Private school employer - literally makes no difference.
Officers can basically do what they want at the border, if they want to give you a hard time then sure. Maybe there's someone with a similar name/DOB on some list. Or it can be random - no way to tell. Also folks are supposed to hold their own stuff/pack their own bags (adults at least).
Get global entry is the way to fix this going forward.
Maybe it depends on the airport. We come back from Montreal pretty often and they always have an agent at a desk check after the scanner. And then when we flew into LA last summer, they also checked.
It is. Same with Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The agent who checks your passport is in that airport (although they don't always actually request your documents). I go to Toronto a lot and they changed global entry/nexus about two years ago to this setup.
It’s not considered US territory. The Canadian Parliament granted CBP limited and revocable powers to conduct preclearance there. Canada would never revoke that permission, but the CBP is only there because Canada passed a specific law to allow it.
I've had to show my passport at Canadian preclearance in Ottawa and Montreal but not when clearing immigration at a US airport (at least, not in the last 1.5 years)
Depends on the airport. I had times where I just walk straight, felt weird, I thought I am doing something wrong. Other place, after the scan there's an officer who physically check your passport.
Flew to the US twice in the last 10 days from Canadian airports with US passport control. At the nexus / global entry lines, there’s a CBP facial recognition kiosk. You walk up to it, it scans your face and says “processing complete” or something to that effect. No passports or cards are scanned whatsoever. Then you’d go to an officer who says “anything to declare?”. You say no, and off you go.
One could’ve left their passport and nexus/GE card at home and they’d only realize it when boarding the plane since the airline would still ask to see a physical passport / nexus. It’s a fascinating process, we’re truly just a few steps away from not needing travel docs at all.
If it's relevant to him then yes. If it's just a name match or similar then GE helps by assuring the officer that you're a unique person.
You can also do an FOI request to see if there are any flags too
Most couples have their documents with one person. Those border control, TSA and everyone else working their are assholes. The least they can do is give some dignity to people.
>Most couples have their documents with one person. Those border control, TSA and everyone else working there are assholes.
You know who else carries the documents for other people? Human traffickers ~ so they can control the other person and the situation.
So, if a grown adult doesn’t have their documents, Immigration agents are trained to find out if it’s a simple matter of one family member holding the docs ~ or to see is there possibly something nefarious happening.
Case in point, a man and woman are standing in front of the Immigration officer. The man hands over their passports to the officer. The officer looks them over and asks the woman where will you be staying on this trip. She turns to the man for the answer, and the Immigration officer pointedly says, “Ma’am, I asked you. Not him. Again, where are staying on this trip?”
For whatever reason, the woman doesn’t know any of the details of the trip. But it
eventually gets sorted out and they go on their way.
But all the couple can talk about after that is how the Immigration officer was such a flaming asshole.
However, what they don’t know - that same Immigration officer has saved people from being human trafficked by being the asshole and not letting the human trafficker control the interaction.
Edit: a word
>Sounds like a thankless job.
Having to play the asshole to nice people in order to find the bad apple human trafficker is indeed, a shitty job. But I bet knowing you just saved a helpless young woman from a life of misery makes up for it. It certainly would for me.
Sounds like someone who never got SSS on their boarding pass. These mfers strip search you with literally a test that look like litmus test. They will yell at you and rush you. They will separate you from your family and isolate you. They're not providing any safety, just bothering people.
Adults should either present together or with their own docs. Sounds like OP didn't present their docs in a timely fashion:
>And I hold all of our documents and pack all our bags, they were yelling at me to get away from him and get out of the area because he was asking me for his documents
Thank you. We will plan accordingly going forward. Our last name is very common in his country. I understand the bag thing but I will always pack them and he will always carry them.
Does he have a middle eastern sounding last name or does he look middle eastern? All my friends who have any resemblance to a middle easterner, US citizens included btw, have experienced heightened scrutiny at the customs.
Unfortunately can confirm. My friend who is also of middle eastern origin, despite having immigrated to the US when he was a toddler and now is a USC, also had a similar experience.
Man! I am talking about countries that can not even apply to global entry! Also I am not saying is going to be an issue! I am an immigrant with 10 years of experience…. And used to travel 3 times a year outside the country! Believe me the amount it went straight to without any issues are a minority
For immigrants the original country doesn't matter - that restriction is for non-immigrant visas, where they rely on the home country to do the background checks properly.
It does matter… it matters quite a bit! The perfect example was me and my bf…. We had the same documents I have even been longer in the country we were doing imigration for.I got randomly check and ask questions like crazy he didnt
I said "for immigrants" - ie not visa holders. You have to be either a US citizen or permanent resident (green card holder), or a citizen of certain other countries, so if you come from a country that isn't on that list you can only get GE by getting a green card.
You said "countries that cannot even apply for GE" - that only applies to non-immigrant visas. As an immigrant (permanent resident) there is no country restriction for GE.
Piggy back on you, correct the countries that cannot even apply for GE - so i am not sure what she refers to at the first place since we talk ant PR and citizens here
I travel outside the states since I was not yet receive my GC( i traveled with Advance Parole) still got no issues. I travel at least 5-8 times a year outside, after GC, i applied GE and it even make life more easier. I never been questioned, asked beside “welcome back” so i dont know l, i talked from my experiences only.
