Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

I've had several ugly situations while entering the US. Last time I visited (March this year) I went through LAX. I was greeted very nicely by the officer, had all my paperwork done and off I went. Then I went to Baja California (MX) where I would stay at a friends/client house.

Then I had to cross the border (through Tijuana) to go to a marketing expo at AZ. The experience was nerve-wrecking. The border patrol officer started telling me I was hiding something because of my body language (apparently he saw too much "Lie to me") and started questioning why I had friends in the US, how had I met them and so on. After about 20 minutes we were let go. Like I said, I've worked at immigration in my home country, so I know how it works and stuff, but there are more professional ways to handle matters than just accuse people, push and see if they bite.

Also, what I missed to add to my comment above... In (most) mainstream US movies, you see that no matter what your job is you can lead a pretty nice life. Even if you work as a bartender, you can have your small apartment and be in charge of your life. I don't think it works like that. I met a client that was a school teacher and he was broke. Some of my clients have declared for bankruptcy, and some very, very rich clients have lost a lot of RE and have to downsize their homes by an order of magnitude.

I know it works like that pretty much everywhere, but for some reason all this things I imagined as a kid, stuck with me until I visited the US. It's like deep down we hope there's a place were things are better, and the US could be that place; so we buy into the dream (until we realize it was a dream and there's no such place).

I know a handful of couples like that. It was pretty painless --so long as they married prior to coming to the US. So they were legally married overseas, then applied at overseas consulate and green card was granted --citizenship can be applied for a year after arrival, and (I'm under the impression) most have been granted citizenship within one to two years. No fuss, that I've heard of.

Now, (you) working overseas (not in the US) as a non citizen can get tricky for US citizens --you have to be sponsored, of course, but in some countries, like Argentina, you (or employer most likely) would have to prove there was no local available to fulfill the job requirement. That can be a tough hurdle.

2) Well, i18n is nothing hard these days, at least from a technical perspective, also you could reach certain market types using only English quite well in Europe.

3) Yes, this is true, however these problems are visible only in small parts of certain tiers of society. Shortly, the chances of meeting people who openly display negative sentiments against foreigners are smaller if you run a company consulting about GIS, than if you are a plumber/gas station clerk or whatever.

Also, by "'you dirty outsider' attitude" I meant that attitude being displayed by the government, which is very typical in the US.

For example I am a software developer, who comes from one of the 'new' countries and currently lives in another 'new' one, but I have spent significant time in an Western European country and so far I haven't had a single problem with bureaucracy (and with drugged-out undereducated unemployed youths with too fragile minds as well) at any of these places, which compared to Entchev's case of 'they got my entire family under arrest and ruined the life I have been building for the past 20 years' is a whole world of difference.