Frenchman detained in US as illegal alien

UNITED STATES: Henry Rousso is one of France’s most preeminent scholars and public intellectuals. Last week, as the historian attempted to enter the United States to attend an academic symposium, he was detained for more than 10 hours – for no clear reason.

On Thursday, Rousso landed from Paris at Houston’s George Bush International Airport after an 11-hour flight, en route to Texas A&M University in College Station. There, he was to speak the next afternoon at the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

But Rousso, an Egyptian-born French citizen, was ‘‘mistakenly detained’’ by US immigration authorities, according to Richard Golsan, director of the Glasscock Centre for Humanities Research at Texas A&M.

‘‘When he called me with this news two nights ago, he was waiting for customs officials to send him back to Paris as an illegal alien on the first flight out,’’ Golsan said at the symposium according to the Eagle, a newspaper covering the College Station area.

The university then sprang into action, with President Michael Young contacting law professor Fatma Marouf, who earlier this month had helped write an amicus brief against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Marouf successfully intervened with immigration authorities, and Rousso was released and allowed to deliver his lecture.

He confirmed his experience on Sunday on Twitter: ‘‘I have been detained 10 hours at Houston Itl Airport about to be deported. The officer who arrested me was ‘inexperienced’.’’

It remains unclear what about Rousso was identified as suspect by immigration authorities.

Egypt was not among the seven nations in Trump’s travel ban, which had been suspended by the time of Rousso’s US arrival. Rousso and his family were exiled from Egypt in 1956 after a slew of anti-Semitic measures imposed by the Nasser regime, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Furthermore, France is a beneficiary of the US visa waiver programme, which permits French citizens to enter the US without a visa. – Washington Post