I witnessed a detention by Immigration officials

[mnhtnbb]

Coming home yesterday through Customs & Immigration at Raleigh/Durham International Airport in North Carolina.

I was on a plane from London. There was a Lufthansa plane from Frankfort which arrived ahead of us. By the time I reached the line for US Citizens and Permanent Residents, there were about 40 people in line ahead of me, some from my plane and most, I think from the Lufthansa flight. It was moving slowly because only one of two Immigration agents was processing people at a normal pace. (There were two other agents available to process people in the line for non US Passport visitors, which was about the same length.) The other agent seemed to be asking extensive questions of the sole woman at his desk. From a distance, she might have been Indian? Middle Eastern? The Research Triangle is home to a sizable Indian population and it is a hub for IT related employment as well as biochemical research related industry. Two orange vested agents walked up to the desk and required her to go with them. There was not an altercation-- no raised voices--but her body language suggested she didn't want to go with them. One agent on each side of her took her by the arm and led her to the elevator. No phones (cameras) are allowed to be used in the area. Signs saying such are posted.
Nobody around me in my line said anything, including me.
I have not heard stories of detentions happening locally. RDU is not a major international hub, and it's one reason I decided to pay the higher price for a direct flight, rather than go by connecting through Philadelphia or Dulles, JFK, or Boston. Not only did I want to avoid the possibility of delayed or cancelled connecting flights, I was concerned about going through Immigration at those larger entry points.

In the 40 years I have been traveling internationally, I have never witnessed someone led away by two Immigration officials. I have seen Customs officials ask people to open their suitcases, after clearing Immigration, but nothing like what I saw yesterday. It was all done very quietly and frankly, may not have been noticed by many of us waiting our turn in line.

ICE arrests and deportations increase in North Carolina | Charlotte Observer https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article312515332.html

[Irish_Dem]

1. People should not go quietly. Once they are kidnapped anything can happen.

Rape, torture, death.

Like they tell women do not get in that car when a man is abducting you.
You will likely be killed.
Fight like hell.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. I'm surprised that RDU isn't a major international hub. Thank you for sharing this.

Check out the demographics on immigration in your state here:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/state-immigration-data-profiles

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/state-immigration-data-profilesReview

U.S. Census data on U.S. immigrants and the native born is compiled by the Migration Policy Institute*

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/

NO PAYWALL
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ice-arrests-deportations-surge-mecklenburg-210009532.html
ICE arrests, deportations surge in Mecklenburg County
WSOCTV.com News Staff
Thu, October 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM EDT

New numbers show ICE arrests and deportations are rising in Mecklenburg County, as well as across the state.

According to reports from the Charlotte Observer, ICE agents arrested three times the number of people in the first half of this year compared to last year.

That’s also a steeper increase than the rest of the state.
...

*I hope and pray that we can believe in the accuracy of this data analysis and that the reference numbers are not being manipulated by questionable forces for nefarious purposes.

❤️ RESIST!! ✊️

[mnhtnbb]

3. There are 15 international destinations

from RDU, including London, Paris, and Frankfort. Many of the others are smaller island destinations, but also Mexico City, Panama City(new), and Toronto.

List of 30 busiest US airports for international travel: RDU isn't on the list, but Charlotte is.

List of the busiest airports in the United States - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_the_United_States

[littlemissmartypants]

15. I've flown in and out of there (and Charlotte) myself many times.

ILM is quickly becoming a busy hub with lots of offerings. I have also co-piloted with a retired commercial pilot friend out of Michael J. Smith Field* and enjoyed spectacular views of the NC coast that way.

Thanks for sharing this information for those unaware of the particulars regarding RDU. ❤️

*Michael J. Smith Field
http://gc.kls2.com/airport/KMRH
Michael J. Smith Field (ICAO: KMRH, FAA LID: MRH) is a public airport located one mile (2 km) north of the central business district of Beaufort and northeast of Morehead City, in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the Beaufort-Morehead City Airport Authority.[1]

The airport is named in memory of astronaut Michael J. Smith, a native of Beaufort who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[2] It was formerly known as Beaufort-Morehead City Airport.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Smith_Field

[barbtries]

5. RDU is actually quite small.

Only 2 terminals. The big airport in NC is Charlotte.

[mnhtnbb]

8. Charlotte has about 3x the traffic of RDU.

It's an American Airlines hub for lots of connecting flights.

[llmart]

4. Maybe all major airports need to have plain clothes ACLU lawyers near the immigration/customs areas.

Then if they see something like this happening they can act as a mediator on behalf of the person being whisked away.

