3 ms·

There are several modes of transport besides commercial aircraft that reach the border of the US. Wouldn't surprise me if "look at me I'm white and speak with

There are several modes of transport besides commercial aircraft that reach the border of the US. Wouldn't surprise me if "look at me I'm white and speak with American south accent" might have gotten a charismatic enough individual on a plane to the US at some point after not having a passport for whatever reason, on some unscrupulous airline. Edit: per below, unscrupulous was a poor word choice. I should have used a whatever word means "imposing low level of scrutiny."

dataflow 4y ago
> unscrupulous airline. I'm unsure about this, but from what I've gathered, airlines can bring people to the border without verifying travel documents. The only caveat is they have to be willing to transport that person back if they're not admitted. And IIRC this can happen even if that person has a visa etc., since not every valid entry document guarantees admission, so it's not like carriers would know the admission result prior to the passenger's boarding anyway. Assuming the above is correct, what this implies to me is that—if an airline was willing to (say) take a deposit or something from a passenger to cover their cost of return, or if they were willing to (for whatever reason) foot the bill themselves—then they could totally let a passenger without valid documentation on board. The only thing that stands in their way of doing this would be their internal corporate policies, really. Unless there's an actual law implying otherwise that I'm unaware of, which is possible.