I wasn't surprised to learn that they detained him. What was surprising, and shortsighted I would think, was that they used a law meant for terrorism suspects. One could make a plausible argument that he was a courier for a spy. I don't think one could make the argument that he was a terrorist.
What's wrong here is the way a law that was sold as needed to allow for immediate response to a terrorist threat, without red tape, is used in a situation where normal law enforcement channels should have been adequate. It opens the door to "terrorist" laws being applied to the general population.
Agreed. Without these terrorist laws they probably would have had to jump through more hoops to detain him. But detain him they would have. The fact that the Whitehouse had a heads up means this was something that was planned for quite some time.
What's wrong here is the way a law that was sold as needed to allow for immediate response to a terrorist threat, without red tape, is used in a situation where normal law enforcement channels should have been adequate. It opens the door to "terrorist" laws being applied to the general population.