7 ms·

In my experience it happens a fair bit at the long, long, long immigration lines at US air ports if you are not a US citizen. Guards fondling their gun holster

In my experience it happens a fair bit at the long, long, long immigration lines at US air ports if you are not a US citizen. Guards fondling their gun holster and shouting at people for using a phone or sitting on the floor after queuing for 3 or 4 hours. Welcome to America. I guess you don't experience this if you are a US native. And also obviously it happens frequently in SF from the homeless people. That is probably more worrying as they potentially have "nothing to lose"

BrandoElFollito 6y ago
I have traveled extensively to the US (I am French), probably 10+ times a year. The way people are "welcomed" to the US is horrible - I felt like this only in Russia. Once the border officer asked me (or rather - barked at me) "why are you coming to the US?", to what I said "for business". "For how long?" - to what I answered "for 3 days" He then asks "why so short?" to what I answered "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" (it was a very long, tiring flight and I really wanted to go to the hotel, afer having queued up for 2 hours) He told me that I should not reply like this, to what I said that this is the truth. We had a small staring contest and he let me go. The other similar case in Russia was when the border guard was yelling at me for not having my passport number printed on my ticket (yes, I do not know either), to which I yelled back to kick me out of their country with a "never return" stamp because I am fed up enough to have a week-end ruined with tha travel. I showed him my hands together (as in "handcuff me") and he pushed me into Russia. The stay was great, people were great.
- yardie 6y ago
  > "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" This is what greeted my family every time we came to the US. Which fucked up ICE agent will we get this time? Most of them were pleasant but it only takes 1 asshole in the bunch to ruin a great holiday. And no matter what they say, Canada's ICE weren't much better.
  - filoleg 6y ago
    Yeah, I (as a US immigrant) personally had way more problems with Canadian ICE than the US one. Semi-relevant anecdote: I was traveling in my car with my mom and sister to Vancouver BC from Seattle (back when I was not a US citizen yet). Canadian officer at the border was more than just inquisitive. He asked who i was, where i worked, which team i worked on, what specific product I worked on and what specifically I did (which was already making me feel uncomfortable, because the product wasn't public back then, so I wasn't really allowed to talk about it in general). The questioning itself took like 10 mins and was absolutely unnecessary. Not even mentioning how aggressive he was, I felt like I was an inch away from being escorted to their "office" for additional questioning. And I am saying that as someone who doesn't usually feel threatened much by any interactions with officers. On the way back into the US, however, it was buttery smooth. The officer confiscated the grapes my mother tried bringing back with her (despite me urging her not to do so), and he was extremely apologetic about it. Then he said "welcome home", and that was it. Took less than a minute overall. Not trying to generalize anything from this, as, of course, the experiences differ wildly between individual border officers and such. I just thought it was an interesting semi-relevant anecdote.
    - selestify 6y ago
      Wow, as a US citizen I've faced much more scrutiny from Canadian border agents than US ones. Also at the border between Vancouver and Seattle.
    - lhorie 6y ago
      Oh, don't even get me started on CBSA. I was driving from a town in Illinois to Toronto (a very long 10 hour trip as it was). Got to the border, they said that I needed to pay several thousands dollars to import my car because according to them I was a "returning resident" even though I kept saying I work in US and was going to return to US (and had paperwork to prove it, to boot). Nope. They kept insisting I was lying about the purpose of my trip, and eventually decided that because I was "lying", they were going to seize my car (and everything in it, including laptops and cellphones). They then proceeded to tell me I had to pay $14k to get my car back (or to find a cab willing to come to the border. Without a cell phone. At midnight on a sunday.) Did I mention I had my wife and two children in the car with me? Yeah. So I ended up scrambling to come up with $14k by maxing out multiple credit cards, got my car and belongings back, and finally got our asses out of there at 2am (with still 3 hours of road ahead of me). I knew the border officers were full of shit so I filed a formal appeal with the government. Six months later, what do you know, it was actually reviewed and it was determined that the border officers were in fact in the wrong and that I should get a full refund. Better late than never, but boy, that night couldn't have gone much worse.
- lhorie 6y ago
  Had a strange experience in my last entry into the US myself. I have a Canadian passport, but have a US green card. Officer (in a rather rude tone): "what were you doing in Canada?" Me (sleepy and a bit disoriented): "sorry?" Officer (suddenly seems to realize that he has my green card in front of him): "Never mind, you're good to go" My best guess is that he was just too conditioned to grasp at straws for reasons to give people a hard time, until realizing he couldn't deny entry to a green card holder.
  - closeparen 6y ago
    I thought this was going to a joke about how saying "sorry" means that it was obviously reasonable for you to be in Canada.
hermitcrab 6y ago
Given that Americans are generally warm and approachable, it is quite surprising just how hostile their border officials.

