201–210 of 375 posts
I've submitted this over a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6553418
But nobody saw it because it was killed.
Next time figure out why, maybe banned domain, and work around it or accept that the story will be lost.
Do, really, immigration officers ask "What the hell where you doing X?" "Aren't those countries Islamic?" There are parts on this writing that are hard to believe, like they were written to sound like a novel, but I have never been on a situation like the one described, not even close.
The agents in front were often somewhat rude; in the back there was a sort of waiting room (with often 20 or so people in chairs) and a front desk where the agents would literary SHOUT at the people called up in front of them. It was not a private interview room (though presumably those were available as well). We were silently horrified during the 10 minutes or so they were shouting and badgering a cringing 60 year old Greek (I think?) man with poor English who apparently had something related to child support out of order in his documents.
There's something very hard to shake about the feeling you get when you are obliged to act polite & unconcerned to petty officials like these when you are inwardly seething with rage.
We left the US in 2006, and still go back on occasion (parents, friends, etc. are still there!), though the last time was now a few years ago. We still dread the immigration experience, though; it's likely to be fine (we don't make stupid mistakes about what we say, and we fake friendliness well), but it always feels like somehow, something will go wrong.
We've were once detained for 45 minutes or so at the English border as well, driving up from France -- we made the mistake of entering while pregnant without being prepared for their suspicion (NHS leeches!) -- but while it was frustrating to be stopped & questioned, they were impeccably polite and kind to us (though they did put a warning in my wife's passport without a word to us... we didn't notice until the next trip through the UK, when we were questioned about that).
Like in movies - yeah, "The Departed" police interview scenes comes to my mind. Stamp visas to some other foreign countries? This one was the hallmarks of visa policy in Gaddafi's Libya - the no Israeli ties tolerated (not even touristic visas). Or a raincoat? Really? Speaking about the human rights, how come this kind of behavior is still warranted?
U.S. Immigration agents are trained to look for certain traits in visitors: nervousness, unusual or inconsistent answers to questions, history of visiting certain countries. Any of these characteristics trigger an automatic escalation in the interrogation process. This individual, albeit sounding perfectly innocent, unfortunately triggered several hot buttons and the hapless agents were too unimaginative, uninformed,…
It's a shame that happened. The traveler has had an unfortunate interest in traveling to multiple countries with which the US has hostile relationships. And then entered the US in a slightly unconventional way by train via Canada. I think that's a stupid reason to deny entry because an actual "terrorist" would surely have fake documents anyway.
Perhaps the moral if the story is to get a replacement passport without the stamps if you have travelled a lot and take a direct flight.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, they can't spot lies, they can only spot things they are not expecting. Tell them a short boring story if the truth is unusual.
Then they'll ask you to expand on arbitrary details of your short boring story, and unless you're a very good liar you'll be in trouble. People are always reporting odd conversations with border agents. When those conversations result in further scrutiny or being denied admittance, they can appear sinister or arbitrary in retrospect. But it's a basic behavioral profiling technique: Take a random walk down a conversat…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, they can't spot lies, they can only spot things they are not expecting. Tell them a short boring story if the truth is unusual.
Then they'll ask you to expand on arbitrary details of your short boring story, and unless you're a very good liar you'll be in trouble. People are always reporting odd conversations with border agents. When those conversations result in further scrutiny or being denied admittance, they can appear sinister or arbitrary in retrospect. But it's a basic behavioral profiling technique: Take a random walk down a conversat…
(You think that you're out to have fun on this exciting new adventure in life... your vacation!, your new business trip!, whatever. But they're looking for anything strange. They are bored, boring, unimaginative government bureaucrats. Give them the simple, bored, boring, short (but honest) summary of "the purpose of your visit". TFA said that getting searched is "just like in the movies!"... don't do that. Just... don't. Do not share any enthusiasm about anything with CBP.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the border patrol agents use a person's presumed Jewishness as part of their rationale to deny them entry, they should indeed know what they're talking about. It's not something that they were forced to deal with; it was a reason they manufactured themselves (out of whole cloth, as it so happens). Not being familiar with religious customs is not a crime, but then you shouldn't use your ignorance to adjudicate a ca…
The agent found it odd that someone with a Jewish name would visit those countries. Customs, practices, etc are utterly irrelevant.
[1] "Loh"/"Lohe" is an old German word for wood/forest. See also the many German place names containing "loh(e)", such as Gütersloh or Dortmund-Loh.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would appreciate if you wouldn't cite the 'world socialist website - Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International' as a reputable source. Some of their articles are surprisingly good, but it's still the publication of an obscure trotzkyist sect.
What's your problem with Trotskyite news sources? I assume most folks here are smart enough to evaluate any given news site on the basis of its accuracy and to differentiate between editorial bias and factual incorrectness. If you really can't bear to see news and opinions from sources you personally disagree with, how are you ever going to test your opinions?
[0] http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601700/n/manus...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having a Jewish father doesn't make you Jewish. Only people who have Jewish mothers or those who convert to Judaism are considered Jewish. If the agent thought he was being inaccurate then the agent was just being ignorant.
Try telling that to an Al Qaeda extremist! Which, by the way, is what the border agent was getting at.