4 ms·
What's a Safeway card and why would it get him deported? Also why is the border agent searching through his wallet?
by TimJRobinson 12y ago
What's a Safeway card and why would it get him deported? Also why is the border agent searching through his wallet?
- patio11 12y agoA Safeway card is a loyalty card from a US grocery store. It's the kind of thing you have in your wallet if you live in the United States. If you're coming over on the visa waiver, you're explicitly saying "Don't worry, I am not an immigration risk, I'm just going to be here less than 90 days for business or pleasure and then go back to my permanent residence abroad. Establish a life for myself in America? No way, I have absolutely no interest in that." There are a variety of easy ways for a CBP agent to have your wallet in his hands. One is giving it to him to show an ID, when you hand over your passport. As mentioned previously, that is not the required input for the state machine, so don't offer it.
- jlees 12y agoYeah, he wasn't actually foolish enough to hand it to them right at the booth. He was taken aside for further questioning since he had already been in the US on a visa waiver within the same calendar year, which pattern-matched border dodging. He was forced* to hand over his wallet early on and the card was clearly there. There's obviously more context, but it's funny that such a minor thing came to be so important -- and sticks in my head 3 years (and one marriage) later. * Not sure where this fell on the spectrum of 'force', but had he refused, that would presumably have increased suspicion. Damned if you do, etc.