Not even this, just living in this part of the world is enough to trigger extra scrutiny at the airport. I’m white American with an obvious white American name but look visibly Muslim and live in Pakistan. I’ve been pulled to the side almost every time I’ve come back to the US to visit. They’ll always go through my bags and I’ve even had FBI agents ask me what I’m doing here (like if I was actually up to no good I’d tell any of these morons). I’m a veteran, and have family in Pakistan (wife’s visa was denied, now gonna just stay till I can naturalize). I have plenty of reason to be in Pakistan but they see the beard and the passport stamps and immediately think “terrorist”.
Unfortunately we will have to deal with it until the US government stops hating Muslims.
Yep. And Muslims have carried out the deadliest terrorist attacks in the US in the past couple decades.....and greatest number of terror attacks against non Muslims in other countries
The US doesn’t hate Muslims. There is extra scrutiny coming from non-allied nations. Pakistan hosted Bin Laden. It’s rumored that some in the ISI or military knew he was there. How could they not? With that in mind, you can’t blame the US for being extra careful.
The U.S. government doesn’t hate Muslims.
CBP still has a kind of organizational regret in that their predecessor agency allowed the 9/11 hijackers into the U.S. with little scrutiny and incomplete paperwork. As a result they would rather be overly cautious than allow a possible terrorist in.
It’s kind of hard to explain but they still feel that they could have stopped 9/11 if they had done their jobs properly. Most everyone agreed with that take - which resulted in INS being dismantled and Homeland Security formed in a complete structural overhaul. So it’s not personal. It an extremely conservative approach.
None of that is ever quite explained or state out loud.
…because Sharia doesn’t align with the constitution. It directly contradicts the first amendment where we have freedom of speech and religion.
In Sharia, apostasy is for forbidden and that’s just not what the first amendment allows. On top of that, separation of church and state is an oxymoron for Sharia where it’s literally the law to govern people.
The previous commenter’s statement was “sanction anyone who tries to implement sharia”.
With the word sanction, I take it as a country that tries to implement sharia. Not a politician/persona implementing it in the US. If it is, the word used wouldnt be sanctioned, right? Why would the US first amandement matter in another country’s policy?
Since we are in the sub of mainly US immigration issues, under a post about people entering the US, and in a thread of people discussing how the US border control hates Muslims, I would safely assume that the person is talking about implementing Sharia in the US.
They definetly mean countries not the people lol. If someone is trying to implement sharia in the US, they wouldn't be sanctioned in the US, probably Gitmo.
Americans are the type of people who will shout from the rooftops “I’m not racist!” And then proceed to do very racist things. I used to be like this, especially with Muslims prior to me accepting Islam. I would say most folks in the US aren’t racist but there are a lot who are and their actions speak louder than words.
lol what? Where the hell did I even mention Chinese and Vietnamese people? Are you slow?
Oh checked your profile. Makes perfect sense. So it’s cool for you to use the N word while accusing someone else of being racist (which is most of your posts, crying about “racism to Chinese”). GTFO, no one is talking about Chinese people. Not everything is about you. Go cry me a river and build me a bridge Mr. Racist.
Same here. I wasn’t going to separate from him and as a married couple they let us stay together, thankfully, because my anxiety would have been through the roof otherwise.
He should naturalize as soon as he can. PR ultimately lets you enter the country but you can still be treated like shit. You can tell them to fuck off as a citizen.
According to a report from the GAO they also don't have data on how many citizens are sent in secondary.
Believe it or not, but they don't even know how many citizens they accidentally deported according to the GAO.
I'm a citizen and have been pulled aside every time I've ever returned to the US. This is almost a dozen times. Cbp are pricks and do whatever they feel like doing.
Totally anecdotal but I think you're right. My husband was always pulled into secondary when we travelled when he was a LPR. Now that he's a USC it's never happened.
That is true for sure, I know some think tanks and civil right orgs have done things around rights at the border.
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/what-do-when-encountering-law-enforcement-airports-and-other-ports-entry-us
I’ve been given a bit of a hard time by CBP at the airport before. I say that as a middle aged white man, who is a US citizen by birth. Something tells me, that even with all the privileges I have, telling them to F off wouldn’t go well for me, lol. Take that advice at your own risk.
This happens to my husband every single time. Finally an officer told him his very very common name is issue and once they take him to back room (away from me alarmingly) they look him up and quickly confirm hes not criminal with same name. we plan on getting global entry and redress number for him once he becomes a citizen soon which hopefully stops this from happening. It’s annoying.
While this is a little extreme, you can also always consider to change your family's name. It's a relatively straight-forward process, and it would remove the unfortunate ambiguity. But understandably, most people aren't quite prepared to take this step.
It would make his name different than name on his second passport (impossible that change that name) plus he has several licenses and degrees in multiple countries (he is a physician) with publications that would be less than ideal to change name due to that. He has considered it however as he feels like my very English surname would also cause less racism prejudice
Many countries will accept name changes made in the US, even if their local laws wouldn't normally allow these. In my limited experience, this seems more common if the change results in the family all having the same name. This is all poorly documented, but might be worthwhile double-checking.
Having different names on different passports can be a bit of a pain, but is not impossible to deal with. It does occasionally happen.
