Alternative title: “Is Michigan a foreign country?”
Here’s a situation that happened to me several years ago.
I was traveling from Buffalo to visit some friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fastest way from Buffalo to anywhere in Michigan is through Canada, so that’s the route I took; I-290 to the QEW to the 403 to the 401 to I-96.
I had no problem entering Canada. Arriving back in the US across the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit was a different story …
USBP: Citizenship?
Me: United States. (hands over passoort)
USBP: Where were you traveling from?
Me: Transiting through Ontario. Buffalo to Ann Arbor.
USBP: Why are you visiting Ann Arbor?
Me: Uhhhh … I’m seeing some friends, but I’m returning to the United States.
USBP: Who are your friends?
Me: I’m an urban planner. They’re other urban planners,. Really, I’m returning home to the US, only in a different state.
USBP: How long are you going to be in Michigan?
Me: A few days, but I’m an American citizen who lives in the United States. Buffalo. I’m returning to the United States.
USBP: Where do you know these people from?
You can see where this is going. He asked a few more questions, a if I was a foreign national, and eventually let me pass without an inspection.
A question for the Throbbing Brain: is this legal? If went from Buffalo to Toronto for the day, and returned to Buffalo, the border patrol agent wouldn’t ask me about my plans for the following days. Why should it be any different if I return to the US through Detroit?
You can be difficult, and presumably he would then be entitled to give you a full cavity search and tear your car apart, based on your apparent difficult attitude and refusal to answer questions suggesting you had something to hide. It’s probably not a good idea to piss off border guards, even more so than traffic cops. All a traffic cop can do is give you a bigger ticket.
Sadly, border guards can cause no end of trouble - and they can put you on a list so you are guaranteed the same treatment every subsequent time. They can’t stop you from coming home… eventually; but they can make you sorry you left. Worse if you were not American.
Your best bet would be to phone your congresscritter and your senator’s office later and raise holy hell. If applicable, play the minority card.
Most likely the CBP guy suspected you of doing some cross-border shopping and wanting to avoid paying duty. He wanted to see if your story was plausible, and/or if you became visibly nervous as the conversation went on.
As to whether or not it’s “legal”, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be; what right of yours was violated by having to answer these questions? Do note that there are many things that border agents can do that would be illegal for your standard-issue municipal police officer to do. For example, you can be searched without probable cause.
Border agents are still constrained by the 4th AM, but as MikeS points out, administrative searches are permitted without PC. and it is up to the individual guard to determine from facts and answers which car is more likely to contain contraband, etc.
They simply can’t hold you for hours on end just to be on a power trip, but so called “routine” questioning is part of training and for the administration/safety of the borders.
That seems strange. Cross-border shoppers are usually from Canada. Buffalonians generally do very little cross-border shopping, except for Ikea, prescription drugs that are OTC in Canada, and products that are banned in the US like unpasteurized cheese, Kinder eggs, and three gallon toilets. Besides, I have NY plates on my car, so even if I was hauling Poang chairs, casu marzu, or heavy duty crappers, why return home through Detroit instead of back over a Niagara River crossing?
In my experience, US boarder guards aren’t the brightest anyway.
USBP: Citizenship?
Me: Canadian,
USBP: Where are you from?
Me: Ottawa
USBP: If you’re from Ottawa, why do you have Ontario plates?
Me: Ummm, because Ottawa is in Ontario.
I lived in Buffalo for most of 2012 and spent almost every weekend in Toronto. I have a NEXUS card which made crossing into Canada a piece of cake. Coming back, however, even with the NEXUS card, was often a nightmare. Most of the time it was just mildly annoying but a couple of crossings still stand out.
In one exchange, the officer grilled me on how I could have possibly met my husband, a Canadian, when I was living in Connecticut at the time we met. I don’t even remember the line of questioning that led to that much information being provided.
In another exchange, after I was living in Canada, the officer wanted the street address of the doctor in Buffalo that I had an appointment with. I remember being so pissed off at that exchange that I said “fuck you” as I drove away.
ETA: elmwood: I did bring in a Poang chair at one point. The US officer didn’t give a shit…
I’ve gotten a similar grilling on the upstate NY side when crossing through Canada to get from Ann Arbor to Rochester and also been treated with great suspicion by Canadian Border control on this route. Apparently it’s a HUGE marijuana trafficking route.
You answered your own question. The right to not be detained without probable cause. The fact that border guards are allowed to violate our constitutional rights does not mean that they are not violating those rights, it only means that they are being given special immunity to prosecution for violating them. Thanks to the Patriot Act, which has in effect replaced the Constitution, without the messy business of the constitutional amendment.
I have not been to Canada for years but even back when, I received so called “routine” questions from the guard; where am I going, how long will I be staying, etc., etc.
This is what I was thinking as soon as you said “Ann Arbor”. Ann Arbor is known for its lax enforcement marijuana laws and has an annual Hash Bash. If you were going around that time of year (or probably any other time) the agent was probably on the lookout for traffickers o’ the wacky tobacky.
When I cross to the US, I always get asked how long I going for. It is none of your business how long I am going for. I might change my mind and move back. Any problem with that?
I guess this is amusing. I was asked where I was going. New York. Oh, where in NY. Brooklyn. Later I realized that this guy lived somewhere like Plattsburgh and NY meant NY State, while to me NYC is the only place there is in NY.
Less amusing was the lady I encountered on my way to Boston on a bright sunny day last fall. As required, I took off my sun glasses before getting to the booth, answered her questions, she told me I could leave and I replaced my sun glasses. She lost it, literally shouting to me that you are not allowed to wear sunglasses while in the customs area. What was that all about?
They also ask non-stock questions to detect accents and people up to no good who have memorized the stock answers. If you are trying to pull off an international caper, you probably have a script in your head for your cover story. Probe a little deeper, and the story starts to unravel. Get them talking a little more and now a European accent is obvious in a person with a US passport. I once took a girlfriend back into Detroit from Windsor and the BP agent was convinced she was a criminal because she had a deep southern accent.
Twenty years ago, I took the same route across Canada traveling from Boston to Chicago for college (just for a change of pace from I-90 the whole way). I got the same kinds of questions. The border guard in Michigan kept asking me how long I had been in Canada, where I had stopped, where I was going, etc and when I got impatient (because I had been driving all day) she threatened to search my car which was loaded to the roof with stuff for my dorm room. This was a decade before 9/11, even.
On the other hand, I cross the border at Pigeon River, Minnesota almost every year to go camping in NW Ontario and I’ve never had any problem at the border there - they just ask if I’m bringing anything back into the US with me.