This is another good case of having a second passport as an American (or any place for that matter) for travel and (shtf) insurance purposes.
"Distributed Nationality" if you will.
Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
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Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#32Honestly, if there were a minimum IQ rating of 25 at DHS to be considered for employment, most of our problems with that agency would evaporate overnight.
The issue isn't "stupid employees" as you seem to think but an overreaching policy that is trying to cover all situations at once but doesn't really cover any. Add to that the reactionary measures that seem to be a staple of DHS since its inception and you just have a recipe for disaster.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#33I have no words. They won't even stop at looking through your files on a groundless suspicion - they'll clone your harddrive? With your naked pictures of your girlfriend, diary, company secrets and everything?
And I'm a "rights-free person" (a foreigner). If they do this stuff to citizens, I can't even imagine what sort of authority they have over foreigners. You guys really need to rein in your government, this is getting insane.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#34He flew home to the USA but he was processed in Canada? In other words, did he fly into Canada from SE Asia and then immediately drive to the USA? Honestly, that would look a little suspicious to me if I was a customs officer. I've flown into L.A. and Dallas/Fort-Worth a bunch of times from the Asia Pacific region of the world and never received a glance at any of my visa pages.
Yes you're on to something. It's kind of a two part story to me:
i) Was it reasonable to suspect this person of being worthy of a closer look? It seems like the answer is a yes based on his locations and pattern ii) Is the form that that 'closer look' takes reasonable? Causing someone to miss their connecting flight seems unfortunate.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#35For all the mean things that border control agents get away with every day, I personally enjoy "Returning From Thailand" as my little opportunity to even the score a bit. "How long have you been gone?" "I don't know. A year, give or take? Who keeps track?" "Which countries did you visit while you were away? Your landing card just says 'most of them'" "Well probably not most of them really, but definitely enough not t…
Slightly tounge-in-cheek but I really hope that I'm not the guy behind you in line when I next visit the US.
Usually people of interest get whisked aside to a secondary screening area. They don't tend to hold up the queue that much, except for the fact the border agent has to temporarily close their desk for a few minutes while they escort that person to another room. In total you might face an extra 60-120 seconds in the line.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Note that in the US, we have strict stop everyone controls at the border (with Canada no less, this isn't just a Mexican border thing), at which you need to show your passport, and we have mobile border controls up to 100 miles within the border. I used to live near a place where they frequently put the "mobile" control on an interstate in Vermont about 80 miles from the border, so I got stopped by it a lot. Of cours…
> at which you need to show your passport And if you're a dirty foreigner you have to have your Iris scanned, a picture taken and your fingerprints taken. I've lived on the US/Canadian border and if they make a flip-book of all the pictures they took of me over the years it would make for a neat animated study in aging.
Really? As a Canadian who crosses that border fairly regularly, the iris & fingerprint records are only for the "Enhanced Drivers License" as far as I knew, I've crossed the border dozens of times with just my passport
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#37This is another good case of having a second passport as an American (or any place for that matter) for travel and (shtf) insurance purposes. "Distributed Nationality" if you will.
What risks are you trying to protect against?
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#38For all the mean things that border control agents get away with every day, I personally enjoy "Returning From Thailand" as my little opportunity to even the score a bit. "How long have you been gone?" "I don't know. A year, give or take? Who keeps track?" "Which countries did you visit while you were away? Your landing card just says 'most of them'" "Well probably not most of them really, but definitely enough not t…
I am stealing your approach.
One thing I will say though is there are huge differences in border culture. JFK is uniformly unpleasant to enter/ Houston is pretty bad too. I have rarely had unpleasantness in Seatac.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slightly tounge-in-cheek but I really hope that I'm not the guy behind you in line when I next visit the US.
Usually people of interest get whisked aside to a secondary screening area. They don't tend to hold up the queue that much, except for the fact the border agent has to temporarily close their desk for a few minutes while they escort that person to another room. In total you might face an extra 60-120 seconds in the line.
I think he was more worried about being vented on. It's hard to do much to a returning US citizen, so the guy in front would eventually be waved through (possibly without the friendly "welcome home" that they're supposed to say). Next guy in line, from anywhere else at all, would get the wrath of justice unleashed on him.
Sorry, dude. My bad.
Re: Detained in the US for “Visiting Thailand Too Much”
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> at which you need to show your passport And if you're a dirty foreigner you have to have your Iris scanned, a picture taken and your fingerprints taken. I've lived on the US/Canadian border and if they make a flip-book of all the pictures they took of me over the years it would make for a neat animated study in aging.
Really? As a Canadian who crosses that border fairly regularly, the iris & fingerprint records are only for the "Enhanced Drivers License" as far as I knew, I've crossed the border dozens of times with just my passport
> As a Canadian
I wasn't a Canadian. Merely a Dutch guy living in Canada.