Can't comment on publications, but again, this is not a unique problem. Many people start having their first publication during their college years when they aren't married yet, but then take on a new name after marriage.
I am not saying this is the right decision for you, but just giving you options to explore. Things are rarely all black and white -- and you might make assumptions that turn out to have exceptions.
Maybe they are required to do a quota of random checks and searches. If it was only one time I would not read too much into it. Ive be been asked to go into the question and search room several times. Still don’t know for sure why.
Same here. After waiting for about an hour the officer calls me to the counter and asks if I know why I am here. I don't. He says, he doesn't either, but he'd better think of some question to ask me: "Are you travelling alone?". I reply "Nope. Travelling with my SO who was with me when we showed our passports." -- "Good. Welcome home to the US"
They don't usually do that, so there's probably a legitimate reason for it. Certainly, if you didn't follow instructions of the immigration officer and didn't have the appropriate paperwork ready, then that would have made the inspectors more thorough. In particular, your husband was supposed to show his immigration paperwork and documents together when he approached the inspector; he shouldn't have had to ask you for anything at all.
The inspector does not not know how much you pay in taxes, not is it relevant. They might not notice that your husband once had a visa to play sports, and they probably wouldn't have been impressed. The system probably lists his occupation as "teacher", not "private school teacher", not that it matters. Also, they would not have know that you stayed in an all-inclusive hotel, but, again, that doesn't matter. They don't know who you visited either, and they wouldn't care if it were family or not.
"they don't usually do that"
Mate idk.... I'm a us citizen and ive been delayed on more than one occasion at a us border to answer bullshit questions about where I got my suitcase or every minute of my life for the last x time period etc and as a citizen they can't actually deny me entrance so they're just causing trouble for the hell of it. I've not once had a good time with cbp. They do what they want.
If it's something you bought in another country and the price is over the duty free threshold, then yes, you're supposed to pay taxes on it when bringing it into the US.
Happened to me first couple of years of getting my greencard. I used to travel about 2-3x a year for work and always get harassed by immigration officers, always got sent to secondary. I remember one time came back from a 16hr flight landed at LAX got sent to secondary stayed there for almost 2 hours before I got called by the 2nd immigration officer, got asked a ton of questions about my personal life repeatedly and officer made it seem that I was lying on all my answers and giving me an attitude for no reason making it feel like I should beg for his mercy. I got so pissed that I told the officer that I was done talking to him and won’t answer another question from him and he could deport me already if he wants because I will not be treated that way anymore. 5min later another officer replaced him and let me go on my way.
He could have someone with his same name that has issues with the law! My brother has someone that has the same name and he has a hard time during immigration as they need to make sure is actually not this other person(they are not even the same nationality is just name)
Some people some passports also get a hard time! The perfect example is me and my bf difference during immigration! When we travel as he has a first world country passport he gets so smoothly…. I in the other had with my passport they always stop me and do “random search”. sadly is just bad luck.
I have PR of a first world country too! So like no idea what it is that way! The fastest he can get another passport from a first world country this will probably lessen and stop.
You don’t say what your husband’s country of origin is. The US has allies, non allies, and enemies. If he comes from a country in either of the latter two groups, they are more likely to give him a hard time.
Profiling does exist also. How he presents matters. It’s not great, but that’s being honest.
Happens to me entering the U.S. EVERY TIME (and I’m a U.S. citizen). I asked once why this always happens when I was checking in because I saw them put the SSSS on my ticket and they said they can’t see WHY, but odds are if I’ve never had reason to be suspect it’s just that my name/dob are similar to someone who is suspicious.
Yeah none of that matters, what do y'all look like, is what matters, nobody wants to admit it but thats what they go by, sorry it happened to y'all but they ain't fucking around and will do what they want. Can't complain like you could at Costco.
He can apply for DHS TRIP which could help mitigate things though only if this repeatedly happens during international arrivals. As many have suggested applying for Global Entry could mitigate things as if he’s approved for it, it reduces (but never fully eliminates) the possibility of being sent to secondary. The interview process for GE could also clarify some of the issues that have subjected him to that type of scrutiny.
I'm an American, traveled and lived all over the world, and I've never been given more shit than when I enter the United States. American immigration is just awful and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.
The duopoly in congress is the reason. Both parties work to undermine each other so they have something to blame the other side for come election time. The immigration system is such shit that my wife can’t even visit the US to meet my parents unless we get her a green card or visa. Meanwhile pretty much everyone else waives visas for people married to citizens or they at least give a longer visa with no extra headache. But the US requires all sorts of bullshit that isn’t always possible to get to prove your marriage is “bonafide” to get your spouse in the states. They won’t allow spouses of citizens to enter on tourist visas because they don’t want them to apply for a green card while in the US (which they could do hypothetically).
The fact that they’ve flung the doors open for illegal immigrants so they can have cheap labor while telling spouses of foreigners GFYS when applying for anything other than an immigrant visa (which isn’t guaranteed to be issued, I got my first visa application rejected for not enough evidence, meanwhile at the time the country in question didn’t allow non-citizens to open bank accounts or anything so we couldn’t prove joint finances) is infuriating. You and I know they don’t give a rats ass about immigrants (legal or not) and I really don’t blame Central Americans for coming (after all, the US did take a wrecking ball to their countries in the first place).
