She saved thousands to open a medical clinic in Nigeria. U.S. Customs took all of it at the airport.

MSN/Wash. Post ^ | 05/09/2018 | Meagan Flynn

[Responsibility2nd]

Anthonia Nwaorie spent years saving up thousands of dollars to open a medical clinic in Nigeria, where she was born. Finally, last October, she walked down a jet bridge at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport to board the plane to get there.

The 59-year-old registered nurse had more than $37,000 in her carry-on bag and $4,000 in her purse. It was all cash, stowed in separate envelopes, some of it earmarked to help ill or aging family members. In her checked luggage she packed medical supplies and over-the-counter medication, which she planned to use to provide free basic care and checkups to anyone who needed it.

~snip~

The questioning threw her off guard. She explained she had legally earned the money and she was alone. Nwaorie, who lives in Katy, Tex., became a U.S. citizen since 1994. She showed her passport, thinking perhaps they were questioning her legal status. The agents took her to a room to search her and her luggage anyway.

Then they seized all $41,377 dollars.

~snip~

More than six months later, Customs and Border Protection still has not given back her money.

This, despite the fact that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Texas did not bring a civil asset forfeiture case against her or charge her with any crime.

~snip~

The agency told her in April it would give back her money under one condition: that she give up her right to sue the federal government. It’s called a “hold-harmless agreement.” The condition, her attorney says, violates Nwaorie’s basic First Amendment rights to petition the government for grievances.

Nwaorie didn’t sign it, deciding to sue instead.

“This is just about as unconstitutional as it gets,” said Nwaorie’s attorney, Dan Alban of the Institute for Justice, which specializes in civil asset forfeiture.

[VRWCarea51]

She really messed up. All she had to do was inform Customs agents she was a Obama staffer delivering funds to Iran and they would have let her pass but only after they had taken up a collection to help with the cause.

[a fool in paradise]

Meanwhile Barack Hussein Obama gave over a billion dollars in unmarked US currency to the Iranians without any seizure or jail time.

[Pollster1]

No, per the article, she did not.

In accordance with Free Republic policy, I didn't read the actual article. I was in complete sympathy with the woman until I got to your post, but that changes everything. They have a right to ask about large amounts of cash and to expect honest answers. She lied. She loses.

[WMarshal]

The state is force, a beast with an ever-growing appetite, that will feed itself even if it has to eat it own citizens. That is why the Founding Fathers of America acknowledged the natural right of Americans to defend themselves from their own governments with the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights". Never forget it.

Here are some gems from the Cato Institute:

Why do people have wealth? Charles Dunoyer, an early libertarian sociologist, explained “There exist in the world only two great parties; that of those who prefer to live from the produce of their labor or of their property, and that of those who prefer to live on the labor or the prop- erty of others.” Simply put, makers produce wealth while takers appropriate it.

In his important book The State, the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer distinguished between what he called the economic means and the political means of attaining wealth, that is, between “work and robbery.” “The state,” he concluded, “is an organization of the political means.”

State formation represents a transformation from “roving bandits” to “stationary bandits.” As the economist Mancur Olson wrote, “If the leader of a roving bandit gang who finds only slim pickings is strong enough to take hold of a given territory and to keep other bandits out, he can monopolize crime in that area—he can become a stationary bandit.” That is an important insight into the development of human political associations.

The state is, at its core, a predatory institution. Yet, in some ways, it also represents an advance, even for those being plundered. When the choice is between roving bandits— who rob, fight, burn what they can’t take, and then come back the following year—and stationary bandits—who settle down and plunder little by little throughout the year— the choice is clear. Stationary bandits are less likely to kill and destroy as they loot you and they fend off rival bandits. That is a kind of progress—even from the perspective of those being plundered.

Source: https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/catosletterv10n4.pdf

[I want the USA back]

That is theft by the government, which has given itself the right that it doesn’t have to take money from citizens who have committed no crime.

[beef]

“BS. She should have obeyed the law like the rest of us.”

