Upon reading the article more closely it seems the woman was carrying a legit Chinese passport. At any rate, I guess they could do the same with an American passport. “We need to check iyt is legit” (and that can take hours).
Both customs and immigration work together and ask questions about both things. The guy that had me in a room I assume was immigration (or maybe not) but his main interest was my luggage and he went through it with a fine tooth comb. If they suspect you are carrying drugs or are just fishing for drugs an American passport is not going to help you much.
But yes, in the end you will get into the country.
I don’t have any horrible stories like the rest of you, even though I’ve traveled back and forth to europe many times. Then again, I was never a permanent resident of another country. Once even, arriving in France I didn’t have to present my passport at all. No customs, no baggage screening, nobody in the declaration area. I kept feeling like someone was going to come running after me shouting “wait wait we must check your passport,” but they never did.
The only problem I ever had was in London. I was flying in from Toulouse on a student visa (to France) and an american passport. The customs guy gave me the third degree. Started out asking why I was coming to the UK. I said tourist. Asked where I was staying. I told him with a friend. He asked where that friend lived. I said I didn’t know, that I was supposed to call when I arrived (I mean what the hell, I don’t know my way around). So he got all snotty and asked me whether I really thought it was smart to come into a country and not know where I was staying. So I told him I did know where I was staying, I just needed to call for directions. He eventually let me go, but not without a hassle simply because I didn’t have an address.
Give someone a gun and a uniform and you have a little Hitler ready to inflict misery on those around him. That is true anywhere but in the US the cops are much more aggressive and violent, probably because all of society is much more violent. I used to think English cops were nice guys until one day my car ran out of gas on a long overpass in busy traffic with such bad luck the cops were right behind me. First they started yelling at me through the PA system. Well, you can’t understand them is they are speaking your native language but these guys had that fake accent the Brits put on to sound cool, so they are sounding like Basil Fawlty speaking through a long pipe.
After a throw my hands up in despair, one of them gets out, opens my door, shoves me into the passenger seat and takes the wheel while the other guy pushes my car along until we are out of the overpass. Then they yelled at me a bit more for good measure. Man alive, I can’t believe Stalin’s police were that bad. These guys were really pissed at me.
Then you have DC police. What can I say that you haven’t heard? If they were any dumber they’d be sitting in Congress. One day there were some police cars going around my neigborhood like something had happened. I am standing outside my front door when one of the cars stops and the cop yells at me to give him my name , which I do. Then, still yelling, he asks “where do you live?”. I point at my front door and say “right here”. Exasperated he yells again “I said where do you live?” hmmm. … . right here. after a couple more times he yells “I want the fucking street address!”
Man, you know if he wasn’t a cop he’d be a criminal. As Charles Kingsley said: “A keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper turned inside out.”
While leaving Vancouver to fly to Baltimore, on my K-1 (Fiancee) Visa, I noticed that the majority of people stopped and put through the third degree by INS were Asian. Yes, Vancouver is an international airport in a major city well-known for its Asian population, but it was disproportionate. I saw two separate parties of Asian people with women crying, and myself and one other (caucasian) person were waiting. We both went through rather quickly.
My luggage was not searched. I produced my visa documents, got a stamp in my passport, and was on my way in about five minutes. I believe that the first woman I saw was denied entry.
Truth Seeker: Yep, never a good idea to give someone in a uniform a hard time. Washte waited until she had her passport back in her hands before she questioned his IQ level.
Once again, the thing that threw her the most was how his attitude changed when he saw she lived in the UK. It was like he took it as an insult that an American would prefer to live in another country.
What got me was that while he was questioning her, he was reaching for a visa waiver form. It really did look like he was gonna make my wife fill one in. How much training to these guys get if they think a national has to have a visa (or a waiver form) in order to enter their own bloody country?
Curiously, while I have ‘fun’ getting through immigration I’ve never had any trouble with customs. (yet, touch wood, fingers crossed).
What airports are you travelling through? I’ve done my share of travelling in and out of the U.S. but I’ve never seen the kind of behavior you are all describing.
I usually come in through either Dulles in Washington D.C. or Miami. Miami is usually so full that they barely talk to you in passport control. FTR I am a Hispanic male between the ages of 20-30. My friends used to joke when I was younger that I fit the profile of either a drug smuggler. I’ve had customs go through my bags, but nothing else.
Lately, I’ve found that it helps to dress well when I travel. I try to dress business casual and get a really close shave the night before i I fly. Unfortunately, appearance does matter and if you look like someone they can push around they will.
I wonder if a large proportion of schoolyard bullies go into the customs service.
I wish it were that easy Truth Seeker. You see, I’m a chicken when it comes to standing up for myself… Just ask Kal. I’ve gotten better at it, but when in a stressful situation, just tend to ‘yes sir’ my way out of the situation - Unless my buttons get really pushed…
Thanks, Flamsterette. Am very stressed and going through a lot at the moment. Thought about posting a thread to see who else has had experience dealing with the kind of cancer my dad has and what others have experienced. Just not one to put family emergencies and the stress of it all online for everyone to see…
I’ve seen how foreigners are treated coming into the US, as well as how Kal was treated - which really ticked me off. He was treated suspiciously until I came over and stuck my nose into the situation.
It will be interesting to see what happens when I finally get to come home. I doubt I’ll receive the same kind of treatment. Can’t wait to come home.
Well, I have flown in and out of the States and crossed border patrols too many times to mention, and outside of the usual line of questioning, I have never once experienced a problem.
I’m not suggesting customs agents are Mary Poppins, but they’ve never once acted in a manner that warranted me having to write a complaint letter or call a supervisor.
