NYT: A scary ordeal at U.S. immigration

http://www.iht.com/articles/125919.html
Nina Bernstein/NYT The New York Times

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
NEW YORK A German woman married to a Brooklyn schoolteacher had been told that she had all her permits when she took a quick trip to show off her infant daughter to her parents in Germany.

But her return home in late December turned surreal and terrifying when Homeland Security officials at Kennedy Airport rejected her documents, confiscated her passport, then detained her and the 3-month-old for 18 hours in a room with shackled drug suspects. They let her go only after ordering her to leave the country no later than Jan. 22.

After a month of desperate efforts by her American husband, their lawyers and legislators, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department said late Tuesday that the woman, Antje Croton, 36, would be granted a last-minute reprieve. But Croton said she had received no written notification.

"I'm in a nightmare," she said as she packed Tuesday afternoon, two days before the scheduled deadline, having abandoned hope of straightening out the problem. "I feel like I'm in the wrong movie."

Her husband, Christopher Croton, said the couple was not convinced their ordeal was over.

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printed from NYT: A scary ordeal at U.S. immigration on 2004-06-03 10:13:33