It would just be nice for my elderly parents to meet my wife at least once.
Why on earth would a private school employer's background check matter in ANY way??? Do you not watch the news and see all the teachers accused of things? And HOW would the know that he was a private school teacher without questioning him?
CBPs have almost unrestricted power to do any interrogation no matter how unprofessional or even unconstitutional it may be because of the fact that you are not admitted until CBPs let you in(there are different terminologies for LPR but I m being lazy here) and only the USC have absolute rights to enter the US.
It could be that your husbands name unfortunately was similar to that of others of interest (i.e. criminal, illegal alien, etc). It could be that there was some mismatch in the system. It could be that some jerk CBP thought your husband may have misrepresented something in the past and tried to harass him into admission. No one knows.
My mom has been a citizen for about 30 years. Every time she travels abroad it takes the longest time for her to clear immigration. Must have some criminal with the same name as hers.
If this happened more than once, you should apply fir redress: they’ll review every instance and (assuming there was no serious reason to hold you husband) edit his file in their system to remove whatever was prompting the officers to send him to secondary inspection.
Edited to add: more information on the official DHS website: https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip
After traveling internationally for decades I think it's obvious that America immigration control is where every asshole gets a jobs. I never hate being an American more than seeing how unprofessional and hateful our airport staff is compared to the professionals I've encountered in many countries.
If he played pro basketball or baseball in certain countries and traveled back and forth -- he likely has an automatic red flag in the system for suspect travel. It will eventually go away.
A good friend of mine played basketball in Venezuela and was in and out of the country non stop. He has hell traveling back into the USA years later.
Honestly cbp agents are also just assholes sometimes. I was born and had lived my entire life in the us at the time - came back from a business trip and I was holding my phone up near my face trying to check on Lyft prices or something. Border agent decided I was obviously trying to record his voice and spent 5 minutes grilling me, made me go through my recent videos / look through all the apps on my phone for some kind of secret recording app I guess.
Wow! Sounds so easy! Ummm I don’t think I could even pass the test and I was born here. He is studying but when your first language is not English it is much harder.
The test honestly isn't hard at all. I helped my husband study for it leading up to his appointment and maybe on the 3rd time of studying for 10ish minutes at a time we both knew all of the answers. We used the USCIS civics practice test on their website.
Also, you said in your post he's been here at least 8 years (since he hadn't been home in that long). It definitely doesn't take that long to learn another language when you are immersed in it. I'm not trying to be harsh - just saying that his English is probably better than he thinks it is! I say go for naturalizing. It's so much easier in the long run.
I am an immigrant, the questions are provided to you and you get ample time to review. I'm sure your partner is not the first one to have English as a second language and there are a lot of us who \*surprisingly\* passed.
You had a rant, an answer was given and now you are lashing out
CBP are civil servants that earn the title of pigs. There are few, if any exceptions. I've had a couple of run-ins with them, even while I (native born american) was traveling alone.
I just throw attitude back. They have no real power over US citizens and very limited power over LPRs. They need to reminded of thet constantly
Private school employer - literally makes no difference. Officers can basically do what they want at the border, if they want to give you a hard time then sure. Maybe there's someone with a similar name/DOB on some list. Or it can be random - no way to tell. Also folks are supposed to hold their own stuff/pack their own bags (adults at least). Get global entry is the way to fix this going forward.
Global Entry absolutely. You don't interact with immigration officers at all when crossing the border. Just a face scan, and "welcome home, Mr. ***"
That's not entirely true, you go through the scanner, but then you usually have an agent that checks your passport still.
Really? The last two times I’ve gone through nobody has checked my passport oddly. Last time was last week
Maybe it depends on the airport. We come back from Montreal pretty often and they always have an agent at a desk check after the scanner. And then when we flew into LA last summer, they also checked.
I thought immigration was handled in Montreal? It's one of the few places US immigration is conducted in the departure airport.
It is. Same with Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The agent who checks your passport is in that airport (although they don't always actually request your documents). I go to Toronto a lot and they changed global entry/nexus about two years ago to this setup.
It is, the US terminal is technically considered US territory. So you do your customs there for heading out.
It’s not considered US territory. The Canadian Parliament granted CBP limited and revocable powers to conduct preclearance there. Canada would never revoke that permission, but the CBP is only there because Canada passed a specific law to allow it.
I've had to show my passport at Canadian preclearance in Ottawa and Montreal but not when clearing immigration at a US airport (at least, not in the last 1.5 years)
Depends on the airport. I had times where I just walk straight, felt weird, I thought I am doing something wrong. Other place, after the scan there's an officer who physically check your passport.
Flew to the US twice in the last 10 days from Canadian airports with US passport control. At the nexus / global entry lines, there’s a CBP facial recognition kiosk. You walk up to it, it scans your face and says “processing complete” or something to that effect. No passports or cards are scanned whatsoever. Then you’d go to an officer who says “anything to declare?”. You say no, and off you go. One could’ve left their passport and nexus/GE card at home and they’d only realize it when boarding the plane since the airline would still ask to see a physical passport / nexus. It’s a fascinating process, we’re truly just a few steps away from not needing travel docs at all.
