The veteran political consultant of Los Angeles, Rick Taylor, said that customs and border protection agents of the United States made him aside while returning from a trip abroad, asked if he was from California and then separated from his family and put a waiting room with several Latin travelers for almost an hour.
“I know how the system works and I have enough good connections and I was still crazy,” said Taylor, 71. “I could only imagine how I would feel if I didn't understand the language and I didn't know anyone.”
Taylor said he was lost to explain why he was pointed out for additional questions, but speculated that it was perhaps for the Obama-Biden shirt full in his suitcase.
Taylor returned from a one -week vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter, who were in a separate customs line, when a CBP agent asked: “Are you from California?” He said he replied: “Yes, I live in Los Angeles.”
The man who conducted campaigns for the last Republican mayor of the and for the current Democratic senator Alex Padilla when he was a budding candidate in the Council of the City of Los Angeles in the 1990s found himself escorted himself to a waiting room and separated from his family.
There, Taylor said he waited 45 minutes without being released, claiming that he was unfairly marked by detention and intimidated by CBP agents.
“I have no idea why I was attacked,” said Taylor, a campaign consultant to re -election the councilor of the city of Los Angeles, Traci Park. “They don't talk to you. They don't give you a reason. You're confused, angry and worried.”
The story was First reported by Westside Current.
The former Los Angeles County supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky, said the incident brought Senator Alex Padilla, who was arrested and handcuffed on June 12 while trying to ask a question during a Los Angeles press conference by the Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem.
“My former chief of cabinet and political consultant, Rick Taylor, was arrested at Miami International Airport by federal authorities after returning from an international vacation,” he said in an email. “As Senator Alex Padilla said a couple of weeks ago,” if I could happen to me, I could happen to anyone. “This federal government operation is out of control!
A customs representative and border protection in Florida said that an investigation by Los Angeles Times and received on Friday afternoon will probably be answered next week.
“If Mr. Taylor feels the need to.
Taylor, a partner of Dakota Communications, a strategic communications and marketing firm, said he was more concerned with traveling and returning to the United States with his wife, an American and native citizen of Vietnam.
He said he approached a member of the Trump administration before going on vacation, asking if he could contact that person in case his wife was arrested.
The family flew to American Airlines and landed in Miami on June 20, where he planned to visit friends before returning to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
In a turn, Taylor's wife and daughter, both global input card holders, passed through security, while Taylor, who has no global entrance, was arrested, he said.
He said that after the agent confirmed that he was a resident of Los Angeles, he placed a small orange label in his passport and told him to follow a green line. That took him to another agent and his eventual waiting room.
Taylor described “95% of the population” within the room as Latin and largely Spanish speech.
“I was one of the three white types in the room,” he said. “I kept asking me: 'What am I doing here?'”
He said that the lack of communication was “very intimidating”, although he was allowed to keep his phone and sent updates of text messages to his family.
“I have traveled a good amount internationally and they have never separated me,” he said.
About 45 minutes from his retention, Taylor said an agent asked him to collect his luggage and deliver it to his inspection.
He said he was released shortly after.
“The agents have managed to re -evaluate the trips,” Taylor said. “I would tell others to really think twice before traveling internationally while you have this administration in charge.”
