I should add that I expect to be asked a range of questions including questions about my intents and proposed movements – questions whose purpose may not be immediately apparent. It is necessary for the border security staff to ask these questions to adequately explore the issues that they are concerned about. And even if my citizenship and other issues are in the clear it is reasonable for border security to have a spectrum of questions that they can ask anyone. That is, everyone passing through the border gets treated the same.
j_sum and Leaffan, keep answering all the questions you want to. This obviously has veered away from GQ territory, and I’ll admit I was partially responsible for that, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Sorry I wasn’t clear. One of my points was to ask questions. There may be a legitimate reason for the BP staff to pursue a line of questioning.
Getting snarky or defensive or just plain difficult will not help your cause and will get you through more slowly. I just don’t see the point.
+1000
Why people feel the need to push LE’s buttons escapes me.
They’ve sworn a duty to protect us, and you being an a-hole isn’t making their job any easier.
You MUST start publishing your newsletter! I’ll be your 1st subscriber.
I hate that receipt crap at WalMart! I either hand it to them and keep walking, or just keep walking.
Anyone who thinks I’m stealing something is invited to attempt to detain me.
No, it is not any type of consent, but the FD is permitted to enter due to EXIGENCY, see Michigan v. Tyler.
Even the “Automobile Exception” to a vehicle search was WAY before the PA, 1925.
I know a person who was a lawyer with the border patrol in Nevada for years, and she’s proud of the fact that you basically have no rights at the border, or even those inside the border checkpoints. She says its all necessary to catch illegals, and that people should put with anything to prevent them from coming in. She worked with property claims, and liked to talk about how she and the other people in her department could do all kinds of things so they could claim people’s property for themselves (one of the ways that organization supported itself apparently). There was a whole lot of ‘if we even suspect’ and ‘by the time they realize’, etc. It didn’t do much to bolster my confidence.
Moderator Warning
etv78, insults are not permitted in General Questions. (Leaving out a couple of letters doesn’t help.) Given that samclem has already mod-noted someone else for oblique insults, this is an official warning. Don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Last I checked, Nevada doesn’t have an international border. 
I completely understand they’ve got a job to do, but it’s how they do it, they have a terrible attitude. I’ve been to many countries, as a tourist (I’m English), and IMHO the US BP are the rudest; Canada - “Welcome to Canada”, Australia - G’day how long you staying", US - sullen stare, “Give me your passport”.
Is this why getting through customs takes so long? Because people are fucking with the BP? Why don’t you write your Congresscritters or something, stand on your rights on your free time. I just want to get to Montreal and do some shopping!
Oops, Arizona. She lived in Yuma.
I once had a customs agent at a Toronto airport decline to process me because he, once he heard my name, declared that he knew me personally. Drove me a little nuts that he wouldn’t say how, especially since I don’t live in Toronto. I figured vaguely he might be a memeber of this board and recognized my name, though we’d never met.
Or maybe he just didn’t like whatever ethnic group he thought my name suggested. I dunno.
Just yesterday I was driving in western Penna. towards the Ohio border and saw a white-and-green Border Patrol SUV on the median strip of a major highway, a long way from either the Canadian or Mexican border. Looking for illegal migrant workers, I suppose, but who knows?
Well, Jim Carrey had better watch his step, then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJSqkwyL1Zo
When I lived in L.A. I visited a friend in Bellingham, and we went to Vancouver. I’m driving my Jeep with California plates.
Canadian Guard: Do you have any guns?
Me: No.
CG: I thought everyone in L.A. had a gun.
Me: I left them at home.
Border Patrol thinks it can search an aircraft that took off in the U.S. and landed in the U.S. without crossing any international border.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=16384280
(The initial contact was by Homeland Security and the DEA, but Border Patrol landed in a King Air and ‘interviewed’ the pilot again.)
The correct response is “What do you need?”