Those wonderful US immigration officials (not)

The BBQ Pit
1

I have a friend who took a flight from the UK to the US which landed at Memphis.

She has been to the US many times with no problems at all but aparrently Memphis airport deals mostly in internal flights and some of the staff may not have worked on the international side much.

She has a 60 day visa and on arrival was stopped, held and inerviewed then escorted straight back onto a flight to the UK, entry to the US was denied.

They did this to all those on her fight with 60 day visas but not the 30 day visa holders.

OK so the US may have some policy but what is less acceptable was the behaviour of the officials.

First, she was held incommunicado for two hours, there was no need for this as her American fiancee was awaiting her arrival, that’s right she has sold up everything in the UK to marry her long-standing beau.

The officials justified the fact that she had to wait for such a long time on the fact that her fiancee had not been asking around, yet they never put out a call, they claimed to her that they had done so but this was factually incorrect.

During questioning the officials made such comments as “We don’t like you English bastards coming here!”

WTF ? is this some new sophisticated interrogation technique or plain obnoxiousnes, there were other comments made that were worse but rather than raise the temperature I’ll leave these to one side, besides which I doubt that she could prove it well enough to make them stick.

The officials checked out her story against that of the fiancee in separate interviews and of course they checked out.

Before being taken to the flight out she was fingerprinted but not accused of any misbehaviour or liklehood of any such, nor was she given any reason why she was being denied entry other than being told,

“Come back next week, we might change our minds”

I was under the impression the you could only be fingerprinted in the course of a criminal investigation, which this was not since it had no declared purpose, or in work applications for certain jobs where positive identity is important.

Her fiancee has taken this matter to the supervisor who seemed to think that at the very least, correct procedure had not been carried out.

She is getting in contact with the US embassy in the UK.

My question is this, what legal rights to representation did she have when she was being held and when she was being interviewed ?
The offensiveness of some of the comments made by the officials seems to me a pretty good reason to have independant council attending at any such interview just as a witness.

Can immigration officials deny entry on a whim or must they give reasons in writing ?

Can her fiancee as an American citizen take further action, I might add here that they were going to be married and this visit was to make the necessary arrangements.

AFAIK she is not applying for US citizenship.Does she have any legal recourse against these officials ?

2

Pretty much every piece of immigration paperwork we did for my wife declares that entry can be denied for any reason what so ever. That’s even AFTER she gets her green card.

Probably not good news for your friends, but that’s the way it is, and I’m sorry to hear it. I hope it doesn’t happen to us.

3

I’ve worked very closely with the INS for a few years. I’ve visited well over fifty sites and worked with both agents and officers at each location, ranging from lower-level servicemen to station commanders. I have found the vast majority of them to be extraordinarily professional, competent, relatively friendly and courteous. Not just with their interactions with myself, but with the treatment of those in their charge.

That being said, given any population of people a certain percentage of them will be complete chuckleheads (The percent varies according to one’s personal experience and cynicism, of course). And, of course the adage about one apple spoiling the bunch applies as well. Also, I’ve never been to the Memphis POE so I have no direct experience with the folks there. It is entirely possible that a small office, some distance from any immediate supervision is filled with slug lickers.

What to do? Legally I have no idea (yet! :slight_smile:) but I can suggest writing some very polite, professional letters to their supervisors. Airport POEs (Point of Entry) are not autonomous units, but are under the command of a regional station and above that an Admin Center. The folks higher up the chain take the integrity and responsibility of the Service very seriously. (With the above caveat that there are rocks in every bag of beans). Write a letter that calmly describes the treatment received. I wouldn’t complain about the policy per se, because they don’t (generally) respond to what they do in the same manner as to how they do it. It may not be of any practical help to you, but you can rest assured that they will be called to task for their actions, severely if yours is not the first complaint received. You will also be making it easier for other folks in similar situations. Good luck!