This just sickens me. RDU is home to many fabulous universities who need faculty and researchers from all over the world as do most major universities. Some of the research they do benefits all of us. I worked in faculty hiring at a large university and was in awe at what some of these people had accomplished in their fields by the time they were in their thirties.

[barbtries]

6. I'm guessing

she was not allowed into the country, but that's just a guess. Most likely an international student or scientist considering it's RDU.

[mnhtnbb]

10. I suspect a visa issue myself.

But you never know.

[llmart]

11. Or the wife of a researcher at Duke.

Could be anything. ICE wouldn't care. I had to work closely with the legal department at my university. The faculty usually brought their families with them. The legal department assisted with getting their documention and it was my job to vet them first (the employee only of course). I retired a year before I was thinking because it was the orange asshole's first term and the rules/laws/paperwork changed every other week. I was extremely conscientious in my job and loved what I did, but I couldn't take another year of dealing with all the chaos. This second term is even worse than before.

[KS Toronado]

7. " No phones (cameras) are allowed to be used in the area."

Can't believe that would be legal in a public place like an airport.

[mnhtnbb]

9. That's been practice for many years.

[uncle ray]

16. that's a rule I'd throw out the window if i suspected a crime was being committed.

[Abstractartist]

12. If this bothers you

As it does me, then we must all vote, and EVERY VOTE AGED democrats must participate in the up coming 2026 election. The way to stop this is to defund this. The house controls the budget and monetary aspect of this country. This is why trump is getting away with all the tariff and budget cuts, because the house / senate are all right wing controlled. Cut the funding, don’t pay them, then they are just radical thugs, which can then be arrested, or even confronted by Good Samaritans.

[yardwork]

13. It's frightening.

This is also my airport. While small and seemingly friendly, I've also found RDU to be rather strict. I don't know why, exactly, but it seems more "military" if you follow me.

[DFW]

14. My wife was detained on two occasions by those clowns at the Atlanta airport

On both flights, we were coming in from Paris, and flying on to Charleston, SC. I was with her both times, and

The first time, she was detained because the CBP guy said she was intending to stay longer than the allowed 90 days within 180. She had visited our US-based daughter earlier that year, as she was having a thyroid operation, and my wife was there to help her out. However, I had calculated our December-January trip so that she would leave on the 89th day out of 90 that she was allowed to stay in the USA. We were taken to a holding area for "problematic" entry applicants. The other people there were non-Europeans, and she stood out as a tall blonde, but in the eyes of CBP. they were all "problems." equal opportunity target of harassment. After an hour, we were taken before a panel of three higher-ups and asked to explain ourselves (herself, as I was not an issue). I told them what the problem was. They took about 30 seconds to count up the stamps in her passport, plus the date of her return flight, saw that I was spot on with the 89 days, apologized for their over-eager colleague and sent us on our way.

The second time was one for a short story. We got to the usual first "line of defense," and the CBP guy, himself an immigrant (I suspected Netherlands Antilles from his accent and name tag) told her that her fingerprints didn't match what they had on file. Since the fingerprints they had on file were taken from the same fingers she had on her hands this time, we reminded him that she had not replaced her fingers since the last time she entered the USA, which had been 5 months earlier. He was having none of it, and had us brought over to the same old detention area. He didn't return to his post, and my wife speculated he wanted a coffee break, and she provided him with the perfect excuse to leave his post. Whatever the reason, we waited again for nearly an hour, and then got called before the panel of three higher-ups. They asked what her deal was. We explained that their colleague was claiming that her fingerprints this time were not the fingerprints she had had on her fingers previously. They rolled their eyes, apologized more profusely this time, and again sent us on our way.

At least it hasn't happened again in recent years. With Trump, we take nothing for granted, but maybe CBP and ICE have been given new guidelines as to what kind of passenger to harass at our airports, and she is no longer included in the A list of racial profiling. She has landed in recent years at Boston, New York and Atlanta, and without incident of late. We had to get her ESTA renewed recently, and were nervous about delays due to the shut-down, but her approval came through within five hours of submission. You can believe we printed it out in duplicate ASAP!!

[mnhtnbb]

17. The other interesting thing was luggage

When I got to the baggage claim for the area, there is one carousel for bags to be delivered from international flights. The London bags had not started being delivered, yet there were lots and lots of uncollected bags going round and round. They had to be from the Lufthansa flight and most of those passengers had already gone through Immigration. So where did they go? There's no place to go after clearing Immigration, than to pick up your luggage and either leave the airport, or take it back through to recheck before going through Security for connecting flights. The bags were stacking up 3 deep on the carousel. Where were all the people belonging to those bags? They couldn't all have been in the restrooms.