The Most Recent Threat to America: A Ham Sandwich

This week, I learned the hard way that America doesn't trifle when someone wants to go over the border with food.  Our family was in Aruba for Christmas, and on the day that my dad and I were scheduled to return to the US, we packed sandwiches.  We were going to be traveling from about 1:30 to 11:00 at night, taking two airplane rides and having a connection in the middle for two hours.  We needed food, but didn't want to pay for dinner at the airport, so we packed sandwiches.  I had ham, cheese, and salami on two sandwiches and my dad had turkey on one and ham on another.  We also packed lettuce and grapes.

In order to get on our flight, we had to pass through two security points.  One for exiting Aruba and one for entering the United States, even though we were still in Aruba.  When we got to the United States Customs counter, the agent asked us if we were bringing in any food items as part of a list of questions that they have to ask everyone.  Dad replied that we had some sandwiches.  He asked what kind of sandwiches we were bringing.  We said ham and cheese.  He replied that we couldn't bring ham into the US, and he sent us with an expert to another area, where the lady asked us again what kinds of sandwiches we had and we answered in the same way.  She explained that pork and beef products are not allowed to be brought into the United States.  We asked if we could eat the sandwiches there.

She said, "No, or else we would have everyone eating right here."  We asked if we could take the offending ham slices off the sandwich and take them with us.  She said no because the ham touched the bread already.  She confiscated our sandwiches, lettuce, grapes and left us with one sandwich, the turkey and cheese. 

Why does it matter whether we eat the sandwiches outside the sliding doors or inside?  Just 100 feet in the other direction, we could have eaten the sandwiches, but once we entered the building, we weren't allowed in.  In addition, we would have eaten the sandwiches before we entered the United States.  If the authorities were worried about diseases in the meat, well, I ate pork or beef for nearly every meal in Aruba for 5 days.  Would a few slices of ham make a difference?  For clarification on the intent of this law, I looked it up on the customs website.  The website can be found HERE.

The government is worried about diseases entering the United States.  Here's the problem.  Ham is a processed meat.  It is cured, salted, and cooked until no disease could possibly live.  In addition, I was not going to rub the ham on a pig on a farm and try to get it sick, nor was I going to plant it in the ground an hope that the 'diseases' would get into the soil.  In this circumstance, I do not understand the law.  I can see how it could be important to keep uncooked meat out of the US to prevent disease, but I didn't have a dead pig in my baggage.  Just a sandwich.

In American Studies we learned to think critically about whether laws are reasonable and how they are enforced De Juro and De Facto.  In this case, I think the law was unreasonably enforced.