Rhythmdvl

4

Being one of those unwanted aliens I have “enjoyed” an encounter like this with the INS. I believe it is a general rule that people who are given power and authority would tend to abuse it unless there are some practical limits in place. We hear about police abuse very often and that is contested by local people’s reaction. Now imagine a police who only deal with foreigners who have no rights and cannot do anything. The Oregonian did a series of articles documenting abuse and corruption in the INS for which it won a Pulitzer prize. http://www.oregonlive.com/ins/ The conclusion was not good: that corruption and abuse were so deeply ingrained in the INS that it would be very difficult to change. Also there is little pressure for them to change since they deal mostly with foreigners who cannot complain without fear of retaliation. Ocassionally they pick on some US citizen by mistake and get into some minor trouble but that’s about it.

I had a very bad experience in LAX returning from China. I was detained and interrogated for over 7 hours. I had already been traveling for more than 24 hrs without sleep so I could barely stay awake. The SOB was one of these mean-spirited people who enjoy inflicting pain on others. He bullied me and badgered me and yelled at me and accussed me of entering the country illegally etc. If I had committed the least irregularity I would have cried for mercy on the spot but I have never done anything wrong and was utterly exhausted. He had me there for hours while he went through my belongings. He read every paper I had, slowly taking his time. He did not lose any opportunity to humiliate me. He read some very personal letters from my girlfriend and made some disparaging remarks. Almost on the verge of crying I asked him if he had to read that and he got angry and yelled at me “I can read it!”. I was never allowed to make any calls, even to the airline to reschedule my flight (I missed it). After about 7 or 8 hours he just let me go without further explanation. It was a terrifying experience and I came out with quite a trauma of having been abused, violated. For a long time I had a very bad feeling about the whole experience and it took me quite a while to put it behind me. It is a terrifying experience to feel you are in the hands of some psycho and you are impotent to do anything. It is even worse when it is done under the authority of a country one believes should know something about human rights and human decency.

5

Sailor

Sounds pretty horrendous and it amazes me that there seems to be no right of access to legal counsel in a country that prides itself on human freedom.

As for refusal of entry, surely there should be some official policy that states that you should be informed why, wether its previous criminal history or just a change in government policy.

It seems to be natural justice to be informed of the reasons why a decision that may have adverse consequencies for said individual, especially when it relates to public servants.

I also think that the lack of checks and balances has to be a serious flaw in the security of the US.

6

Apparently someone was asked to fill in an immigration form containing the question ‘Do you intend to overthrow the Govenrment of the United States of America by force?’

He answered ‘Sole purpose of visit.’

7

In fairness, casdave, I’ve heard similar horror stories about UK and Irish immigration officials. I don’t think you can single out the US.

8

Or as the Englisman who was asked by the Australian immigration officer “Do you have a criminal record?” answered:

“I didn’t know it was still a requirement”

9

I experienced this too… I am French and married an American citizen and now live in Boston. On one of my numerous visits, I got stopped and interogated for more than two hours while my boyfriend-at-the-time, was waiting, worried sick that I decided not to join him anymore (ha ha!). I begged them for the use of a phone or for them to make a annoucement to tell my boyfriend that at least, i was indeed in the plane and that I had not missed it or something like that. They said no. Finally they called him to ask him questions, and when they could verified our stories were true, they let me go. I was terrified and in tears! It was just horrible! They suspected I was coming to work illegaly in the country I believe. I only had a tourist visa, that means a round trip ticket…

10

My experience was terrifying for someone who has never been in any trouble with the law. In the common room where I was held at first there were a bunch of people. A black man sleeping on the floor with his ankle cuffed to the seats looked like he had been there for days. By comments I overheard it seemed that was the case. A young woman from some eastern european country, who spoke no English, was crying and refusing food they were trying to give her. It seems she had also been there long enough that they felt they had to feed her even if she didn’t want to be fed. She was very distraught. I could overhear comments about someone having what appeared to be a forged passport and things like that so I imagined I would soon be let go when they found they had no reason to keep me.