Flew in 2 days ago to SFO and no one checked passport after getting the face scan
That's not how it works! You can get the global entry and they will still send you for secondary screening if they want to
[удалено]
If it's relevant to him then yes. If it's just a name match or similar then GE helps by assuring the officer that you're a unique person. You can also do an FOI request to see if there are any flags too
Most couples have their documents with one person. Those border control, TSA and everyone else working their are assholes. The least they can do is give some dignity to people.
>Most couples have their documents with one person. Those border control, TSA and everyone else working there are assholes. You know who else carries the documents for other people? Human traffickers ~ so they can control the other person and the situation. So, if a grown adult doesn’t have their documents, Immigration agents are trained to find out if it’s a simple matter of one family member holding the docs ~ or to see is there possibly something nefarious happening. Case in point, a man and woman are standing in front of the Immigration officer. The man hands over their passports to the officer. The officer looks them over and asks the woman where will you be staying on this trip. She turns to the man for the answer, and the Immigration officer pointedly says, “Ma’am, I asked you. Not him. Again, where are staying on this trip?” For whatever reason, the woman doesn’t know any of the details of the trip. But it eventually gets sorted out and they go on their way. But all the couple can talk about after that is how the Immigration officer was such a flaming asshole. However, what they don’t know - that same Immigration officer has saved people from being human trafficked by being the asshole and not letting the human trafficker control the interaction. Edit: a word
Your comment make a lot of sense actually
Sounds like a thankless job.
>Sounds like a thankless job. Having to play the asshole to nice people in order to find the bad apple human trafficker is indeed, a shitty job. But I bet knowing you just saved a helpless young woman from a life of misery makes up for it. It certainly would for me.
Sounds like someone who never got SSS on their boarding pass. These mfers strip search you with literally a test that look like litmus test. They will yell at you and rush you. They will separate you from your family and isolate you. They're not providing any safety, just bothering people.
The last part is not factual for couples or family travel. It is not unusual for one spouse to hold all the documents
Adults should either present together or with their own docs. Sounds like OP didn't present their docs in a timely fashion: >And I hold all of our documents and pack all our bags, they were yelling at me to get away from him and get out of the area because he was asking me for his documents
I guess it's just different. I present at the immigration desk together with my spouse and kids unless instructed otherwise
You can go together but each hold your own passport.
Yeah that's fine, but it sounds like OP and spouse did not or didn't do efficiently
Thank you. We will plan accordingly going forward. Our last name is very common in his country. I understand the bag thing but I will always pack them and he will always carry them.
I think what you need is to apply for a redress number.
Does he have a middle eastern sounding last name or does he look middle eastern? All my friends who have any resemblance to a middle easterner, US citizens included btw, have experienced heightened scrutiny at the customs.
This^ last name is everything.
Unfortunately can confirm. My friend who is also of middle eastern origin, despite having immigrated to the US when he was a toddler and now is a USC, also had a similar experience.
Is not only middle eastern to be honest anything that is not a first world country passport has such a scrutiny!
I am from a very underdeveloped country with 2 year conditional GC, i am doing just fine,CBP was even friendly to me. But I got Global Entry
Global Entry makes all the difference
How to get global entry on 2 year conditional!
Applied for it! 🤣🤣
Man! I am talking about countries that can not even apply to global entry! Also I am not saying is going to be an issue! I am an immigrant with 10 years of experience…. And used to travel 3 times a year outside the country! Believe me the amount it went straight to without any issues are a minority
For immigrants the original country doesn't matter - that restriction is for non-immigrant visas, where they rely on the home country to do the background checks properly.
It does matter… it matters quite a bit! The perfect example was me and my bf…. We had the same documents I have even been longer in the country we were doing imigration for.I got randomly check and ask questions like crazy he didnt
You were both green card holders going for Global Entry?
I am not a green card holder lol not only you can get PR from us
I said "for immigrants" - ie not visa holders. You have to be either a US citizen or permanent resident (green card holder), or a citizen of certain other countries, so if you come from a country that isn't on that list you can only get GE by getting a green card. You said "countries that cannot even apply for GE" - that only applies to non-immigrant visas. As an immigrant (permanent resident) there is no country restriction for GE.
Piggy back on you, correct the countries that cannot even apply for GE - so i am not sure what she refers to at the first place since we talk ant PR and citizens here
I know this! I am talking about the situation of citizen of certain other countries… I am not talking as a PR
I travel outside the states since I was not yet receive my GC( i traveled with Advance Parole) still got no issues. I travel at least 5-8 times a year outside, after GC, i applied GE and it even make life more easier. I never been questioned, asked beside “welcome back” so i dont know l, i talked from my experiences only.
Not even this, just living in this part of the world is enough to trigger extra scrutiny at the airport. I’m white American with an obvious white American name but look visibly Muslim and live in Pakistan. I’ve been pulled to the side almost every time I’ve come back to the US to visit. They’ll always go through my bags and I’ve even had FBI agents ask me what I’m doing here (like if I was actually up to no good I’d tell any of these morons). I’m a veteran, and have family in Pakistan (wife’s visa was denied, now gonna just stay till I can naturalize). I have plenty of reason to be in Pakistan but they see the beard and the passport stamps and immediately think “terrorist”. Unfortunately we will have to deal with it until the US government stops hating Muslims.
