This is my own personal experience, and who knows maybe it's not at all the experience of others.<p>I used to cross at San Ysidro frequently, and would get pulled into secondary maybe 1/4 of the time. This is extremely common if you're crossing the land border alone, and you don't 'look Mexican.'<p>Even if you don't get pulled into secondary, they're extremely unpleasant to deal with.<p>I don't think I ever came across a border patrol agent during that time who didn't appear to be actively going out of their way to be mean. They don't even pretend to be welcoming or polite. They are there to make you feel small and under pressure, and in that process they are looking for any excuse to pull you into secondary. They know that you have zero power in that situation. Just try using the bathroom after sitting in the border line for 3 hours and then getting pulled into secondary and sitting in your car for an hour waiting for them to show up with a drug dog.<p>The Mexicans will sort of do something similar. I've been flagged by their secondary before, but they are always extremely polite. Even the soldiers in fatigues with FALs are pretty nice guys in my experience.<p>I think there is something in the training and recruitment of US CBP that is incredibly broken. As an American, everytime I cross the border back into my own country I am deeply ashamed.
Is there a reason to doubt the official explanation of a name collision? This is not uncommon.<p>A case of someone getting even worse treatment, including strip searches. He was white.<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2010/10/08/acton_man_repeatedly_mistaken_for_convict_with_same_name.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2010/10/08/acton_man_repe...</a><p>A white woman sharing a name with a black male convict even had issues:<p><a href="https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Technology-issue-at-border-results-in-mistaken-572632.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Technology-issue-at-...</a><p>There is often a common theme reported in these experiences. Customs cannot seem to properly “remove” flagged individuals. Or if they do, something keeps re-adding them. It sounds like many different source databases synchronize with each other and it’s difficult to prevent bad data from being reintroduced.
From what the author wrote, it seems likely she was flagged as a person of interest. Perhaps her name was similar or identical to an alias used by someone else, or perhaps she looked very similar to someone on a watchlist. Automated systems can exasperate the problem of persecuting the innocent. For anyone who thinks they are able to make an automated system for law enforcement that does not provide false positives, I strongly recommend you think twice.<p>For anyone interested, the author has a gofundme page. [0]<p>[0] <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/A-Love-Letter-To-Durham-North-Carolina" rel="nofollow">https://www.gofundme.com/f/A-Love-Letter-To-Durham-North-Car...</a>
CBP are the most unfriendliest border agents I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Contrast that with the likes of Canadian and Irish border people who are outstanding I'm my experience.
> There were only a few consular officers of color in Juarez. They, too, had been pulled into secondary inspection a few times at the border, but CBP officers seemed to be more aggressive with me, probably because I had begun regularly to ask to speak to a manager whenever I was pulled to secondary inspection.<p>She might have just gotten on their "annoying-persons" list. If this was indeed race driven than the other black officers would have a similar track record and it would have made a much more damning post with their combined experiences. The fact that she doesn't mention their stories leads me to believe that her experience was much worse than the other black diplomats.<p>Be it incompetence (a recurring glitch in the computers) or malice (the guards were harassing her personally) it doesn't seem to me to be clearly caused by racism.
Tbh it's not that different in Europe. If you are dark skinned and it looks like you may be part of the ethnic group that causes trouble around your area, you will be stopped.<p>Since I was 16 I was asked for documents and pulled over so many times, it wasn't even funny.
I can't say I blame officers, though: I don't think recognising patterns is racism.
I'm more pissed at people that look like me and contribute to the majority of crime.<p>I hate the police sarcasm and bad treatment though. I think it's too easy to have unlimited money from the taxpayers' pocket without having to lift a finger to actually fight crime.<p>I remember this one time, they stopped next to me in their car and just asked in between laughs "so, which country would you be from?".
I replied the name of a small town nearby in the country's native accent and they immediately went "ohh, sorry sorry" and left immediately to poke at someone else.
Apparently I wasn't part of their personal zoo of illegal immigrants to make fun of and ignore.<p>That's probably the best argument I have for decriminalising victimless crimes and not having all power centralised into a public police but split into private entities with a Profits and Losses sheet.
Best to be subservient and compliant in all dealings with CBP. My bet is that the agents didn't like her attitude. Once that happens, it's time to find another crossing and change your plate - that's the first thing the cameras feed into the computer system. That might work better for the ordinary schmoo than a special pass holder.<p>Living close to the border I cross often to pick up parcels. For some reason I have yet to fathom, CBP often asks exactly what I'll be taking back to Canada;so I tell them without asking why they are interested.<p>They have the power to make my life miserable, even bar me from the US where I have family. I think it best to humour whatever bee they have in their bonnet at the time. Mind you they may be following whatever directives are in effect at the time. I've been questioned about certain items several times in a row and then they come up with something else.<p>Canada customs is usually friendlier, but can get shirty every now and again.
read the whole article waiting for the reason they cared she was black, maybe a smoking gun, felt like a detective piece.<p>was dissapointed<p>i guess its just an axiom to a ethnonarcissist