Dreams Scattering at Airports: The Land of Hope Becomes a Center of Concern
By: Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada
Once, America’s Green Card was a dream, a promise a promise of a bright future, a guarantee of security and dignity. It was said that wherever you go, your identity will remain safe, your honor intact. But now, that same Green Card has become a question mark in the hands of an American immigration officer. As if his eyes are screaming: “Who are you? Where are you from? And why are you here?”
Now, America’s airports no longer give the good news of stepping onto the land of dreams. Rather, as soon as the plane’s wheel touches the ground, the storm of questions becomes faster than the traveler’s heartbeat. “Have you ever been to court? Have you ever been fined? Have you ever slept without medicine?”
These questions are no longer just legal checks. Now they arise in the pursuit of identity a pursuit that turns toward those faces where the wrinkles of time speak, toward those accents that carry the fragrance of Eastern soil, and toward those names that hide letters of recognition like “Khan,” “Patel,” “Gupta,” “Rizvi,” or “Dixon.”
This is America’s immigration counter, where an elderly couple stands silently. The distress on their faces, trembling fingers, and frightened eyes ask a question whose answer is neither in law books nor in any legal clause. This question is hidden in the conscience of humanity a cry that emerges not from lips but from silence. But this silence… it is screaming.
At the immigration counter, a copy of “Form I-407” is being touched by trembling fingers. This is the form that has become a symbol of abandoning permanent residence in America. The woman’s white hair still carries the scent of soil from a distant homeland where dreams were once woven, and the fragrance of childhood has clung and traveled with her. The man’s eyes have an emptiness, as if the promises of many seasons, children’s laughter, and time dangling between two countries have all blurred. This is America the same land where their sons and daughters have settled, where grandchildren are growing, going to school, dreaming dreams. But today… today this very land is asking them: “Do you really belong here? Or are you just a temporary shadow, who leaves every winter to seek the warmth of your homeland?”
“The Same America, But…”
This is the same America where airports were once welcoming gates, where hospitality was expected, and the Green Card was a metaphor for a secure future. But today, the scene at “Washington, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles”, and other airports has changed. Now, these gates do not have welcoming smiles but the eagle-like gazes of immigration officers, cold tones, and mechanical behavior standing guard. Here, the elderly are being stripped of the legal identity of their Green Card an identity that once symbolized honor.
Today, Green Card holders especially elderly citizens from “South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan)” are being taken behind the hidden wall of “secondary inspection” at American airports. There, they face questions that shock the heart, interrogations lasting hours, sometimes overnight detention, and in some cases, they are forced to sign Form I-407 , which legally terminates their residency.
Global media like “Times of India, CNN, Washington Post, and NBC News” are continuously focusing on these incidents. Reports reveal that elderly travelers are detained without trial, and some are even handcuffed and deported as if they were dangerous criminals. This cruelty, this injustice, is not just a violation of the law it is a betrayal of the promise America made to every legal resident: dignity, security, and equal treatment.
“Not Just Boston Airport A Growing Pattern”
This is not just about Boston Airport. It is the story of “Fabian Schmidt”, a German citizen against whom there was only a 10-year-old minor FIR (police complaint) for disorderly conduct a charge later dismissed. Yet, he faced hours of scrutiny from immigration officers. The man who had lived in America for years was stopped by a faint shadow from his past. That day, Boston Airport did not feel like a “peaceful homeland” but a “questioning state.”
Then comes the story of “Llewellyn Dixon from Seattle” , and that British girl whose only fault was a technical visa error. She was detained for “three weeks”, and her father’s scream echoed in court: “She is not Hannibal Lecter!” Yet, the law handcuffed her only because she was a foreigner with an ambiguous identity.
These are no longer individual incidents. They are expressions of a collective unease a silent mourning that has spread from New York airports to the borders of Los Angeles.
