Being on a watchlist forces travelers to endure interrogations and pat-downs before flying

Evidence

The two most widely used lists at airports are the No-Fly List and the Secondary Security Screening Selection List (or the Secondary Security Screening Selectee List). The No-Fly List contains names of individuals who are not allowed to travel by airplane within or outside of the United States because the state has determined that they pose a threat to national security. The ACLU has criticized the government for refusing to provide information on how someone gets on the No-Fly List or the number of names on it because it obscures state abuses. The Selectee List is also used at airports. Passengers who are on the Selectee List are prevented from checking in at airport kiosks and printing boarding passes at home (Pasquarella 2013). When they attempt to do so, these individuals are informed that they must see a ticket agent, who issues them their tickets after they are interrogated about their travel plans. These tickets are marked with four Ss (SSSS), flagging these passengers for extra surveillance in the security lines, such as having their bodies patted down and their belongings searched. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 163

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the difference between the No-Fly List (grounding) and Selectee List (extra screening) — both central to the book’s subject.