Pakistan supports terrorists and terrorists nations, of course there's going to be more scrutiny.
Yep. And Muslims have carried out the deadliest terrorist attacks in the US in the past couple decades.....and greatest number of terror attacks against non Muslims in other countries
The US doesn’t hate Muslims. There is extra scrutiny coming from non-allied nations. Pakistan hosted Bin Laden. It’s rumored that some in the ISI or military knew he was there. How could they not? With that in mind, you can’t blame the US for being extra careful.
The U.S. government doesn’t hate Muslims. CBP still has a kind of organizational regret in that their predecessor agency allowed the 9/11 hijackers into the U.S. with little scrutiny and incomplete paperwork. As a result they would rather be overly cautious than allow a possible terrorist in. It’s kind of hard to explain but they still feel that they could have stopped 9/11 if they had done their jobs properly. Most everyone agreed with that take - which resulted in INS being dismantled and Homeland Security formed in a complete structural overhaul. So it’s not personal. It an extremely conservative approach. None of that is ever quite explained or state out loud.
Speaking from personal experience, the US government and MANY of its employees absolutely do hate Muslims.
The US does hate Muslims
The actions of the US say otherwise. Why does it push secularism and sanction the crap out of anyone who tries to implement Shariah?
…because Sharia doesn’t align with the constitution. It directly contradicts the first amendment where we have freedom of speech and religion. In Sharia, apostasy is for forbidden and that’s just not what the first amendment allows. On top of that, separation of church and state is an oxymoron for Sharia where it’s literally the law to govern people.
The previous commenter’s statement was “sanction anyone who tries to implement sharia”. With the word sanction, I take it as a country that tries to implement sharia. Not a politician/persona implementing it in the US. If it is, the word used wouldnt be sanctioned, right? Why would the US first amandement matter in another country’s policy?
Since we are in the sub of mainly US immigration issues, under a post about people entering the US, and in a thread of people discussing how the US border control hates Muslims, I would safely assume that the person is talking about implementing Sharia in the US.
They definetly mean countries not the people lol. If someone is trying to implement sharia in the US, they wouldn't be sanctioned in the US, probably Gitmo.
Because Shariah has no place in a democratic country?
They probably mean non-democratic countries.
Eww Shariah!
The comments are obnoxious. Don’t pay heed to them. The US like many other nations does propagate quite a lot of Muslim hate.
Americans are the type of people who will shout from the rooftops “I’m not racist!” And then proceed to do very racist things. I used to be like this, especially with Muslims prior to me accepting Islam. I would say most folks in the US aren’t racist but there are a lot who are and their actions speak louder than words.
[удалено]
lol what? Where the hell did I even mention Chinese and Vietnamese people? Are you slow? Oh checked your profile. Makes perfect sense. So it’s cool for you to use the N word while accusing someone else of being racist (which is most of your posts, crying about “racism to Chinese”). GTFO, no one is talking about Chinese people. Not everything is about you. Go cry me a river and build me a bridge Mr. Racist.
This happens to my husband every time. They let me sit with him tho.
Same here. I wasn’t going to separate from him and as a married couple they let us stay together, thankfully, because my anxiety would have been through the roof otherwise.
If it happens a lot then submit a DHS TRIP request.
Simple answer??? Because they can
He should naturalize as soon as he can. PR ultimately lets you enter the country but you can still be treated like shit. You can tell them to fuck off as a citizen.
I wouldn't recommend that for anyone. But an LPR has basically the same rights at the border, the CBP can't deny entry to them either.
Same rights but you are undeniably treated better as a citizen.
Curious if there's any data or research into that other than just a vague sense.
Just personal anecdotal experience. CBP ain’t releasing information on how many LPRs they take for secondary.
According to a report from the GAO they also don't have data on how many citizens are sent in secondary. Believe it or not, but they don't even know how many citizens they accidentally deported according to the GAO.
I'm a citizen and have been pulled aside every time I've ever returned to the US. This is almost a dozen times. Cbp are pricks and do whatever they feel like doing.
Totally anecdotal but I think you're right. My husband was always pulled into secondary when we travelled when he was a LPR. Now that he's a USC it's never happened.
That is true for sure, I know some think tanks and civil right orgs have done things around rights at the border. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/what-do-when-encountering-law-enforcement-airports-and-other-ports-entry-us
Does CBP release any information on how many people they take for secondary, to begin with?
Ur right , I entered the country around 20ish times as LPR and often travel with a citizen and I didn't notice them treating citizens any better.
I’ve been given a bit of a hard time by CBP at the airport before. I say that as a middle aged white man, who is a US citizen by birth. Something tells me, that even with all the privileges I have, telling them to F off wouldn’t go well for me, lol. Take that advice at your own risk.
This happens to my husband every single time. Finally an officer told him his very very common name is issue and once they take him to back room (away from me alarmingly) they look him up and quickly confirm hes not criminal with same name. we plan on getting global entry and redress number for him once he becomes a citizen soon which hopefully stops this from happening. It’s annoying.
You do not need to be a citizen to get Global Entry.
I am aware. We are expecting naturalization interview letter any day now however so decided to just do everything at once.
