As long as you feel the benefits outweigh the downsides the only person you can complain to is yourself. You're still going there aren't you?<p>I've had an episode quite comparable to this one and it was the last time I visited the US. I don't bitch about it, I don't begrudge the border guards their jobs or attitude (I assume they get a lot of shit heaped on them every day, not an excuse for a non-professional attitude but I'm sure that it eventually wears you down). I simply took my few-hundred-K per year benefit for the US elsewhere, their loss.<p>Don't like US immigration? Good, don't emigrate to the US. Once enough people do this that it starts to affect the US GDP I'm sure there will be some change. As long as everybody accepts it this will continue or it will even get worse.<p>I had a pretty lucrative offer about two years ago to become involved in a company. The catch: the work had to be done in the United States. No thanks... But call me when the TSA is abandoned and the border guards are no longer treating immigrants like shit. You know, the way it used to be before everybody went crazy.<p>And on an off-topic and non-related note, additional conditions would be that Guantanamo is closed, the US ceases its drone program and the CIA gets thoroughly reamed for their 'renditions' program, including full exposure of all parties that were involved domestically and abroad.<p>Until then the US will have to do without me, I'm quite sure they don't care one bit.
I'm a Canadian citizen and get this type of treatment all the time. Every time I enter the US, which is about once a month or so, they send me to a back room for secondary screening. The reason? Their system thinks I overstayed my visa once back in 1995. What actually happened was my family took a road trip to New England, and nobody bothered to check our passports on the way out, so there was no departure record.<p>So for the last 18 years, they've sent me back for questioning every single time, wasting countless hours of both my time and their time. They always ask me if I worked illegally in the States in 1995 and I just tell them, "No, I was nine years old." When I ask them if they can remove the flag on my account, they say it's impossible because only the government department that created the flag can remove it, and that department no longer exists.
I had many similar run-ins with immigration when I worked for Microsoft in the Redmond area (brown guy with a beard, likes to travel the world [sometimes taking trips as short as one weekend]). I've missed more than my share of flights (at one time my name was in the do-not-fly list because it partially matched the name of someone they wanted).<p>Final straw came when one time I was returning from an international trip with my x-wife and kids when the immigration officer decided she didn't qualify to accompany me (we were married at the time).<p>"No big deal, she'll just fly back to Canada" (we're Canadians).
We were told she couldn't do that, she had to be deported to the country she came from.
"But sir, we just had a single entry visa and cannot re-enter".
"That's not my problem, the law is the law. You need to be deported back to countryX".
"But sir, we have no ties to countryX. We dont have visa to countryX. We have a Canadian passport, if you dont want to admit us then let us just turn around and go to Canada".
"Oh y'all can come in, but she can't".<p>So I ask for a supervisor and he refused (I later learned he wasn't allowed to do that). Had us sit there for many hours with cranky kids after a transatlantic flight and then said:<p>"You can take her now (take her??) but I'll hold on to her passport. She can come before the judge in 30 days with the document and collect her passport or she'll be deported to countryX".<p>I had to unnecessarily waste time and money hiring a lawyer to figure out what the heck went wrong. She showed up 30 days later with our lawyer and the judge couldn't figure out why she was there. Gave us the passport. My x-wife dropped me home, told me to pack up and drove up to Toronto the same day. Even though I was about to get my green card (everything including labour cert was done) I told my employer to halt the process and moved back. For next few years I continued to work for US companies but remotely from Canada and pulled in close to $1 million in salary and stocks over the years that IRS wasn't able to tax at all. Canadian economy (not the American economy) benefited from my well over average spending over these years.<p>I can wrap my mind around "your name is similar to xyz we are looking for [even though xyz was a different ethnicity with a different age, height and everything]. But for me this made me realize how vulnerable non-citizens are when it comes to US immigration and border patrol. To this day I have no idea what ticked that guy off to single us out like that but I decided I did not want to live in a country where I had such little rights. I am well educated, make a lot of charitable contributions and spend a lot of time volunteering in the local community. Everything the US used to benefit from but now Canada does.