BrandoElFollito 6y ago

I have traveled extensively to the US (I am French), probably 10+ times a year. The way people are "welcomed" to the US is horrible - I felt like this only in Russia. Once the border officer asked me (or rather - barked at me) "why are you coming to the US?", to what I said "for business". "For how long?" - to what I answered "for 3 days" He then asks "why so short?" to what I answered "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" (it was a very long, tiring flight and I really wanted to go to the hotel, afer having queued up for 2 hours) He told me that I should not reply like this, to what I said that this is the truth. We had a small staring contest and he let me go. The other similar case in Russia was when the border guard was yelling at me for not having my passport number printed on my ticket (yes, I do not know either), to which I yelled back to kick me out of their country with a "never return" stamp because I am fed up enough to have a week-end ruined with tha travel. I showed him my hands together (as in "handcuff me") and he pushed me into Russia. The stay was great, people were great.

yardie 6y ago
> "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" This is what greeted my family every time we came to the US. Which fucked up ICE agent will we get this time? Most of them were pleasant but it only takes 1 asshole in the bunch to ruin a great holiday. And no matter what they say, Canada's ICE weren't much better.
- filoleg 6y ago
  Yeah, I (as a US immigrant) personally had way more problems with Canadian ICE than the US one. Semi-relevant anecdote: I was traveling in my car with my mom and sister to Vancouver BC from Seattle (back when I was not a US citizen yet). Canadian officer at the border was more than just inquisitive. He asked who i was, where i worked, which team i worked on, what specific product I worked on and what specifically I did (which was already making me feel uncomfortable, because the product wasn't public back then, so I wasn't really allowed to talk about it in general). The questioning itself took like 10 mins and was absolutely unnecessary. Not even mentioning how aggressive he was, I felt like I was an inch away from being escorted to their "office" for additional questioning. And I am saying that as someone who doesn't usually feel threatened much by any interactions with officers. On the way back into the US, however, it was buttery smooth. The officer confiscated the grapes my mother tried bringing back with her (despite me urging her not to do so), and he was extremely apologetic about it. Then he said "welcome home", and that was it. Took less than a minute overall. Not trying to generalize anything from this, as, of course, the experiences differ wildly between individual border officers and such. I just thought it was an interesting semi-relevant anecdote.
  - selestify 6y ago
    Wow, as a US citizen I've faced much more scrutiny from Canadian border agents than US ones. Also at the border between Vancouver and Seattle.
  - lhorie 6y ago
    Oh, don't even get me started on CBSA. I was driving from a town in Illinois to Toronto (a very long 10 hour trip as it was). Got to the border, they said that I needed to pay several thousands dollars to import my car because according to them I was a "returning resident" even though I kept saying I work in US and was going to return to US (and had paperwork to prove it, to boot). Nope. They kept insisting I was lying about the purpose of my trip, and eventually decided that because I was "lying", they were going to seize my car (and everything in it, including laptops and cellphones). They then proceeded to tell me I had to pay $14k to get my car back (or to find a cab willing to come to the border. Without a cell phone. At midnight on a sunday.) Did I mention I had my wife and two children in the car with me? Yeah. So I ended up scrambling to come up with $14k by maxing out multiple credit cards, got my car and belongings back, and finally got our asses out of there at 2am (with still 3 hours of road ahead of me). I knew the border officers were full of shit so I filed a formal appeal with the government. Six months later, what do you know, it was actually reviewed and it was determined that the border officers were in fact in the wrong and that I should get a full refund. Better late than never, but boy, that night couldn't have gone much worse.
lhorie 6y ago
Had a strange experience in my last entry into the US myself. I have a Canadian passport, but have a US green card. Officer (in a rather rude tone): "what were you doing in Canada?" Me (sleepy and a bit disoriented): "sorry?" Officer (suddenly seems to realize that he has my green card in front of him): "Never mind, you're good to go" My best guess is that he was just too conditioned to grasp at straws for reasons to give people a hard time, until realizing he couldn't deny entry to a green card holder.
- closeparen 6y ago
  I thought this was going to a joke about how saying "sorry" means that it was obviously reasonable for you to be in Canada.

hermitcrab 6y ago

Given that Americans are generally warm and approachable, it is quite surprising just how hostile their border officials.