Readers respond

To the Editor:

I am a life scientist who has been to the United States several times in the past. Citing from your article, “Mostaghimi has said that he will not return to the United States until he feels welcome,” I most wholeheartedly agree. I'm Dutch, so I probably will receive a visa without a problem (in fact, I may not need one quite yet). But when I visited long before 9-11, I found the immigration officials I encountered unpleasant and suspicious toward me (Caucasian, good job, well spoken, fluent English, no record). I dread to think how they might have treated non-Caucasians even then, so I recognize Mr. Mostaghimi's sentiment even though my experiences were far less extreme.

From your article, it seems that now this sort of behavior has become even more unacceptable as well as institutional. If this is because of “official procedure,” this only means...