Liberals love running stories and linking them to “A Handmaid’s Tale”, eh? Here’s Brianna Sacks at Buzzfeed
This Mom Said She Had A “Handmaid’s Tale” Moment Having To Prove Her Daughter Was Her Child
After nearly 10 hours of flying Sunday, Sylvia Acosta was exhausted and dreaming about a cup of coffee as she stood in line for customs at Dallas–Fort Worth airport. Her daughter, Sybonae Castillo, was relieved to be back in Texas and craving Hot Cheetos. But instead of lounging in the food court, the 50-year-old found herself fighting to prove that her 15-year-old was, indeed, her child and explain her decision not to change her name when she married.
Calling it a “Handmaid’s Tale” moment, Acosta recounted what she described as a “violating and demeaning” encounter with a Customs and Border Protection agent, who she accused of improperly detaining and berating her because she and her daughter had different last names.
“He looked up from the documents and was like, ‘Are you her mother?’ And I said yes and he then asked, ‘Why don’t you have the same last name?'” Acosta, who has a doctorate degree and chose to keep her professional name, recalled.
“I explained that I decided to keep my name and not change it when I got married because that is the name I had built my career on and people knew me by that, and I went on and on about that,” she said.
Unconvinced, Acosta said, the agent asked if she had any other proof that Sybonae, who was standing beside her, was her daughter, such as a birth certificate or a note from the father, citing concerns of human trafficking.
She kinda understood, but was still shocked! Especially when she claims that the Customs agent “told me my life would have been easier if I had taken my husband’s last name.”
Acosta, who is the
CEO of the YWCACEO of the El Paso branch (Buzzfeed offered the correction), a nonprofit geared toward eliminating racism and empowering women, found herself explaining that she had divorced Sybonae’s father, remarried, and still retained her birth name.
Well, that’s rather ironic, isn’t? She just haaaaaappppppens to be a social justice warrior. Huh. And she also claims the agent asked if she had a divorce decree. She claims she was humiliated and patronized and they were condescending. There’s just one teensy tiny problem, way down in the article (at a point most people would have moved on and sent Outraged tweets and stuff)
Customs and Border Protection, however, refuted Acosta’s account and contended that the agent had been following protocol.
The agency “has reviewed the audio and video of the encounter between a CBP officer and a woman traveling with her daughter, and found that the video does not support this claim,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
This was also explained to the Dallas Morning News, which starts their article out on this very point. The Fox News article goes even further
“U. S. Customs and Border Protection has reviewed the audio and video of the encounter between a CBP officer and a woman travelling with her daughter, and found that the video does not support the claim as it has been reported. The audio and video prove that there weren’t any inappropriate questions discussed,†a spokesperson wrote in a response to Acosta.
And it looks like the Facebook post, which received 16,000 shares, has now been either deleted or set to private.