“The Immigration Officer: Now Judge, Jury, and Executioner”
Now, the immigration officer is not just an officer he is also the “judge, the jury, and the punishing hand”. The words of the law are engraved on his forehead, but there is no trace of mercy left in his tone. And when he says: “Sign, or prepare for detention,” it is not a movie dialogue. This is what is being said to elderly parents at airports in “Florida, Texas, and California” parents who only went to Delhi, Lahore, Dhaka, or Karachi for a few months in winter to be with their sons, daughters, or grandchildren.
The America that was once a symbol of “hope, dreams, and security” has now become a place where “questions, doubt, and identity crisis” accompany every traveler. Whether German, British, Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi—an unnamed fear has settled on their faces. And this fear is not just at airports; it has taken root in their hearts.
“Form I-407: The Legal Snare”
This is not just a paper… this is “Form I-407”, which immigration officers place before those elderly hands hands that once held their children’s fingers as they stepped onto American soil. This is the same paper that, when signed, makes them “voluntarily” surrender their legal permanent residence often “without understanding, without reading, and without a lawyer or interpreter.”
“CBP officers” often place this form before elderly individuals who speak weak English, their eyes full of questions, their hands shaking, and their voices silent. They do not know what they are losing they only know that the officer in front of them is angry, the tone is harsh, and the atmosphere is cold and unfamiliar. And so, they sign… out of fear, out of weakness, or out of the terror that refusal might mean handcuffs.
This form has now become a “legal snare “a snare where fear, ignorance, and language barriers get entangled. The elderly, who do not understand legal complexities, only know that their sons, daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are in America and they just want to stay close to them. But one signature separates them from that life, that closeness, and that dream.
“A Broken Promise”
Immigration law says that if someone stays outside the U.S. for “more than 180 days”, they can be considered a “returning resident,”and if it exceeds “365 days”, it may imply they have abandoned their permanent residence. But the law also says that “every Green Card holder has the right to explain themselves in court.” This right is constitutional, fundamental. But today… this right is being sacrificed at the discretion of immigration officers.
Reports say that on some flights, “air marshals have handed passengers Form I-407 mid-flight”, as if the decision of deportation was being written in the air. And ever since President Trump’s strict immigration policies deepened, America’s soil has turned cold for those who spent their youth in American hospitals, schools, and factories.
An Indian grandfather, who lived in America for six years and never stayed abroad for more than six months, was asked: “Do you really live in America?” A Pakistani grandfather, who had his own home, tax returns, and joint bank accounts with his wife, says: “I was detained only because I spent two months every year in Karachi with my daughter.”
“A Cry for Humanity”
Immigration lawyers like “Ashwin Sharma, Kripa Upadhyay, Suneal Batra, and Rajeev S. Khanna” shout in protest: “CBP does not have the authority to confiscate anyone’s Green Card. Only an immigration judge has that right.” They urge: “Do not sign Form I-407! You will be heard in court!”
But this voice… often bounces back from airport walls. Because the elderly, whose ears hear less now, whose hearts are afraid, and whose tongues do not speak the local language this voice does not reach them. They sign in the shadow of fear, and with one signature, the course of their lives changes.
The tragedy is not that a form was signed. The tragedy is that it was signed “out of fear, out of ignorance, and in a silence where there was no interpreter, no lawyer, no mercy.”
“Is This Still America?”
Is this the same America that once called out from the heights of the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,”
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
Today, that same statue is silent. And there is moisture in its eyes.
“Final Reflection”
This is not just a legal issue it is a wound on the foundations of civilization. It is the story of those who came to America believing it was the land of dreams, only to have those dreams snatched away.
“Is the Green Card just a legal document? Or is it a bond woven with love, hard work, sacrifice, and generational ties? And if it is a bond, can we sever it with just a signature?
It is time for the U.S. government, especially “CBP”, to reconsider this inhumane policy. Immigration laws are necessary, but “family unity, human dignity, and the sanctity of intergenerational bonds “are higher principles.
This country, which calls itself the “land of immigrants,” has it truly become so alien that it strips away the identity of guests standing at its own door?
This column is not the end of legal advice it is a human cry.
“Whom are our policies protecting? And whom are they banishing?”
“Are we guardians of justice, or just machines forcing signatures on a form?”