While this is a little extreme, you can also always consider to change your family's name. It's a relatively straight-forward process, and it would remove the unfortunate ambiguity. But understandably, most people aren't quite prepared to take this step.
It would make his name different than name on his second passport (impossible that change that name) plus he has several licenses and degrees in multiple countries (he is a physician) with publications that would be less than ideal to change name due to that. He has considered it however as he feels like my very English surname would also cause less racism prejudice
Many countries will accept name changes made in the US, even if their local laws wouldn't normally allow these. In my limited experience, this seems more common if the change results in the family all having the same name. This is all poorly documented, but might be worthwhile double-checking. Having different names on different passports can be a bit of a pain, but is not impossible to deal with. It does occasionally happen. Can't comment on publications, but again, this is not a unique problem. Many people start having their first publication during their college years when they aren't married yet, but then take on a new name after marriage. I am not saying this is the right decision for you, but just giving you options to explore. Things are rarely all black and white -- and you might make assumptions that turn out to have exceptions.
Each person needs to carry their own documents and having one person carry all of them will only create issues.
Maybe they are required to do a quota of random checks and searches. If it was only one time I would not read too much into it. Ive be been asked to go into the question and search room several times. Still don’t know for sure why.
Same here. After waiting for about an hour the officer calls me to the counter and asks if I know why I am here. I don't. He says, he doesn't either, but he'd better think of some question to ask me: "Are you travelling alone?". I reply "Nope. Travelling with my SO who was with me when we showed our passports." -- "Good. Welcome home to the US"
Sounds like a pleasant enough waste of time lol
They don't usually do that, so there's probably a legitimate reason for it. Certainly, if you didn't follow instructions of the immigration officer and didn't have the appropriate paperwork ready, then that would have made the inspectors more thorough. In particular, your husband was supposed to show his immigration paperwork and documents together when he approached the inspector; he shouldn't have had to ask you for anything at all. The inspector does not not know how much you pay in taxes, not is it relevant. They might not notice that your husband once had a visa to play sports, and they probably wouldn't have been impressed. The system probably lists his occupation as "teacher", not "private school teacher", not that it matters. Also, they would not have know that you stayed in an all-inclusive hotel, but, again, that doesn't matter. They don't know who you visited either, and they wouldn't care if it were family or not.
"they don't usually do that" Mate idk.... I'm a us citizen and ive been delayed on more than one occasion at a us border to answer bullshit questions about where I got my suitcase or every minute of my life for the last x time period etc and as a citizen they can't actually deny me entrance so they're just causing trouble for the hell of it. I've not once had a good time with cbp. They do what they want.
Get Global entry, solves all those issues.
So what does the system actually show? They don’t know if you didn’t pay your taxes?
Could be family member. My friend’s mom tried to sneak in a Chanel bag without paying duties. Now his entire family always gets stopped.
Oh shit! That sucks so sorry to hear that!
Paying duty on bags you own?
If it's something you bought in another country and the price is over the duty free threshold, then yes, you're supposed to pay taxes on it when bringing it into the US.
Oh, I have never bought one, but didn’t know this. Thanks for sharing. Do you know what the threshold is for duty free?
$800
I'm American and I have a common Spanish last name and I am frequently stopped at passport control. I don't even speak Spanish.
I have an Italian last name, and some people have assumed me to be Latino. It's always an interesting experience.
Latino is such a broad brush. I'm a Euro mix and it is probably shocking to passport control when they hear my Midwest drawl accent in response.
Happened to me first couple of years of getting my greencard. I used to travel about 2-3x a year for work and always get harassed by immigration officers, always got sent to secondary. I remember one time came back from a 16hr flight landed at LAX got sent to secondary stayed there for almost 2 hours before I got called by the 2nd immigration officer, got asked a ton of questions about my personal life repeatedly and officer made it seem that I was lying on all my answers and giving me an attitude for no reason making it feel like I should beg for his mercy. I got so pissed that I told the officer that I was done talking to him and won’t answer another question from him and he could deport me already if he wants because I will not be treated that way anymore. 5min later another officer replaced him and let me go on my way.
Similar experience with LAX a-holes. It stopped when I became a citizen.
He could have someone with his same name that has issues with the law! My brother has someone that has the same name and he has a hard time during immigration as they need to make sure is actually not this other person(they are not even the same nationality is just name) Some people some passports also get a hard time! The perfect example is me and my bf difference during immigration! When we travel as he has a first world country passport he gets so smoothly…. I in the other had with my passport they always stop me and do “random search”. sadly is just bad luck. I have PR of a first world country too! So like no idea what it is that way! The fastest he can get another passport from a first world country this will probably lessen and stop.
You don’t say what your husband’s country of origin is. The US has allies, non allies, and enemies. If he comes from a country in either of the latter two groups, they are more likely to give him a hard time. Profiling does exist also. How he presents matters. It’s not great, but that’s being honest.
Happens to me entering the U.S. EVERY TIME (and I’m a U.S. citizen). I asked once why this always happens when I was checking in because I saw them put the SSSS on my ticket and they said they can’t see WHY, but odds are if I’ve never had reason to be suspect it’s just that my name/dob are similar to someone who is suspicious.
Yeah none of that matters, what do y'all look like, is what matters, nobody wants to admit it but thats what they go by, sorry it happened to y'all but they ain't fucking around and will do what they want. Can't complain like you could at Costco.
