A Windsor business owner who is Chinese is sharing his experience crossing the border in Detroit while the coronavirus outbreak is going on.
Jim Ging is owner of Jimmy G's Bar and Grill on Wyandotte St. W. at Rankin Ave.
He says he and some friends were heading to Mexican Town last Monday and when they approached the custom booth, the officer's first question was, "When's the last time you went to China?"
Ging says he responded never.
He tells AM800 news he was in the car with two others.
"The only question that we got was when's the last time you went to China, my response immediately was never, passenger side, he answered never and his wife answered never also," says Ging. "I just found it kind of interesting that he asked when the last time I went to China was, I was expecting when was the last time I went to Detroit."
Ging says custom officers should be asking everyone that question, not just people with Asian backgrounds.
"I said that I wish they would ask everybody, not only Asians because I am Chinese in background," says Ging. "The passenger is Caucasian and his wife is also a Caucasian but the officer asked me first and then asked everybody else in the vehicle."
He says he didn't find the question inappropriate but when he brought it up at his bar, some felt it was profiling.
"With something like this and the epidemic that's going on in China, it didn't hurt me in any means," says Ging. "It wasn't rude, it wasn't obnoxious, it wasn't anything, it's their right to find out who's going into the country and seeing who might be possibly sick."
Ging says he has family living in Hong Kong.
He says his family is scared and are out of masks.
Ging says after hearing that, he shipped masks to them.