3 ms·

I don’t want to nitpick, but i’ve been thru the checkpoint east of el paso many times. It’s deeply racist. Here is how every interaction i’ve had goes: Checkpo

I don’t want to nitpick, but i’ve been thru the checkpoint east of el paso many times. It’s deeply racist. Here is how every interaction i’ve had goes: Checkpoint cop, looks at people in vehicle, sees they are all white, bored sounding asks “is everyone an american citizen?” Driver: “no, some of us are american and some are canadian.” Checkpoint cop, confused: “uhhh that’s alright, proceed” There purpose is supposedly to check for illegal cross border activity in the US and yet a car full of canadians doesn’t even blip their radar because it’s not actually about nationality it’s about race. Which is all to say that i believe your comment about that checkpoint being about contraband glosses over the real motivations. In the dozens of times i’ve been thru there all i’ve ever been asked about is citizenship, and it’s never mattered what the answer is because i am white.

newfriend 6y ago
No, it's not. There aren't millions of Canadian citizens crossing the US-Mexico border illegally every year. There aren't tens of millions of Canadian citizens living illegally in the US. They are trying to stop the 99.999% of illegal aliens who are from Mexico and Central America from crossing the border, not the random Canadian who is basically guaranteed to be entering legally.
- kennywinker 6y ago
  Because it’s a car full of white people, the border patrol and you assume that they’re “very likely to be entering legally”. There is a similar ratio of canadians legally and “illegally” living in the states as there are latinos living legally and “illegally”. But that aside, a car full of white people definitely gets treated differently at that checkpoint than a car full of latinos - and nobody EVER asked about “contraband” as originally suggested

newfriend 6y ago

No, it's not. There aren't millions of Canadian citizens crossing the US-Mexico border illegally every year. There aren't tens of millions of Canadian citizens living illegally in the US. They are trying to stop the 99.999% of illegal aliens who are from Mexico and Central America from crossing the border, not the random Canadian who is basically guaranteed to be entering legally.

kennywinker 6y ago
Because it’s a car full of white people, the border patrol and you assume that they’re “very likely to be entering legally”. There is a similar ratio of canadians legally and “illegally” living in the states as there are latinos living legally and “illegally”. But that aside, a car full of white people definitely gets treated differently at that checkpoint than a car full of latinos - and nobody EVER asked about “contraband” as originally suggested