In The Washington Post, Miami novelist Diana Abu-Jaber recounts a long wait at her home city’s airport after her surname turns up on a watch list. “After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. ‘No phones!’ he said. ‘For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information.'” After two hours, she’s released without any explanation.

Abu-Jaber also notes, “The same thing had happened recently in Canada when I’d flown to Montreal to speak at a book event. That time they held me for 45 minutes.”

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Click here for Abu-Jaber’s piece