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Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

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Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#71

Post by DamonHD »

gadders wrote: post #41
akie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, my experience is that US border checks are very aggressive (like, passive aggression and suspicion is the default attitude). I've seen worse, but my last entrance into the US (in 2012) featured barking sniffer dogs and open distrust – and I'm a white middle class European traveling from a European country. Don't get this much in other places.

Every time I have flown to the US the border/passport guards have been polite and friendly. I'm a white, 40+ Brit with family. YMMV.

Staff have generally been friendly yes, with the process sometimes quick, sometimes slow, as anywhere. Customs and Immigration are not there as an alternative comedy store anywhere in the world.

But it's been friendly with bags searched nearly every damn time, and the clear implication that I am a threat.

I am a white middle class male with nothing against the US (and indeed a long time working for a US flagship company), but I am clearly unwelcome.

So I simply don't attempt to go any more.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#72

Post by humanrebar »

timr wrote: post #51
y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #40

This may be unpopular on an US-centric site like HN, but the US looks more and more like they want to isolate themselves from the rest of the world: very strict immigration policy, travelers molested by TSA on airports, ... These conferences where people around the world meet should start to be hosted somewhere else. Not in the USA anymore. Somewhere in a country that welcomes people instead of treating all of them l…

A small percentage of Americans wants to do this. Most Americans are indifferent (as in most countries), but the reactionary party has won the day, and a total lunatic is in the White House. Sadly. But this too shall pass. Not that I disagree with your conclusion: I hope conference organizers (and other groups) do start focusing abroad. The only thing that the GOP reliably responds to is the interests of money. Start…

I wouldn't call new and capricious changes to immigration policy as right wing or reactionary. It's populist and probably xenophobic but it doesn't really fit on the American ideological spectrum like that.

Trump isn't representative of the bulk of the GOP, in other words. When he's gone, you won't see this sort of thing re-emerge. As weird as it sounds to some, Trump won mostly because he was not Clinton, not because there's some ideology being advocated here (modulo Supreme Court justices).

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#74

Post by andreiw »

tome wrote: post #29
akie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, my experience is that US border checks are very aggressive (like, passive aggression and suspicion is the default attitude). I've seen worse, but my last entrance into the US (in 2012) featured barking sniffer dogs and open distrust – and I'm a white middle class European traveling from a European country. Don't get this much in other places.

While we're sharing anecdotes, I flew into JFK several times around 2013-2014 and experienced only quick and friendly border security agents.

The border agents themselves were friendly enough to put up with my cranky self and the screaming kid after a 10 hour flight. The rest of that airport is a complete disaster, compared to places like Schiphol. This especially concerns the rest of the menially-paid staff that are supposed to help you through the airport.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#75

Post by justin_vanw »

MotokoCMDR wrote: post #52

Absolutely no trouble at US airports. YMMV. Staff at JFK were professional, friendly and fast. This person may not have realized an ESTA needed in advance. He could be doing the thing people often do where they screw something up, and then, irresponsibly give a vague explanation, that they can deny later, but that leaves open to interpretation the possibility that they were somehow unfairly treated, when it might hav…

Yes, these inflammatory stories surface on here from time to time. Everyone jumps from 'someone was inconvenienced' to 'totalitarianism' in 1 second with 0 information. People start calling for boycotts of the US.

Later, 9 times out of 10 it ends up being nothing, but there's not a story with thousands of posts with people saying 'oh, I jumped to conclusions'. In fact people don't ever hear about the resolution, and they probably don't care to hear stories that contradict the worldview they choose to reinforce for themselves.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#76

Post by loopbit »

willvarfar wrote: post #11

Its easy to speculate that if the feds wanted to speak to him on something computer-related he'd be let travel to the US and interviewed on arrive. The "Do Not Fly" list is usually for suspected terrorists. Perhaps it was just a name-match? The wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List says: > Many individuals were "caught in the system" as a result of sharing the exact or similar name of another pe…

First of all, there's no reason to think that it's a "Do Not Fly" list. He says that he did the US border control checks in his local airport. That is quite common (at least in Europe) when flying to the US and just means that they check your visa (or visa-waiver in this case) at home instead of after physically getting to the US[0]

I live in Ireland and at almost every (all?) flight from Dublin to the US you do the US border control check here to the point where they don't even check your passport on arrival.

Second, there really is plenty of people with problems like that. A friend of mine travels frequently to the US and his name is the same as a relatively well known drug lord (it's a fairly common name, too). As far as I know, he's never been denied entrance to the US, but he routinely gets flagged, separated, his identity verified and his luggage checked. Usually, all it means is that when he travels with colleagues or family, they have to wait for him for an extra hour or two to get out of the airport.

[0] I think that, technically, the area of the local airport where they do that is considered US soil and, for all legal purposes, you are in the US. As I said, not sure about this and I might be completely wrong, but that's what the signs lead me to think.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#77

Post by mrisoli »

vbezhenar wrote: post #35
benmarks wrote: post #17

Denied before boarding? I'd first level blame at the airline / CBP connection, rather than a DNF entry or change to ESTA status. Curious to hear what happens. Ironic, as someone pointed out on Twitter, that likely cURL is probably used somewhere in the chain of communication!

I wrote some software for police at some moment. Years later I was visiting police station and I saw them using my software to check me. It was interesting experience.

I worked on a state government transparency project once. It lists everything the government spends money on, including the companies they contract to do things, it was interesting seeing how much the company was making from that project and how much I was getting paid.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#78

Post by GreaterFool »

qume wrote: post #68

Just to balance the narrative here a bit, I have traveled into and out of the US many times per year for around 15 years with no problems on an ESTA. I only recently switched to a visa. After a long flight having to deal with the delay and hassle of immigration seems much worse than it is. I really hate it, and the comments here suggest others do too, but if you look at what we have to deal with objectively it's not…

> cURL has been used extensively for bad purposes

What?! Sources please.

Re: Author of cURL denied entry to the USA

#79

Post by nickserv »

humanrebar wrote: post #64
y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #40

This may be unpopular on an US-centric site like HN, but the US looks more and more like they want to isolate themselves from the rest of the world: very strict immigration policy, travelers molested by TSA on airports, ... These conferences where people around the world meet should start to be hosted somewhere else. Not in the USA anymore. Somewhere in a country that welcomes people instead of treating all of them l…

> This may be unpopular on an US-centric site like HN, but the US looks more and more like they want to isolate themselves from the rest of the world: very strict immigration policy, travelers molested by TSA on airports, ... Almost all Americans think this sort of thing is nonsense. But the average American has little standing to hold the American bureaucracy accountable for its nonsense. Americans, especially outsi…

> Almost all Americans think this sort of thing is nonsense. But the average American has little standing to hold the American bureaucracy accountable for its nonsense.

Sorry but they don't get off that easy when almost half of them voted Trump into office.

> Americans, especially outside overcrowded urban areas, are courteous, helpful, hospitable people that are very tolerant of other people and ideas.

I've found quite the opposite, out in the boonies you're more likely to get harassed when you're not the "right" color or religion. I've had some really nice, helpful people turn nasty as soon as I mentioned my atheism, for example.

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