Instead, this guy just bullied me and yelled at me for hours accusing me of all sorts of things. The first thing was: “Gimme your wallet!!” (I don’t have a “wallet”) I asked him if he wanted my passport… He yelled “Gimme your wallet NOW!!” and it got worse from there. He took my money and credit cards and disappeared for a while. I did not like my money and credit cards out of my sight. I could see he wanted to humiliate me, break my spirit, scare me. And he succeeded very well. He would not let me touch any of my stuff. He would take my belongings and handle them and make a point of showing they were now in HIS possession. Like saying “You packed this carefully, didn’t you? Well just watch what I do with your stuff” He would ask me questions and yell at me if I answered and make twitching faces if I didn’t. He wanted some sort of confession and any other answer was not acceptable. One question he repeated many times: “Why have you been living in the US illegally?” He knew, and I knew, I had never done that or anything else illegal. But everytime I answered I had not “lived illegally in the US” he would get really mad and yell at me some more. He had absolutely nothing to go on and just abused his power to the limit. I am glad it was in the US because in any other country this man would be much worse. People like this become war criminals if given the chance.

Anyway, at least, he let me in at the end. I know people who have just been turned around and the airlines have to take them back. Being sent back to Hong Kong would have been really bad as that is not my home. I do know of cases of people who have been sent back for no apparent reason. The INS is not required to give any explanation and, as a foreigner, I have no right to enter the country.

There have been some cases where they picked on an American citizen and then they get in hot water… for about half a day. There was a case of an old lady, a grandmother, US citizen of Colombian origin. They held her for some time, made her undress and subjected her to quite a bit of humiliation. It was all over the newspapers and TV here… for about two days… the public has short memory and move on. I wonder how that poor woman feels even after some years.

I always remember the famous quote: “A keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper turned inside out.” The guy I ran up against was a criminal in uniform. Given favorable circumstances he would be committing war crimes. I just hope it does not happen again but I guess shit happens and that is the lesson to learn. You can be living your life trying to be a decent person and some criminal can shoot you on the street to take your wallet or some other SOB can ruin your life for a while for no reason. That’s just life and the better you can take it in stride, the easier it is to be happy.

11

Won’t help this time but I would highly suggest getting a re-entry visa if you are a green card holder.

I just reentered the US with my wife, who is a green card holder. She had her green card stolen and had not been to the US for 3 years.

We had to go to another room. The guy was pretty nice and it was a formality. At the same time, another Chinese guy I had talked with on the phone also had to go to this other room. Same immigratin official in gruff colloquial english told the guy to put his papers in an in box type slot. He didn’t understand. Immigration official got really bent out of shape.Very loudly and rudely repeated the order quickly and in non-proper english (“you gotta something something, and then get your butt over there and siddown.”). I translated for the guy and then made about 2 minutes of chit chat with the immigration guy to try and diffuse the situation. Then we left.

Can’t help but think that if I was not an obviously white bread no crust American, for example Asian, my wife might have had some problems. My treatment would have been different.

12

Ruadh,yeah,it may have occured in other countries as well,but a nation which boasts about its freedom and human rights and being the guardian of democracy,and then fails to curb the rising number of such incidents surely has some soul-searching to do.It’s hypocrisy at its height.The United States is under the mistaken impression that it is the only democratic country in the world and all others are like errant young kinds.Freedom is not just about dressing skimpily in public,freedom is more than that.

13

To add to Adithya’s comment I would state that our UK Conservative party made some play about immigration issues especially as regards asylum seekers a few months before the recent general election.

This was not used as an election issue directly but much of the electorate had it in the back of their minds and the press of most shades certainly made fairly unfavorable comparisons to an election campaign that the Conservatives ran in the '60’s where they were more overt in their racism.

IMHO the Conservative view cost them some votes, and since they were the ones who set up some of the frankly racist immigration rules in the first place under their last administration I think they got what they deserved.