I hate how hostile and incompetent the US immigration process seems to be for foreigners. It's sad to go by an embassy basically anywhere in the world, see the fortress that is the US embassy, and the huge lines and amount of documentation needed for people to get US visas. Even worse is the non-deterministic hell on actual arrival.<p>I'm glad I've never had immigration or customs problems anywhere, despite going to some really sketchy places (flying into Iraq as a civilian at the civilian airport with no visa a few times after the invasion...) or otherwise bending the rules ($200k in computers, including 6 big 21" CRTs, on my way to set up an office in Anguilla...).
If you have a green card you can avoid this by signing up for Global Entry[1]. Then you can avoid customs lines and just swipe your card at the kiosk - enter the country without ever talking to anyone. As an extra benefit the kiosk is always empty so you are through in minutes... hmm maybe I shouldn't be spreading the word about this :)<p>[1] <a href="http://www.globalentry.gov/" rel="nofollow">http://www.globalentry.gov/</a>
This is precisely the sort of nonsense that made me decide to leave my job a few years ago. I used to work for <household name Internet technology company>. After some re-structuring I would have had to travel to the US a lot more often, or possibly even move to the US. For me it wasn't really worth it. The dehumanizing experience of subjecting myself to dangerously stupid, underpaid, over-empowered, assholes on a bi-weekly basis made the decision easy.<p>While I do love California, and the Bay Area in particular, it is still inside the US. And I do not enjoy travelling to the US. To get to the US you have to go through the twilight zone that is immigration and customs. Not to mention the TSA.<p>I can remember travelling to germany as a kid during the Baader-Meinhof terrorist era. I can remember that I felt it was somewhat unpleasant being pointed at by germans with sub-machine guns. But you know what: they were not even half as frightening as the sort of personel you encounter when travelling to, from or within the US. Because with the germans you at least have the sense that the people holding the gungs are not the lowest life-forms of their society.<p>But I am not complaining. Taking this choice meant that I had to figure out what to do. And now, some years later, over 100 people have jobs because I don't want to travel to the US ever again.
I am a US citizen and I had a similar experience. About a year ago I spent a few months in Asia while working remotely for my US employer. Reentering the states (after an almost 24 hour trip), the border agent really didn't like the fact and went out of his way to find a hole in my "story" - "So you did work in Asia?", "But your company did not send you there?" This dragged on for a while.<p>This was the climax of the confrontation:<p>- "Have you been in trouble with law enforcement before?"<p>- "No, but you make it sound like I am now. Am I?"<p>- "We'll see"<p>- "I am a law abiding citizen and I've been giving honest answers to all of you questions. What can I possibly be afraid of?"<p>Ever since, I DREAD reentering the states. I have dual citizenship, work flexibility, and friends and family all over the place. I find myself spending less and less time in the US.
So I've experienced something similar minus the overcrowded room with British immigration. I watched the immigration official turn from apathy the moment I handed my passport over into passive agression with loaded questions ("When was the last time you were deported?" answer: "never") into apologies ("Sorry for making you wait sir there clearly has been a misunderstanding") to vague answers to the question of future prevention.<p>After being told "and there's nothing you can do to stop this happening again", I tell every British immigration official I stand before briefly what happens every time I want to come back here and they're usually understanding about it all.
>They keep taking breaks to crack off-color jokes about each other’s sex lives, and moan about how hard they’re having to work tonight.<p>The jokes might be uncalled for, but you just told us they were under-staffed and had hundreds of extra people to process. I can see why they'd be upset. Especially when absolutely zero of the hundreds of people they talk to in a day are happy to see them.<p>I get the impression you've never worked in the service industry or in retail. The immense fuckup that is United States immigration is not the fault of its lowest level employees.
