"Saudi Arabia, Spain, England, and Kazakhstan."
"What were you doing in Saudi Arabia?"
"I went for Pilgrimage."
"Kazakhstan?"
"A UNESCO conference."
"What do you do?"
"I am a writer."
"I will be back in a few minutes."
He leaves the room with my passport.
He returns after 5 minutes and asks the same questions, more or less.
I repeat my answers.
"Come with me," he says, "this is not my computer. We need to go to another office."
In the new office, he tells me that he will have to enroll me in the program called "Special Registration Procedures for Visitors and Temporary Residents."
The way he said it, sounds like a reward air miles program that would allow fast entry to the US. He gives me a piece of paper, which is a photocopy of a brochure by U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service (Form M-526(09/11-02).
"I will have to ask you a few questions," he says, "but I give you this other information which I generally give out at the end." He gives me a few more sheets of paper.
"If I could make the 4:55 flight, that would be great."
"We will try."
"What is your postal address?" I tell him my address.
"Postal code?"
I tell him the postal code which he mistypes. I point out the mistake. He corrects it and then moves the computer screen away from my sight.
I sit back and quickly glance at the brochure. I read: "You will be fingerprinted, photographed, asked to show documents, and interviewed as to the length and purpose of your stay in the United States."
"Does this apply to me?" I ask, "this fingerprinting stuff."
"Yes," he says, still looking at his computer screen.
"I refuse to be treated as a criminal. I have lived in Canada for 22 years and your Secretary of State has just assured us that we will not be discriminated on the basis of our country of birth."
"I will have to call my supervisor." he said and left the room, only to return with the supervisor-the same person with whom I had talked earlier.
"Let me explain to you, Mr. Iqbal," the supervisor says, picking up my passport from the desk, "what this program is about." Now I have a name. I look at him. He is wearing a name tag: He is M. Samuel.
"I have already read the brochure," I say, "I refuse to be treated like a criminal. I have been invited by the Georgetown University to help them in planning a conference and I am not interested in subjecting myself to this treatment. Your Secretary of State was in Ottawa recently and he made a public statement that no Canadian
citizen will be discriminated on the basis of country of birth."