Why I Can’t Go Home

Before Newark: How I Was Prevented From Leaving Safely What happened in Newark did not begin in Newark. By the time I reached that airport, multiple attempts to contain my movement had already failed. The first break in containment was renewing my expired passport. I anticipated interference. Same day passport issuance is a known choke point. Instead, the process went smoothly. Once issued, my legal right to leave the United States hardened in a way that removed many administrative options for stopping me. To obtain the passport the same day, I was required to show proof of imminent international travel. The cheapest available ticket was to Vancouver, British Columbia. I purchased it for that purpose. When the ticket turned out to be nonrefundable, I decided to use it. I had never been to Canada. It was three hours from Seattle and six from Portland, and I was considering spending time there anyway, possibly splitting my time between the two. The decision was practical, documented, and lawful. That is when containment reappeared. At the Canadian border, I was singled out. No other passengers were pulled aside. My bags were searched. I was told I could not enter Canada because of a dispute with my landlord. I was told I could return when my financial affairs were “in order.” They attempted to contact my landlord. None of this has a legitimate relationship to Canadian admissibility as it was presented to me. What mattered was not the explanation but the result. I was blocked. While I was isolated at the border, one of the officers assaulted me with a hazardous substance. I told her directly that I was a whistleblower, that I had filed a human rights complaint in Geneva, Switzerland, and that I was on my way there. I photographed her and said I would be adding her to the record. She attempted to grab my phone. Another officer restrained her. I was then walked back across the border into Washington State. It was after midnight. I was told I could not sit in the border lobby and wait for the next bus, which would not arrive until morning. I was told I could not remain on the property at all. I was forced to leave. I spent the night in Bellingham. I was chemically assaulted in the room through the HVAC system and through architectural ingress. I slept on the floor. The next morning, the assaults continued in the lobby and at breakfast. From Bellingham, I went to the airport and eventually took a shuttle back to Seattle. Assaults continued in the terminals as well as on the shuttle bus to SeaTac Airport. There are no direct international flights from Seattle to Geneva. I did not know that at the time. My routing took me through Newark. Because of TSA disruptions and repeated flight delays, I missed my original connection. I accepted an eight hour layover deliberately. Flights were being pushed back repeatedly, and I chose a longer layover to ensure I would not miss the international leg entirely. By the time I arrived in Newark, I had already demonstrated that I could not be quietly rerouted or deterred. Blocking Canada did not work. Passport issuance did not work. Domestic travel did not work. I was still moving toward Geneva. That is the context in which Newark unfolded. Newark: Escalation After I Preserved Evidence I was flying out of Seattle during a federal government shutdown. TSA staffing was disrupted. Flights were delayed and reshuffled across the board. I missed my original connection but was eventually rebooked through Newark. Because of that rebooking, I ended up with an approximately eight hour layover. I was in the terminal for hours, in public, on camera, doing nothing more than waiting. During that layover, I was chemically assaulted multiple times by people passing me in the terminal, individuals with luggage who brushed close enough for exposure and then moved on. This is not speculative. Newark is a heavily surveilled airport. The movement of those people, their proximity to me, and my reactions should all be visible on airport cameras. Two of those incidents stood out because they followed a pattern I had already experienced repeatedly in hotels and airports. Janitorial staff were used as delivery mechanisms. The first janitor was a woman with a traditional mop and bucket. I was seated in a public area. She approached and began mopping directly next to me, despite there being nothing to clean. She did not mop anywhere else. I smelled the chemical before she reached me. I told her clearly, “please wait, I’m allergic.” She ignored me, continued mopping only beside me, then left. I went to ask for help and requested security. I flagged down a woman who turned out to be United staff. When I told her I had just been assaulted with a hazardous substance, she called a United supervisor. When the supervisor arrived, she took a report. While she was writing, I asked her if she knew what a volatile organic compound was. She said she did. She had studied chemistry or physics at Rutgers. I explained that the substance used against me contained a volatile organic compound and that I had been repeatedly assaulted with similar solutions. I showed her my Substack. I told her I had filed a human rights complaint in Geneva and that I was traveling to Switzerland to follow up on it. She then called the janitorial supervisor. He came, wrote his own report, and told me he believed it was an innocent mistake. His posture made it clear he was trying not to get the worker fired. At that point, I had done what I was supposed to do. I reported the assault. I documented it. I made myself visible. Then it happened again. The second janitor was a young Black man operating a mechanized mop cart. He likely spoke Spanish. He drove the cart into the restaurant bar area where I was sitting and began dispersing the substance via the mopping solution. I left the area to avoid exposure. He left as well. As I walked past his unattended cart, I noticed a clear bottle sitting on top. Inside was a blue liquid. I picked it up and opened it. The smell was unmistakable. It matched the substance that had been used on me for six months in hotel and restaurant water solutions. My throat, nose, and eyes burned immediately. I asked him if this was what he was using in the water. He responded in another language. We could not communicate clearly. At that point, I understood that for the first time I had the substance itself. Not a description. Not a symptom. The actual liquid. I did not include them here, but I have photos and/or video of both incidents, including janitorial staff involved, security camera placement and the water bottle containing the blue liquid on the cart and in my possession after the assault. I tried to find the janitorial supervisor again. No one would identify him or bring him. I then saw the same United staffer from the first incident as she was about to leave and asked her to call the United supervisor again. I told her the same thing had happened and that I now had the substance. When the supervisor returned, I showed her the bottle. I explained that it came from the cart and that the smell matched what had been used on me. I told her it needed to be tested. This was finally a chance to identify what was being used. She made several calls from the podium. Then she told me I could not take the substance on the plane. That matters. If the liquid were harmless, there would be no reason to forbid me from flying with it. In practice, it was treated as hazardous material. When she said I could not fly with it, I said the substance still needed to be tested and asked about calling the police. She told me that at the airport, the police are Port Authority. So I called them myself. I asked Port Authority to take custody of the bottle as evidence, send it for testing, and take a report for assault with a hazardous substance. On the phone, they acted as if they did not understand what “assault with a hazardous substance” meant. They resisted sending anyone. After repeated back and forth, they agreed to… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drtamaradixon.substack.com