His experience doesn't seem all that bad. It looks like they were merely doing their jobs trying to ascertain that they aren't making a mistake letting him in. If the immigration officer isn't sure of something (either because of an unclear answer to a question or a nervous vibe), it's not abnormal for him/her to ask for a more thorough check of the person. I wouldn't expect them to clear everyone with a quick, cursory glance of a passport or a green card.<p>I sympathize with him, but it doesn't look like his rights were violated in anyway.
I like particularly the sneering attitude of superiority towards the initial immigration officer in this article. I'm no apologist for the US immigration system (Canada's, on the other hand, I have nothing but good words for), but Jesus creeping Christ, having to deal with that sort of entitled horseshit ten hours a day would turn the Buddha into Dick Cheney.
As someone who went though lengthy (10+ years) immigration process, from student visa to work visa to Green Card to Citizenship, with extensive travel in between - there is nothing particularly unreasonable about the experience described. OK, so he was delayed for a few hours, due to some error or inconsistency in the USCIS database... There's no reason to freak out.<p>And the condescending remarks about the officer not knowing the difference between "web developer" and "software developer" were unnecessary.
I completely agree with your feelings here. I, too, am a permanent resident with a green card. I live in fear of immigration deciding that "something isn't in order" and then my life is completely upside down. I've grown up in the US, my wife is a US citizen, my kids are all US citizens, yet dad always has that crazy worry in the back of his mind.<p>AND...for those of you who brush this off. Please contact my wife and ask her feelings about immigration. When I was going through my green card process she just about went nuts at the immigration office and destroyed a few of the workers. Eventually she had to stop coming to the appointments and just wished me luck. She is more frustrated with the process than I am.<p>The problem is that we're talking about immigrants here. No one is going to stand up for them. Citizens never have to deal with the these issues, and most immigrants, once they've gone through the process, never want to look back on it again, let alone try to fight it.
It's embarrassing how poorly people are treated when entering the US. We should put pressure on the government to improve that, but also pragmatically if we want to keep attracting talented people from around the world we really need to change this.<p>For the time being, I'd highly recommend to the poster to enter into Global Entry (people with PR are eligible: <a href="http://www.globalentry.gov/eligibility.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.globalentry.gov/eligibility.html</a>)
Let's look at the incentives. The picture here is not pretty. There's a big incentive to squeeze budgets, of course, anybody who watches US politics knows you can't just get any money you want, especially when there's 2 dozen another 3-letter agencies competing for the same. There's some incentive to serve citizens better - since once in the country, the citizen can call his congressmen or his local paper and raise hell if he was mistreated, and if bureaucratic middle-management hates something it is being featured in bad press and asked unpleasant question by his superiors. But when it comes to visitors, there's pretty much zero incentive to treat them better. I'm not saying that immediately leads to bad treatment - I am a non-citizen, I crossed US border more than a dozen times last few years and always was treated with courtesy and respect, which I assign to the good nature of the people that worked there. But there always are bad apples, and there's very little that can keep those in check. If the immigration officer mistakenly denies entry or costs a person 5 hours of their life, there are no consequences, ever. So these things are bound to happen, unless some kind of incentive to become better will be found.
<i>Pointless, wasteful bureaucracy</i><p>I think few people would consider border controls to be any of these things.<p>You were flagged somehow and that sucks, but if you don't like the immigration procedures of the US you are free to either a) live elsewhere or b) try to take action to change it (we are a democracy after all). On the other hand, venting on a blog isn't going to do anything but irk people who wish they were fortunate enough to hold a US green card, or come back to haunt you if this happens again and some cranky overworked agent google's you.<p>FWIW I'm a former, now naturalized, US green card holder and this happened to me twice in six years. It sucks, but I considered it a very small price to pay for being able to freely travel and work (or not work!) in this country.
There is nothing unique to the US about this in my experience. There is literally one part of the government that deals (by definition) with people who cannot vote and do not have elected representatives.<p>If you want to know what it's like dealing with government agents in highly undemocratic countries, it's precisely this. Except it's every day and it's in your own country.
