Irish Oscar winning film's star tells of airport detention

[suffragette]

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=213967905&p=zy3968768&n=213968848&x=
{i]
The star of Ireland’s newest Oscar winning film today told about the heavy handed tactics of US immigration officials who refused him entry to America to attend the awards.

Ruaidhri Conroy, who starred in action short Six Shooter, said he was barred from entering the States because he overstayed a visa by two days in 1998.

~snip~
“I was escorted onto the plane by four officers and they said if you behave we won’t handcuff. They were very heavy,” he said.

~snip~

Conroy, who had a seat reserved at the 78th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood for the ceremony, revealed how he spent 22 hours in custody at Los Angeles’ LAX airport before being sent home.


So, now they're keeping us safe from actors? And all because of a two day overstay when he was working here in 1998. "Heavy-handed" to say the least. Totalitarian is more like it.

I noticed this because of McDonagh's acceptance speech last night.


From Martin McDonagh's acceptance speech for best short film (live action):

http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/bestliveactionshortfilmcategory.html

Hi. I'd just like to thank everybody who was involved in the film. Especially Brendan Gleeson and Ruaidhri Conroy. And Rory, I'm sorry that you couldn't be here tonight, but I hope next time if they let you into the country. I'd like to say hi to my mom and dad back in Ireland. And, a big hello to everyone involved with Lieutenant Lynchmore in Yatlantic, New York. Thanks.


The fact that he and who knows how many others are being detained for insubstantial reasons bothers me. Just as much , it bothers me that it seems this has become so commonplace that there is no longer an outcry about this. Have we so adjusted to this type of action that we are accepting of it?

[MADem]

1. Take that, you dangerous filmmaker--and yer Cat Stevens, too!

Freedom is on the march, all right...it's marching away from America.

[suffragette]

3. Yep, and nothing about it that I can see in U.S. papers yet.

Every time we let something like this occur without calling them on it, we slip a bit closer to a situation where this is all accepted and "normal."

[Javaman]

18. Look out! here come the film cops!!!

a reference to that all time classic film, "the wizard of speed and time".

[Libby2]

2. I wondered what that was all about last night

Thanks for the links.


Freaking jerks.

[Benhurst]

4. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave.

Yeah. Sure.

As the late, great Bette Davis once said,
"What a DUMP!"

[LiberalinNC]

5. You better watch out for the Irish folks, they're known for being friends

of Bin Laden, and Saddam. :sarcasm:

I did see him interviewed by Joan Rivers, he mentioned that he was going home "tomorrow" and didn't mention being detained. Class act!

[suffragette]

6. I don't think Conroy was allowed into the U.S. at all

from what the speech and article both said.
Maybe you saw her interviewing McDonagh? He is the one who won the Oscar.
Conroy was an actor in the film.

[quiet.american]

7. I think we have adjusted. We don't even notice how steeped we are in fear.

The constant fear-mongering by Bushco is starting to pay off -- *we* fear everything and everyone to the point where nothing seems too far-fetched. The constant Kool-Aid mantra that we have to give up freedom to be free has sunk in to a degree.

[suffragette]

8. It's that adjustment that reminds me so of "The Handmaid's Tale."

And that concerns me greatly.

It's that shift that people become accustomed to without realizing it, that Atwood notes when she writes: "Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations."

And

"Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary."


We're adapting so that much we would have railed against is becoming so "ordinary" that we barely notice or acknowledge it.

This barring of people from entering the U.S. on the flimsiest of pretexts seems to be an element to which we've adjusted and I find that disturbing.

[Clara T]

9. So true

We will be remembered for our silence.

[quiet.american]

10. The term "Iron Curtain" comes to mind.

Between over 80,000 U.S. citizens on the no-fly list, and the jackbooting of European journalists and artists, there's very disturbing writing on the wall.

Rep. John Conyers, Jr. and his steadfast determination to conquer the abuses of this administration are about the only thing seriously keeping me in the country right about now.

[suffragette]

12. Rep Conyers gives me hope

He is a rare beacon of light in the gathering gloom.

[chaz4jazz]

11. Customs and Immigration are the most powerful Law officers in the land

Customs and Immigration and detain you indefintely without warrant. You have no rights when they grab you. A friend of mine of Cuba decent was telling me how he, his wife and three kids were returning from a holiday in Spain. He owns a very succesful restaurant in L.A. They kept scanning his and his kids' passports. Whe he asked if there was a problem the Migra guy got pissed and made them stay for four hours - little kids! Then they opened all of his bags and dumped everything out and went through the stuff. They wanted him to repack but he called a supervisor and told him to have his officers pack up the bags.

