A Dublin-born Joycean professor was handcuffed, strip-searched and locked overnight in Montgomery County Prison, Pennsylvania, after flying to the United States without properly completed visa documents, writes Seán O'Driscoll in New York
Prof John McCourt, a lecturer on Joyce at Trieste University, Italy, and author of The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, had flown to the US from Italy to take up a short-term teaching job in the University of Pennsylvania on January 7th last.
Prof McCourt said his problems began with a small mix-up in his US visa application when he flew into Philadelphia. The university said his visa documents had been sorted out, when in fact the documents only said he was eligible for a visa.
Prof McCourt said he was verbally abused by immigration officials and told he would be flown back to Italy that night. However, he claimed that after he contacted the Irish consulate in New York and his sister in Boston, he was handcuffed and put in a van with three officers and driven to Montgomery County jail, where he was strip- searched and kept overnight. He claimed yesterday he was woken up by prison guards every hour and asked his name.
The University of Pennsylvania said yesterday it is to make an official complaint to the Department of Homeland Security.
Prof McCourt said he was taken back to the airport after the overnight detention and placed in a holding cell before being escorted on to a plane to Germany. "I was taken on to the plane in handcuffs and I think the other passengers were thinking, is this guy a terrorist?"
During the flight his alarm clock went off and the woman next to him nearly jumped out the window. "It was horrible to feel like a terrorist," he said. Prof McCourt has since returned to lecture at Pennsylvania after properly completing his visa application.
Austin Gormley, of the Irish consulate in New York, said the consulate had provided assistance to Prof McCourt while he was detained. It had not been asked to lodge a complaint with US authorities.
JoAnn McCarthy, assistant vice-provost for international affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, said the college would be making an official complaint.
"Incidents like this are really having an impact on academics, students and researchers coming into the US and ultimately it affects the wellbeing of the American public," she said.
Kelly Klundt of the Department of Homeland Security said if Prof McCourt had been fined instead of jailed, he would not have been allowed to re-enter the US.