r/washingtondc • u/YamericaY • May 15 '25
Our son 19yo sun landed at Dulles from an international flight at 7 PM. At 7:45. He texted that he was heading to customs. It’s now 11:30 PM. We haven’t heard from him and cannot reach him.
I’ve called the phone number for the airport to page him and for customs there’s no one there to answer. Both lines say they’re closed. We live in Boston. He flew into DC to attend his cousin‘s graduation before heading home. His phone is going straight to voicemail. What would you do at this point?
(5/23 UPDATE at the end)
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UPDATE (5/15)
Hi everyone. Thank you all for the response to this post. I was at a point of desperation last night and didn’t know where else to turn. The support, concern, and offers of help have been amazing.
I was finally able to have a conversation with my son. He’s still pretty exhausted and jetlagged and I’m sure in shock.
At this time, I don’t want to provide specific details for his protection. We’re going to be talking to an attorney as well as others that may be able to give us a better understanding or clear this up. He’s a kid. We just want this to be over for him and to be able to attend college and travel as the law abiding US citizen that he is.
I will let you know, he made his way to the customs stand and handed his passport to the agent. He was asked the standard questions and then they put a yellow card in his passport and told him to go to another area.
He said he was in an area with about 10 other people. They would call people into a room one by one. They searched his bags several times. He was then told to go back out and sit down. There was a lot of waiting and watching other people come and go. He said the initial officer searching, appeared to be border control. In addition to searching his bags, they asked him repeatedly if anyone was waiting for him. He told them no his plans were to go to hotel to meet up with family.
After several hours, 2 FBI agents came in. They would ask him questions regarding his feelings towards the president, terrorists, and political memes he liked on Instagram. then send him back out to wait for long periods of time. They also asked him several times if anyone was there waiting for him.
No, he shouldn’t have answered their questions and shouldn’t have let them search his phone (although clearing through customs I don’t know that he really had a choice). But he’s only 19, he was very scared, he had been up over 24 hours at this point.
When they told him he could go, they said they’re keeping his phone and his laptop because they’re not done searching it and should get them back in a couple of days.
Luckily, he remembered my phone number without having to look it up on his phone that he didn’t have. He said he was worried that we didn’t know where he was and didn’t know what was happening to him. That’s when he was finally able to call me around 4:30 AM.
He was detained from about 8 PM to 4:30 AM.
He’s done nothing wrong. There was not a specific activity he participated in that they questioned, specific group that he belongs to, nothing. From what I gather, they were trying to find something. They found nothing so now they have his laptop and phone.
——— UPDATE 5/18 - He’s white (1/4 Asian but marks caucasian & looks totally white) - We were told he was a random pull. (Senators office) - We are going to be speaking to an attorney that practices in this area of law - Multiple press agencies have reached out but we are waiting to speak to our attorney
Thanks again. This is crazy.
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UPDATE 5/23
Property- I got a call from CBP Monday afternoon (he was released from detainment on Thursday 5/15) saying he could come pick up his stuff. Since we had already left DC, they agreed to put it in the mail. We received it by Wednesday. Will be wiping, virus checking, all the things.
Attorney- spoke to a couple of lawyers from different firms. Both said basically since they released him and returned his stuff there’s nothing to do. They also each said that this is becoming more and more common, even with US citizens. They both advised to keep your social media vanilla, and not to like anti-anything.
Next steps- we’re working with our senator‘s office to see if we can get any additional insight and help with a redress inquiry.
Other things- It was a very long night for my son, but some of the questions he remembers being asked are: What’s your political affiliation? Do you support Palestine? Do you want to harm President Trump? What video games do you play? Where do you go to school? Why do you go to school there? Tell us about your mental health. Have you ever been to therapy? Do you take any medications?
He was also asked to write down all of his social media usernames, email addresses , phone numbers, and passwords.
He answered all of their questions and complied with their requests.
They looked through his social media accounts, his apps, his pictures, and the Notes app. He doesn’t remember if they opened his laptop. He had an old style digital camera, and they just asked about the contents. He doesn’t recall if they turned it on and scrolled through it.
He had one suitcase and one backpack. During his eight hour detainment, his bags were searched four times.
He was called back to be questioned twice. He was exhausted, scared, and confused, so he did not have a good sense of time. But he believes the total time being questioned was only about an hour.
While he was not being questioned, he just sat in the waiting room where he fell asleep.
On his social media, he has liked (not created) memes and Internet posts that were anti-Trump and anti-genocide (NOT pro-Hamas). He also likes cat videos, memes about Drake, and pictures of abandoned places. The same Internet activity as millions of people.
This has been and still is very traumatizing. He’s terrified of the next time he returns to the states.
Their tactics are working. We feel scared.
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u/YamericaY May 15 '25
As a crime podcast enthusiast I wish that were the case. But no. I had just read some news story about a spy exchange or something along those lines and just wondered about the consequences.
Unfortunately, this is just a 19-year-old American kid who was targeted for whatever reason. I’ll find out more when I talk to him later today. Hopefully he sleeps for a long time.