His father then told me when he came through the Migra guy scanned his passport and looked at him and asked if he still knew how to make ice cream. From his papers in 1962, when he wrote on his his form that he was an ice cream maker from Havana, his passport spit up the information.

[DemFromMem]

13. Irish Oscar winning film's star tells of airport detention

IrishExaminer.com

March 6, 2006

Irish Oscar winning film's star tells of airport detention

The star of Ireland’s newest Oscar winning film today told about the heavy
handed tactics of US immigration officials who refused him entry to America to attend the awards.

Ruaidhri Conroy, who starred in action short Six Shooter, said he was
barred from entering the States because he overstayed a visa by two days in 1998.

During his day-long detention in Los Angeles airport, the award winning
actor was offered only crisps, crackers and processed noodles to eat.

Conroy claimed he had never been made to feel so unwelcome.

<snip>

http://www.bibdaily.com/%2Fpdfs%2F3-6-06%20irish.pdf

I'm an immigration lawyer and here about this stuff every day. Really, really bad for America's image around the world.

[rooboy]

14. At least one Australian celebrity was treated like this too...

I know I won't be setting foot in the USA until this junta is out of power...

[allisonthegreat]

15. Figures...Just another way they hold an actor and

Don't get the real guy getting by if there even is one...Welcome to Bushland..ugh!! Police State

[AnnieBW]

16. A Sudanese-British Actor Had The Same Problem

Siddig El-Fadil, who played the modern Arab prince in "Syriana", is half-Sudanese, half British, with British citizenship. Since he's most familiar to American audiences as Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he does a lot of Star Trek conventions. I recall a few years ago (2003?) that he did a couple of conventions in DC and Philly. He had to postpone his DC appearance because he was detained by TSA at Dulles Airport.

The ironic thing is that the Sudanese half of his family were all imprisoned by the current Islamic Fundamentalist regime that took over Sudan in the 1980s and harbored OBL, and Sid does a lot of work with Amnesty International because of it.

[KurtNYC]

17. I'm in the middle on this

People I know have been banned from Canada for life because they were in a car that had 2 small roaches (pot) in the ashtray. A Canadian friend overstayed his VISA here and is likewise banned for life. Both of these incidents were pre-2001.

I travel some and I always check VISA requirements before flying. If you get there and the paperwork isn't in order then you can't come into the country (leave an area of the airport) until it is sorted out.

[foreigncorrespondent]

19. This is the exact reason...

...why I cannot come back to the U.S. to see my partner, Sapphocrat.

In 2001 the visitors visa I was on was due to run out on the 13th of September,. I had a ticket to return to Australia when 9/11 happened. 9/12 Sapph and I visited our immigration lawyer in San Francisco and applied for another extension. Had to do this simply because I had no way of getting out with all flights shut down, and when they did fly again, I was too shit scared to fly, and Sapph was too shit scared to let me go.

When you apply for an extension on a visa you automatically stay in the country while you wait to hear. Well in January of 2002 we gt the letter from the INS saying my visa had been denied. Well I had overstayed my welcome almost four months. On the day I flew out Sapph got a call from our immigration lawyer saying the INS had broken their own laws in making the decision to deny my extension, and that she intended to take their decision to court. Well the end result we won the court case and they were meant to remove the red mark against my name. Only thing is we don't know if they ever did.

I do not trust the current admin, and fear that if I tried I would not be allowed through.

Sapph now makes all the trips here. I have not attempted to get back in there at all since leaving. The only time I would want to try would be if Sapph's mother takes a turn for the worst health wise and things don't look so good. My fear there is though that I would be turned back, and how Sapph would handle hearing I couldn't get back in on top of what she would be going through with her mother.

The sad thing is, had Sapph been opposite sex to me, she would have been able to sponsor me for immigration years ago, and we wouldn't have this hanging over our heads now.

[suffragette]

21. It's just rotten

what you and Sapph have had to go through, both in terms of the INS treating you unfairly and the discrimination which prevents her from being able to be your sponsor.
And it's as much our loss as both of yours since we lose your contribution to our society.

[foreigncorrespondent]

22. Thank you!

Kind words like that really do help a lot when we are going through a particularly bad time as we are right now. (Our six year anniversary is just around the corner.)

[Cha]

20. I heard that acceptance speech,

too, and wondered what happened? Thanks so much for this article!

Yeah, we got the big shots! They let 17 or so Saudi Arabians into the country and then some took flying lessons and bush ignored at least 50 WARNINGS including the August 6, 2001 MEMO and now they jerk around an actor in an Academy Award winning movie from Ireland.

Ireland doesn't think too much of the bushits, anyway.

Edit~to correct Rory's status.