers to do that.’”According to the suit, Elshieky had changed buses in Spokane and boarded a coach for Portland, Ore., where he lived at the time, after performing the previous night at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.
“Mr. Elshieky burst into tears when he re-boarded the bus and was consumed by anxiety during his 6.5-hour bus ride to Portland,” the suit said. “CBP’s unlawful detention caused Mr. Elshieky to suffer loss of liberty, significant humiliation, fear, trauma, stress, disruption, emotional distress, economic loss and other damages.”
“These people on the one hand respect law enforcement so much and think the law is perfect, but now that I’m using the same laws to file a suit, people are upset that I’m doing that,” he said.
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