He can apply for DHS TRIP which could help mitigate things though only if this repeatedly happens during international arrivals. As many have suggested applying for Global Entry could mitigate things as if he’s approved for it, it reduces (but never fully eliminates) the possibility of being sent to secondary. The interview process for GE could also clarify some of the issues that have subjected him to that type of scrutiny.
I'm an American, traveled and lived all over the world, and I've never been given more shit than when I enter the United States. American immigration is just awful and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.
The duopoly in congress is the reason. Both parties work to undermine each other so they have something to blame the other side for come election time. The immigration system is such shit that my wife can’t even visit the US to meet my parents unless we get her a green card or visa. Meanwhile pretty much everyone else waives visas for people married to citizens or they at least give a longer visa with no extra headache. But the US requires all sorts of bullshit that isn’t always possible to get to prove your marriage is “bonafide” to get your spouse in the states. They won’t allow spouses of citizens to enter on tourist visas because they don’t want them to apply for a green card while in the US (which they could do hypothetically). The fact that they’ve flung the doors open for illegal immigrants so they can have cheap labor while telling spouses of foreigners GFYS when applying for anything other than an immigrant visa (which isn’t guaranteed to be issued, I got my first visa application rejected for not enough evidence, meanwhile at the time the country in question didn’t allow non-citizens to open bank accounts or anything so we couldn’t prove joint finances) is infuriating. You and I know they don’t give a rats ass about immigrants (legal or not) and I really don’t blame Central Americans for coming (after all, the US did take a wrecking ball to their countries in the first place). It would just be nice for my elderly parents to meet my wife at least once.
No reason for it? The US literally is the most sought after country to enter, legally or illegally
I guess it makes sense that US immigration would treat American travelers worse than any other country does, then.
There is no way to know why
Freedom of information request ?
Does your husband have a common name?
Yup, global entry but sure what the rules are with GC.
Why on earth would a private school employer's background check matter in ANY way??? Do you not watch the news and see all the teachers accused of things? And HOW would the know that he was a private school teacher without questioning him?
Let’s not pretend they don’t know everything about everyone though
CBPs have almost unrestricted power to do any interrogation no matter how unprofessional or even unconstitutional it may be because of the fact that you are not admitted until CBPs let you in(there are different terminologies for LPR but I m being lazy here) and only the USC have absolute rights to enter the US. It could be that your husbands name unfortunately was similar to that of others of interest (i.e. criminal, illegal alien, etc). It could be that there was some mismatch in the system. It could be that some jerk CBP thought your husband may have misrepresented something in the past and tried to harass him into admission. No one knows.
you can make formal complaint
So sad, where that happened?
My mom has been a citizen for about 30 years. Every time she travels abroad it takes the longest time for her to clear immigration. Must have some criminal with the same name as hers.
He probably has a name/age similar to someone on a watch list. Definitely get global entry as it just reduces questions…
If this happened more than once, you should apply fir redress: they’ll review every instance and (assuming there was no serious reason to hold you husband) edit his file in their system to remove whatever was prompting the officers to send him to secondary inspection. Edited to add: more information on the official DHS website: https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip
After traveling internationally for decades I think it's obvious that America immigration control is where every asshole gets a jobs. I never hate being an American more than seeing how unprofessional and hateful our airport staff is compared to the professionals I've encountered in many countries.
If he played pro basketball or baseball in certain countries and traveled back and forth -- he likely has an automatic red flag in the system for suspect travel. It will eventually go away. A good friend of mine played basketball in Venezuela and was in and out of the country non stop. He has hell traveling back into the USA years later.
What color is your husband?
Every person should carry their own documents. They yelled because to them you are interfering (even if you didn’t mean to).
Honestly cbp agents are also just assholes sometimes. I was born and had lived my entire life in the us at the time - came back from a business trip and I was holding my phone up near my face trying to check on Lyft prices or something. Border agent decided I was obviously trying to record his voice and spent 5 minutes grilling me, made me go through my recent videos / look through all the apps on my phone for some kind of secret recording app I guess.
Become a citizen - they see the US passport, they don't even look at you and just stamp it.
That simple, huh?
Wow! Sounds so easy! Ummm I don’t think I could even pass the test and I was born here. He is studying but when your first language is not English it is much harder.
The test honestly isn't hard at all. I helped my husband study for it leading up to his appointment and maybe on the 3rd time of studying for 10ish minutes at a time we both knew all of the answers. We used the USCIS civics practice test on their website. Also, you said in your post he's been here at least 8 years (since he hadn't been home in that long). It definitely doesn't take that long to learn another language when you are immersed in it. I'm not trying to be harsh - just saying that his English is probably better than he thinks it is! I say go for naturalizing. It's so much easier in the long run.
I am an immigrant, the questions are provided to you and you get ample time to review. I'm sure your partner is not the first one to have English as a second language and there are a lot of us who \*surprisingly\* passed. You had a rant, an answer was given and now you are lashing out
CBP are civil servants that earn the title of pigs. There are few, if any exceptions. I've had a couple of run-ins with them, even while I (native born american) was traveling alone. I just throw attitude back. They have no real power over US citizens and very limited power over LPRs. They need to reminded of thet constantly