I wouldn’t say that UK immigration is any easier but I would say that the poor handling of it and the strictures imposed by political masters influenced things to the extent that we may see fairer treatment of immigrant of all shades since it can cost votes to do otherwise.

I don’t say that people have the right to entry into any country, just reasonable and fair treatment, explanations where possible, maybe even information available immediately before embarcation, and I do think that all potential immigrants should have the right to legal counsel the moment they are detained, and not at the whim of some official who wishes to conceal their actions under a cloak of regulation.

I haven’t heard from my friend yet but I’ll keep you posted.

14

If I recall correctly, if you’ve got a green card (as I do as well), you’ve got to notify the INS and jump through an inordinate amount of hoops if you’re going to be outside the US for more than six months.

If you don’t, they declare that you’ve decided to return to your home country, and can therefore indulge themselves in a whole bunch of nastiness when you return.

15

US law gives the INS a lot of power. Aliens who cannot be deported because no country will take them can be (and are) jailed indefinitely. There are many people in this situation, including mothers with children.

There was a case here in DC a couple of years ago. A Japanese woman had married an American serviceman just after WWII and they came to live to the US. They were married for over 50 years here and, when he died, the INS started proceedings to deport her because she never bothered to become an American citizen. She was distraught because she just had no relatives or friends in Japan. She had left as a young girl and lost touch with her native country. They were sending her to what was for her a foreign country.

A TV station took up her case and they gave it a lot of publicity. Still, the INS insisted this poor lady had to leave the country and apply for a visa over there. The TV station paid for her travel and stay over there and after some time she returned. Now imagine what her chances would have been had a TV station not taken up her case.

This is sort of related

16

Glad to hear it’s not just me…[sigh]

My father is a naturalized American citizen; I was born and raised here. A few years back my father, two white friends, and I were returning from India to San Francisco. Our incoming flight was late so we only had a few minutes to catch our connecting flight. To make matters worse, I was a little sick. But hey, we’re U.S. citizens–customs wouldn’t take long, right?

As we get to customs, they start directing the white people into the quick line, and the people of color into the “get searched” line. Our two white friends were ushered into the quick line, while the INS officer just literally pointed us to “line B”. “My father and I are American citizens, sir!” Without so much as a grunt, he kept pointing to line B. Our friends looked on helplessly for a moment, then ran on to catch their flight.

Meanwhile our suitcases were searched, as well as those of every other non-white person, whether U.S. Citizen or not. A very pregnant lady, in tears, asked if she could sit down while waiting in line: she was told NO! I asked if I could go to the bathroom, and was also told NO! Grrrr…so we missed our flight and had to stay in a hotel that night.

Conclusion: I sent a nasty letter to the San Fransisco Examiner, INS, and my Congressman. Results: not published; no response; a brief pre-printed apology.

I doubt that I had any legal recourse at the time, nor after the fact: they really didn’t break any laws, and even a fourth-amendment violation just means I can’t be prosecuted with any evidence they find. Good luck with a civil suit against the gov’t.

17

Actually, I believe the Supreme Court just overturned this.

18

Nice timing on this one.

And an interesting followup.

As for Adithya’s post, anyone who makes statements like

clearly isn’t interested in engaging in rational debate, so I won’t comment.

NoLongerPatrick, a green card holder who plans to be out of the US for more than a year needs to obtain a Reentry Permit prior to leaving the country. It’s an inconvenience, but not an “inordinate amount of hoops”. The purpose is to ensure that people who are granted permanent residence are, in fact, resident in the US and not just using their green card as a guaranteed visitor’s visa. In fact you can have your green card taken away even if you’re gone less than a year, if it seems clear to the immigration official that you aren’t actually living in the US.

19

You tell 'em, Ruadh! Fuck them furriners!

20

I suspect that both the UK and the US have their fair share of idiots who think “immigration official” means “They pay me to hassle foreigners? Cool!” And I suspect that neither country actually wants them.