I would not want to be a non-citizen in America. I love my country, but I agree with the general sentiment that we have things very wrong when it comes to treatment of non-citizens. I believe that much of it stems from fears about 9/11. The Bill of Rights does lots to protect US citizens from an agressive/repressive government. The spirit of the law is that there are basic human rights that the government can't remove without due process. Unfortunately those "human" rights in practice only barely apply to US citizens.
Was coming back from NYC (vacation over Christmas) and got the typical BS bully treatment by the security guy, I made a decision there, I will not go on vacation to US ever again.
As a non-US citizen, I've had similar experiences where I was taken apart and asked some more questions by border patrol. However none of those experiences, although very similar to yours, came over as unnecessary harassment. I don't quiet understand why you would be 'terrified' crossing the border if you have all your shit together, which it seems you have.<p>The people "whose educational attainments have qualified them to sit behind a desk stamping passports" were simply doing their job and from what you described they did it without causing more inconvenience for you than necessary.<p>Like some others commented, if you don't like to abide by the rules of your new country of residence, nobody is forcing you to be there. Oh, and downplaying other people's intellectual abilities does come across quiet snobbish :)
There's somebody on the US no-fly list that has the exact same name as me. I can't check-in online with any airline, and checking in at the desk anywhere in the US results in some sort of warning on their computer, and a quick call to somebody to come out from the back and check it out. Unfortunately I have to fly at least once a month.<p>A quick look over the passport shows it's obviously not me (though I don't have any details of the real bad guy). Must happen to quite a few because I have a fairly bland, common British name.
Seems like you name might be similar to a name they had in their database who might have the criminal/arrest record. These are false hits and irritating but once the verify, they let you go. Hope they correct it soon for you.<p>Also, sometimes they randomly (not sure how random though) select individuals for what they call "secondary inspection". Here, you are just asked "extra" questions to ensure you are not a threat. I was pulled over once and the guy had a great time asking me all kinds of questions.
I am Canadian citizen and for two years I was traveling every second week to US on TN visa. In all that time I got 1 "bad" experience from US side and 2 from Canadian side. (it wasn't that bad just longer questioning with 'trick' questions)
Question which confused me a most entering Canada was "How long you plan to stay ?" , WTF , I have Canadian passport ?
It took me a moment not to say "Not your damn business." and just play nice....
But in general crossing border is 99% no issue
My first two attempts at entry to the US on my H1-B were simple, maybe one question and in I go. It was the third entry that they asked more questions and asked to see more paperwork (which I did have with me).<p>I guess it's to catch people who obtain visa/green-cards and then pass them off to others or their situation changes (and they no longer qualify for the visa). I'd also guess that frequent visitors to the US go through at least one of these increased scrutiny experiences every few years. I don't think it's unreasonable given the amount of problems they have with people trying to sneak into the country; I know that I don't have a right to be there so I expect some hassle.<p>The only other problem I had was coming back into the US after I'd gone to Canada for a friend's wedding (all on a VWP); so UK->US, then two weeks later US->Canada->US, and I wasn't due to fly back to the UK for another 2 weeks or so. I was nowhere near the 90 days of my original VWP, but they might have thought I was taking a quick trip to Canada in order to reset my 90 days with a new VWP entry. It just took a few extra minutes explanation.<p>Other than that I've done lots of trips to the US (20 on the Visa Waiver Program, 5 with my H1-B and another 10 or so since I moved back to the UK) with no problems at all.
