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Ian Heinisch: You Ever Been to Rikers?


My flight landed at JFK, and I was ready to sprint through that whole damn airport. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I wanted to go home.

I wanted to be free.


Not after 9/11, Ian. They’re going to get you if you run.


So I calmly walked toward immigration. I was coming from Spain. But what I had left behind me … what I had been through … I knew it was going to catch up to me. And it was probably going to happen right here, right now.


I handed the agent my passport.


“How long have you been out of the country for, sir?”


“A while.”


“How long is a while?”


“Five years.”


She looked me up and down. “Yeah, you’re coming with us.”


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