Rep. Joseph Crowley, (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, and 10 colleagues signed a letter last week to express outrage at the treatment recently meted out to Berna Cruz, an Indian Canadian, and sent it to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who oversees the U.S. Customs Service, which is under the jurisdiction of newly formed Homeland Security Department.

U.S. Customs officials stopped Cruz while she was transiting through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on her way to Canada from India recently. They accused her of using a fake passport. Instead of verifying her passport, the officials gave her two options, either to go to jail and wait several days to contact the Canadian consulate or to return to India. According to a report, Cruz was asked by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials how an Indian could have a Latin-sounding name like Berna Cruz. Her explanation that she belonged to Goa [an area in South India colonized by the Portugese in 1510] failed to convince them.

“I don’t know what is more outrageous, that U.S. Customs officials did not recognize Cruz’s Canadian passport as legitimate or the way they treated her as a enemy of the state when she was just trying to return home,” said Crowley. “The role of the U.S. Customs Service is to protect American ports of entry and to provide exceptional customer service without bias. Cruz’s experience was not only unprofessional but also degreading. Errors were made at every step, and no one displayed any leadership to stop what went from a bad situation to worse. We demand that Secretary Ridge not only apologize to Cruz, but that he institute a new system of training so that this never happens again.”

Crowley drafted the letter which gained the support of both old and new friends in the Indian American community. Among the members of Congress who signed were Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Janice Schakowsky (D-I.L.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Chris Bell (D-Texas), Brad Miller (D-N.C.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.).

“Just because someone may not fit the mold of what a certain officer thinks is a “typical” Canadian citizen, they do not deserve to be treated this way. It is amazing that while we have signed a free trade agreement with Canada, that a citizen of Canada could be treated this way and that an American customs official could be so naïve as to question the legitimacy of a legally issued Canadian passport,” said Crowley.

The Toronto Star reported that Cruz was later aboard a Kuwait Airlines flight bound for Kuwait via London. To make matters worse, a customs official cut out the front page of Cruz’s passport and filled each page with “expedited removal” stamps, rendering her passport useless, said the report. Her Indian visa was defaced. Her ticket and damaged passport were handed over to the pilot of the Kuwait Airlines flight.

Help came at the Kuwait airport. The ground staff put her in touch with the Canadian consulate in Dubai. Realizing the importance of the situation, Canadian consular staff from Dubai issued Cruz an emergency passsport.

She was finally able to fly with the help of a free ticket issued by Kuwait Airlines from Kuwait to London, and from there to Toronto by Air Canada. Gurbax Malhi, Indo-Canadian MP, reportedly called the incident “sheer high-handedness on the part of the INS officers.”