Immigration processes millions of people each day. There are going to be mistakes.<p>This sounds like they got a false positive, investigated, and released him. That's how the process is supposed to work. Making this into some massive anti-American rant says more about the author than America. This experience sounds unpleasant, but like it was handled professionally.<p>I've spent an hour being searched by customs. I don't know why - perhaps because I was returning from India and hadn't shaved in a month. It was inconvenient, but also the job of customs. This did not bother me.<p>I fly domestically and internationally at least 20 times a year. I get caught up briefly in all sorts of different ways all over the world. It's part of travel, and it's really not that bad. This is how nations protect their borders and enforce their laws, because not everyone is a saint like you.<p>All you idiots saying you won't work in or travel to the US because of the TSA searches - give me a break. EVERY country in the world I have ever been to has nearly identical search procedures as the TSA and most countries have stringent immigration checks. Many asking far more probing questions than American immigration, including Netherlands, Israel, and Britain. I was nearly denied entry to Britain because I didn't know the address of a friend who I was staying with.<p>Sorry, I'm tired of all this false outrage about minor f-ups with the TSA and DHS. These organizations have some major policy and procedural problems, but a few hours one time while immigration officials do their job of making sure you don't have false documents is not among them. If you don't like it, go somewhere else where a $20 bribe instead of an objective investigation gets you admitted - which is most countries in the world.
I know everyone hates on the US Immigration people, but as a fairly regular traveller to the US (normally at least twice a year, mixture of business and pleasure), I've never had a bad experience. The guards I've dealt with have never been less than professional, and some have gone out of their way to make smalltalk ("You have nice handwriting" (?), "Your birthday is the same as mine.") etc.<p>I even got let back through immigration from baggage control as I had a bad stomach and really badly needed to use the toilet, No guns were drawn on me.<p>Of course, it probably helps that I'm white and British, but I thought I would offer up at least one counterpoint.
I entered quite a few times under visa so far and my experience has been more than fine (in fact, it's even been pleasant). Hopefully, it'll never get to what you've had.<p>It happened a couple of times that the officer wasn't sure if I was doing what I said I was, for whatever reason, and they generally just asked a follow up question like "do you have an access card for this company and can I see it?" which resolved the matter every time. Didn't realize it was so close to "wait in the horror room for hours".
I know what you mean. The bureaucratic establishment allows people in low ranking public jobs to have a disproportionate amount of power over pretty much anyone.<p>9/11 seems to have made things worse for pretty much everyone. Governments went paranoid and chose the easy way: delegating extra authority on people that were not prepared to exert it.<p>But border guards tend to be dumb and/or rude pretty much everywhere, so, don't take it too seriously.
This is not an immigration issue. There is no place for common sense in government matters. Some day computers will take over the decision making and we will have a joyous experience coming in or happily avoid this country because the decision will be known.
I haven't seen anyone say it, but I can tell you that the experience of entering the US as a US citizen is only marginally better.<p>Leaving/entering the US is something I avoid at all costs. Sad but true.
Thanks so much for sharing this.<p>I think treatment of immigrants by border controls is shocking, and the biggest problem is how little attention / voice the problem gets.<p>Please continue to write about your experiences.
I have a simple solution for not dealing with US immigration's bullshit. Too many trips marred by days spent in featureless rooms waiting for Godot, a full-time employee of your border agency.<p>Anyway - simple solution - don't go to America. Don't work with Americans.<p>Europe and Asia are big markets.
This is the biggest non-problem ever:<p>1) Did the author get in? Yes<p>2) Did customs do their job and scrutinize the person's paperwork? Yes<p>3) Was the person held for an inordinately long time? No -- 3 hours is not a "long time." If you can't deal with the fact that you just flew (potentially) halfway across the world in an airplane<p>4) Was the author unduly molested or given harsh treatment, perhaps by being denied food, water, medication, or otherwise harassed? No -- the author points out that there was a water fountain and snack machines, and the author was not strip searched, nor was he otherwise harassed/degraded. Sitting in a waiting room while your paperwork clears is "not a big deal."<p>Please stop blowing things out of proportion, and criticizing the US for no reason. I've immigrated to and lived in 3 different countries, and BY FAR the procedure described here is not difficult or tedious. If you can't deal with a a 3 hour wait, how can you deal with anything? Patience is a virtue.<p>BTW -- I was a paying awe.sm customer -- I just cancelled my account due to this overblown blog posting. Enjoy.