Jalal "Jay" Shehadeh had no reason to believe he was under suspicion from the government. A former assistant state attorney in Florida, he traveled frequently without problems and was preapproved for fast-track border access under the Global Entry program. And he had no problem getting through Israel's notoriously strict airport security while visiting family in the Palestinian territories. But on the way home, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) held Shehadeh for four hours at Newark Liberty International Airport with no explanation and seized his cellphone.
"I'm sitting there and nobody's even telling me why I'm here. It's a very bizarre thing to be an American coming into America, being put into a room like this when you're coming home," Shehadeh, who was born in New Jersey and spent several years of his childhood in the West Bank, tells Reason. "It's wild to think a Palestinian who grew up in Palestine was able to get through border control in Tel Aviv in less than 10 minutes, but this is what happens to me when I come into the United States."