Man these stories scare the crap out of me. I have traveled in and out of the coutry several times with out a hitch. So has my wife (who is not a US citizen). We have never been given any trouble. The INS has been really good, the only trouble I have had is the long delays to get paperwork back. I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that my luck continues to hold up.
lola, you’ve been lucky but if and when it happens to you then you will see how your views are affected. As they say: A liberal is a conservative who’s been arrested. A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged
I’m not saying that you should get in any official’s face, even in the U.S. I’m just saying that it might reduce your stress level to know that Mr. Passport control officer doesn’t actually have any real power over you. I think you’ll find that while the INS doesn’t have too much problem beating up on foreigners with no legal redress, attempting to deport/deny entry to genuine U.S. citizens is a big no-no.
My understanding is also that as far as customs goes (I don’t know about the INS) it is actually a mistake to be too compliant. I believe there theory is that if you are really innocent, you’ll eventually get annoyed at all the hoops they make you jump through. Go figure.
I’ve always found the best attitude for dealing with officialdom in both North America and Europe is reasonable, polite dignity. You don’t get emotional or angry. Just firm and, if necessary, frosty.
Truth Seeker, they can make your life very miserable for a few hours. Very miserable. They can your luggage and your person, ask questions, yell at you. Then, after a few hours of that they say you are free to go. I am not saying whether you should act submissive or frosty or heated. Just that they do have the power to make you miserable.
U.S. Passport control -> INS -> Justice Department
U.S. Customs -> U.S Customs Service -> Treasury Department
Two different agencies, two different missions. Now, I have no doubt they communicate with each other, but even I am not cynical enough to believe that customs will do a full body search on you because the passport control officer thought you needed to be taught a lesson.
BTW, take a look at this from the official customs website.
**
Emphasis mine.
Here’s another interesting bit that I didn’t know. Regarding being detained:
So the moral of the story is, don’t be a sheep. If you get jerked around, speak up! If you don’t feel like doing it on the spot, put your complaint in writing and make them do the paperwork. You owe it to yourself and to all the people who don’t have the language skills or the knowledge to stick up for themselves.
Truth Seeker, now you are talking about Customs when we were talking about Immigration people. You said
>> Mr. Passport control officer doesn’t actually have any real power over you.
and I am telling you Mr. Passport control officer has loads of power over you. You get snippy with him and he looks at your passport and says he needs to veruify it is legit and he takes you to a small room and keeps you there for several hours. Every hour, or whenever he feels like it he comes in and yells at you saying, “just tell me why you have a forged passport”. Then he leaves you for another hour while he goes and terrorises a few others or just has coffee. He also has the power and the authority to go all over your luggage and your person and he will do it if he feels like it. After 3 or 6 hours or whenever he feels like it he says “you are free to go” without explanation and you are certainly glad you are free to go but he has already made your day miserable. He obviously does not have the power to prevent you from entering the country but he has the power to make you very miserable for a few hours.
Ocassionally they pick on the wrong person and then strings get pulled and someone gets reprimanded but that is the exception. I agree that people should protest and write their congressman etc and I would encourage them to do it but, as a rule, I have given up on that type of thing for personal reasons. It is just not worth my time and aggravation. You can’t fight city hall, much less the feds.
I used to be the type that wrote letters of protest, wrote the news media etc but I found it took too much emotional toll. When I feel an injustice has been done on me, I have found what works best for me is to try to put it behind me and forget about it as soon as possible.
The incident I had with Immigration was very traumatic and the last thing I need is to have any emotional involvement over it. I can understand why a woman who has been raped would prefer to not be dragged into a courtroom and explain how it happened. But I applaud those who do fight against abuses like we are talking about.
Surprisingly (given the above tales of woe), I have never had a single problem with US immigration, even when I was a tie-die wearing long-hair. They’ve always been completely civil, friendly, and helpful. And I’ve been to the US from Europe a lot. (Aside: did you know that in Ireland, US immigration is in Ireland - once you pass that desk in Shannon or Dublin, you’re already in the US. Means that we don’t have to go thru immigration at our US destination. Weird or what?).
Correction: I did once have a problem, when I lost my I-94 while in Canada. Luckily for me one of my American companions intervened with the words “Hi, I’m Lieutenant Colonel T____ S____. What seems to be the problem?” They immediately waved me through.
And once on vacation, after I’d passed immigration, my Irish ex-girlfriend got taken into a room (full of Asian, Hispanic and Black people) and grilled, despite the fact that we were clearly travelling together, and our ticketing situation was identical.
Not entirely a passport/customs issue, but an amusing INS story:
Periodically, INS does a “sweep” of hotels in Phoenix (and I presume other SW cities) looking for illegal immigrants. Once they picked up a busload at the hotel where my mother was housekeeper and included was a friend of my mother’s. This tiny, middle-aged lady kept yelling at them, “I was born in El Paso, you idiots!”, had them take her to her house so she could show them her birth certificate, and them when they said, “you’re free to go,” made them bring her back to the hotel.
Having done quite a bit of travel myself (3 trips to England, as well as travel to Japan, Canada, Mexico…) This was the first problem I’d experienced.
As ever, just handed the fella my passport and I-whichever and expected to be let through with no problem. When I told the fella why I was there, it was with emotion, but no tears, no raised voice, just a ‘look, this is what’s up’ type of explanation. It was only after he gave my passport back that I mumbled the comment mentioned by Kal.
A friend of mine who lived in Chandler (suburb of Phoenix) told me the Chandler police once tried a similar method, rounding up a busload or two of people who looked like illegal immigrants and returning them to Mexico if they couldn’t produce Green Cards. U.S. citizens don’t carry Green Cards. I think that was the only time they tried that method.
Stories like that make me want to be a lawyer, just so I can do more to keep he power of the government in check. I’m sure it has to be possible to sue for being deported just because you look foreign.
