Unhappy Thanksgiving in Valentina-Vlad-Nikky Family
So today is Thanksgiving and I am writing this from the GlobalRev studio in New York, while my wife Nikky and my daughter Valentina are in Madrid. I was supposed to be on the 10pm flight to Madrid today, but it was not meant to be. Yesterday, I got a call from the passport office that my passport application is going through “administrative processing” and will be delayed in issuance.
A day earlier, when i was submitting paperwork for a same day passport renewal, they canceled my existing passport, so now i don’t have a passport to be able to travel. I have been given no indication as to how long this “administrative processing” can take.
At the same time, Nikky’s visa to come to the USA has been in this “administrative processing” phase for the last 4 months, and even longer if you consider the time she first got notification that her ESTA was canceled back in April of this year.
So now, the US govt has effectively separated my family for what looks to be an indefinite duration: by banning my wife from entering the Unites States, placing her visa application, which was already approved, into this indefinite “administrative processing”, and then also putting my passport into the same bureaucratic black hole.
On some level we feel like characters in Kafka’s “The Trial” we are faced with what is basically a catastrophic attack on our family, and seemingly no one to address the issue with. In both cases the State Department told us that they have no control over the matter and it is going through a “process” in Washington, and there is no redress.
This process first started when I was detained on the border multiple times for interrogations as I was traveling between Madrid and NYC. I was asked a lot of questions, such as, do I have any other travel documents I can travel with besides my passport? I became concerned at that time that the Government is for whatever reason, trying to separate my family by preventing me from travelling outside the country and preventing them from coming here. As it came time to renew my passport this possibility loomed larger and larger for me and my family.
This culminated yesterday when i got that call from the passport office. I was having lunch with a friend in Union square when the call came in. The gentleman on the other side of the phone first verified my identity and then informed me that I will not be able to fly to Spain today because my passport is being held up for “administrative processing” and he has no information on when that will be done, but assured me he will call me whenever that happens.
We left the lunch joint and I quickly called and asked an associate if we could use his office nearby, so i can get on hangouts with my wife and child and talk to them about what happened. We went there, and I made one of the most painful phone calls in my life. To see the faces of my wife and daughter as they heard the news was ? Excruciating and most painful. because at that point we realized that we are not going to be separated for Thanksgiving alone, but for months if not years to come.
We are wondering why the government targeted us? We have never done anything illegal and all our work has been focused on organizing and enabling citizen media around the world. This punishment is in some ways very grotesque and obscene, because it is targeting the real victim in this situation who is Valentina.
Punishing activists by targeting their children is indecent, and obscene — and i hope whoever orchestrated this inside the us bureaucracy is getting off right now as they see my child suffer as she is being told that her world is being shattered now.
Nikky just finished a song and a music video titled “Power Destroys” and while we were planning to release it on December 9th the day my passport was due to expire, we decided to release it now. So here it is. This is a song about about a number of things, but one of the overaching themes is imposition of violence by those in power on those without. In this case we demonstrate it how the Government is trying to separate my family and what it really means.
You can watch the video here
and the song is available at:
This just happened, so we have not had time to setup any kind of support network or even ways for people to contribute their efforts and resources to resolving this. We will fight this situation through the courts, so we will be trying to find lawyers to take on this case, but we are both artists and we will also fight through our art. We have to communicate what is the true meaning of this targeting, and who are its real victims. As i have been talking to people, it turns out our situation is not that unique. and has been happening for years, with the victims being overwhelmingly muslim. So here is another thing to think about — this is not an isolated case and so far has only been targeted at the muslim community, but now it seems that they are expanding the net to include peace activists and citizen media organizers and journalists.
Everyone please enjoy Thanksgiving with your families. My family, although physically separated today, will try to have a communal meal over skype. But as you sit down with loved ones, regardless of what side of the political spectrum they are on, have a conversation about the concept of basic human decency and what we should expect of our government and social institutions.
#Solidarity and #LOVE
Vlad Teichberg, Nikky Schiller, Valentina