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A friend of mine had quite the adventure when she was detained for no reason even though she had entered before just fine and was a university student. Even th
by kbody 9y ago
A friend of mine had quite the adventure when she was detained for no reason even though she had entered before just fine and was a university student.
Even though I am a citizen of a "safe" "first-world" European country and having visited USA in the past with barely any issue, I now try to not visit friends there due to these policies and behavior, but rather I convince those that can to meet me either on Canada or Mexico.
It's really sad what it has come down to.
- muninn_ 9y agoI think you have fallen victim to the news. Yes there are a lot of rumblings about things like the OP, but the vast majority of people pass through US customs with no issue. Even as you said. Last time I went to Mexico both my gf and I were searched. When I landed in Brussels last time the immigration officer was really rude to me for no reason. It's not unique to the United States. My view is that your comment, like many other similar comments, are more so about venting outrage at Trump and so this is a convenient straw man (despite the fact that these kinds of policies continued under Obamacare). I'm not saying there aren't horror stories, but they are very few and far between, and much more publicized than getting detained in Thailand for a day because you didn't pay off the customs officer (contrived example). The US is the big target, so everything is exaggerated. I've heard people from Europe say they wouldn't visit the US because they fear for their lives and other things like that too, but again that's because they heard about a school shooting and then assumed New York was a battleground.
- gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y agoThe op actually knows someone who ran into problems. This is bound to affect their thoughts and actions.
- maxerickson 9y agoPeople have been decrying the dickishness of US entry since before 9/11. I can see why having a President in office that celebrates such dickishness could be a final straw.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoWait, what does this have to do with Obamacare?
- UnoriginalGuy 9y ago> I think you have fallen victim to the news. I've experienced these problems first hand. US immigration being incredibly rude to visitors for no reason at all, and know someone from London who was sent to secondary because they were the wrong skin color (their electronic devices searched, books read, and seemingly no clear answer as to why, it was a business trip with a return ticket to a conference they had a ticket for and hotel room booked for). I genuinely wish Americans could experience US immigration as a foreigner; rather than get their special lines where they just get waved through. Then things would change, things would change rapidly. How many times, online, do Americans need to read that US immigration is some of the worst in the world before you'll believe it? That your border feels like entering a police state? Seriously, what will it take? The fact that you guys are now attributing it to "fake news" says a lot. News stories are fake, anecdotes are fake, it is all fake because you don't like to hear it... PS - US immigration has been horrible since at least 9/11 (arguably it was bad before). This has nothing to do with Trump, it was horrible under Obama and W. Bush too.
- muninn_ 9y agoYeah idk. Every country I've been to, customs has not been great. I'm. not saying the US immigration isn't bad, but people actively avoiding the entire country for anything bad? Not hardly.
- UnoriginalGuy 9y ago> Every country I've been to, customs has not been great. I've been to over thirty countries, including Russia. The US was the worst and UK was the second worst out of all of them. Immigration always sucks just due to the nature of it, but there's a difference between the process sucking and the employees/policy going out of its way to make a bad situation much worse.
- muninn_ 9y agoSure, you have a great anecdote.
- 9y ago