Nonsense. She probably didn’t know. And IMHO the “ignorance is no defense” thing is BS. Back when the law was based on common sense, OK, but today it is volume after volume after volume of fine print legalese. Of course ignorance is a defense. Not even the lawyers know all the laws. This is the kind of thing that jury nullification is for, and if I were on the case, I would be happy to employ it.

[JimRed]

This in light of the obama cash deal with Iran ... ?

As I was surfing last evening and I passed FNC, I heard an interviewee state that the pallets of cash on the tarmac in Iran was not true, as the opening sentence of a reply to another interviewee whose statement or question I missed. But he went on to filibuster about other generalizations until they timed out, so I never heard the other side.

[Skywise]

I’m completely against civil asset forfeiture but this case doesn’t pass the smell test.

Luggage theft is rampant in airport luggage - in addition to TSA searches I’ve had items go missing. Putting 37,000 into checked luggage is foolhardy at best - especially when you could wire the money to Nigeria via banks in any normal (legal) way.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Smart enough to be a registered nurse, yet dumb enough to have never heard of the requirements to declare currency greater than $10,000 when you are leaving the country? Hmmm...

[RedStateRocker]

Please cite the part of the Constitution that gives any federal official such a right?

Thanks!

[i_robot73]

>
The agency told her in April it would give back her money under one condition: that she give up her right to sue the federal government. It’s called a “hold-harmless agreement.” The condition, her attorney says, violates Nwaorie’s basic First Amendment rights to petition the government for grievances.

It sounds like extortion to me.
>

‘Cause it IS extortion...as well as deprivation of Rights (her property) Under Color of Law.

And our AG thinks it’s swell/dunky-dorey.

[RedStateRocker]

Drug lords or flesh peddlers are nowhere near the threat that fool government officials and their minions are.

[FreedomNotSafety]

We need more immigrants like her. Worked hard, saved money, and won’t alllow herself to be tyrannized.

[Sacajaweau]

My Gut....The idea that she didn't know about the $10,000 trigger is ridiculous. Me thinks she was running that money.

I'd check around to see who her friends are.

[usurper]

I hope she makes an extra million or two when she sues.

Why should my tax money be spent because some idiot does want to declare her cash. Everyone who has traveled internationally knows you have to declare any cash over $10,000 when you enter or exit the country. She was born in Nigeria so its safe to say she knew.

The fact that she did not declare it implies she had other motivations.

The mere fact that she was stupid enough to put over 30K of cash in her checked bags tells you all you need to know.

She is lucky CBP found it before the ground crew in Nigeria did. At least she still has a chance to get it back.

[i_robot73]

>
Never cary large enough amounts of cash to excite the cupidity of the State agencies. They can legally take and keep every dime they find and don’t have to give any rational reason, jist say they suspect it might have been used in some infractioni or might be in the future. they really don’t even have to assert that but normally do.
>

“...He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance...” - DoI

Yes. HEAVEN forbid a Free Citizen enjoy the fruits of one’s labor, let alone the company of their own property, for whatever reason/need they so deem/desire.

All we need to do is start growing our OWN bananas.

[Delta 21]

How/Why do you think the FBI is rife with criminal informants?

Extortion works.

[RedStateRocker]

“How do the authorities know what cash would be used for? “

how the hell is that any of the authorities’ business?

I’m more worried about the kind of ‘killin’s too good for them’ fascist who would think that the amount of cash I carry anywhere is their business, than I am about Hamas or any other foreign terrorist entity.

[Kalamata]

When I recently posted this news, the thread was pulled. I suspect it was because someone objected to the source, which they said was a very liberal source...a local Texas news site.

It’s weird, though, because I saw the link to it on the very conservative (and wonderful) news website The Liberty Daily. Oh well.... Carry on : )

[Sacajaweau]

My take is....she could have done a wire transfer to a relatives account. It's the cash thing that bothers me.

Wonder how many times she's visited Nigeria. My guess is that she got away with it before.