In the 1980s, I remember reading, a French magazine story about the American border patrol along the Mexican border. They do not use police dogs, the reporter approved, “for a specific idea of human rights.” I tried to track this story, but the wings were of no use.
Whether or not the details of my memory are accurate, I believe in many people in the works that, in general and for a long time, secretly regret many traditions not being American.
How has this changed! Consider the experiences of a Korean employee who was a victim of a police attack at the LG-Hyundai factory in Georgia. They were arrested, bound, released and imprisoned for a week until they were allowed to return to their country. The Wall Street Journal reports on the wife of the engineer arrested there (“Confusion, Anger, Relief: Korean Engineers Talk about the week of US Ice Detention on September 12, 2025”):
Lee said she was heartbroken to hear her husband, an employee of LG Energy, is in bondage. “Treat him like a felon – it’s mad that he was made,” she said.
Her husband was among the 330 workers who landed near Seoul on a South Korean government-chartered flight last Friday. His wife, waiting for him at the airport, declared emotionally:
I don’t want him to come back there.
“There it is” America. Financial Times’ report is even worse (“Korean Denunces’ Shocking Treatment of US Detainees”, September 12, 2025):
Workers’ flights were delayed Wednesday after President Donald Trump made them a last-minute offer to stay in the US. However, only one person chose to stay, and many who returned to Korea vowed not to return to America. …
Business groups and South Korean officials have allowed Korean companies to postpone inappropriate visas to workers sent to the US to build multi-billion dollar advanced factories. However, they argue that by refusing to promote short-term work visas that allow Washington to complete the project on time, they left them in a “impossible position.”
Another returning worker said, “We should have followed the rules properly.” The workers said Seoul should negotiate visa issues with Washington, but added, “I don’t want to go back to the US.”
Just a few days in August I have a list of countries with high risk of cybersecurity on the website of foreign universities in the western countries, and can borrow specially configured devices from universities. Listed countries (in this order):
US China Russia Iran India North Korea
Lying under this list, I doubt that, as we (well, our submission) had said in French, there is still subamican Prime Air (“anti-American crude”). American border agents have the power to inspect electronic devices at ports of entry.
America is experiencing dangerous times. Those who love her most should be most concerned.
– –
* In 1984, Georges Suphert, assistant editor of the Parisian magazine Le Point, published his book, Les Nouveaux Cow-Boys. Essai Sur L’Atiricanisme Primaire (New Cowboys: An Essay on Anti-Americanism). In Le Point, he was in a colleague of Maurice Roy, another assistant editor and editor of economics who published Vive Le Capitalisme! (Long-standing capitalism!) A few years ago. I was praised for counting Roy among my friends. In France, like in America, we seem to live in a different geological era.
