Travel News - Visitor gets $175,000 from INS in settlement

Visitor gets $175,000 from INS in settlement
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/20/BA53039.DTL

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">A Nicaraguan woman who was jailed for two nights and subjected to ethnic slurs by an immigration inspector in San Francisco two years ago will receive a $175,000 settlement from the federal government, her attorneys said Wednesday.</font>

What a disgraceful way to treat a guest in your country. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

It is indeed. :shakingmyhead:

Even after 9/11, I'm seeing worldwide that INS agents are still VERY VERY unprofessional to visitors in this country. Those of us who go through the US Citizen/Perm Residents lines don't know the amount of stupidy thrown by the INS agents in the visitors line.

Clearly INS upper management needs to "train" employees on courtesy. Additionally INS needs to stop locking arriving pax up based on "we have no time to check this persons background, so we will lock them up"... In cases like that they should offer to the pax that either they return to their country of origin (e.g. deport them) and sort it out with the US embassy/consulate OR detain them until info can be checked out.

Nearly ever other country will do an immediate deport based on invalid info and VERY rarely do the indefinetly detain the person.

Questions that US citizens don't know that are asked to 'ALIENS' include:

Why are you here?
What are you doing here?
Why are you flying through here?
What do you do for a living?

And many times asked with hardly a smile! Many times I think that INS forbid them to even be nice. Unlike Singapore immigration officers where management affix a mirror infront of them where they have to check their smiles when they face passengers!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Guy Betsy:
Questions that US citizens don't know that are asked to 'ALIENS' include:

Why are you here?
What are you doing here?
Why are you flying through here?
What do you do for a living?

And many times asked with hardly a smile! Many times I think that INS forbid them to even be nice. Unlike Singapore immigration officers where management affix a mirror infront of them where they have to check their smiles when they face passengers!</font>

EU immigrations in Brussels has been just as obnoxious to this American.

Questions asked:

1. Why are you here?
2. What are you doing here?
3. Who are you seeing?
4. Where are you staying?
5. Who is paying?
6. Do you have money?
7. What do you do for a living?
8. Why are you traveling alone?
9. How long are you staying?

Not like I would ever choose to live in Europe full-time, no matter my affection for many a place and people there.

Note that I did give the female EU immigration officer some choice responses in French about not being as stupid as to travel without money even if she could imagine doing such a thing.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Guy Betsy:
Questions that US citizens don't know that are asked to 'ALIENS' include:

Why are you here?
What are you doing here?
Why are you flying through here?
What do you do for a living?

And many times asked with hardly a smile! Many times I think that INS forbid them to even be nice. Unlike Singapore immigration officers where management affix a mirror infront of them where they have to check their smiles when they face passengers!</font>

Not exactly limited to INS, as a recent grilling by Canadian immigration at YYZ demonstrated. The battle-axe in question seemed like she was looking for an excuse to deny me entry.

Not only did she ask me the 4 questions you listed, she wanted to know what hotel I was at. Do I have a confirmation. Do I have sufficient funds. Do I have proof of onward travel. Etc.....

In addition, there are ports of entry, like JFK, that slot permanent residents like me into the same line as all non-citizens. So I've had plenty of experience with both lines, and don't think they are any more unfriendly. It's just that foreign passport holders require more scrutiny - period.

I don't quite get the drift of this thread, because while as to the original incident, which was quite over-the-top, being asked questions like where are you staying, who will you be seeing, etc. are all standard questions that have always been asked of me when I've gone to Canada, France, the UK. That's simply a formality, or perhaps a device to ferret out "suspicious" travelers who may be drug couriers, fugitives, etc.

I have been accused of having a criminal record and for illegally entering the country on numerous occasions by US INS officials.

I have had one border guard in Detroit accuse me of importing drugs in my car and had the dog search my car. They near stripped the thing. I had nothing of course. Of all countries - the US has by far the worst immigration people in the world.

Simple statement.

The INS believes its a competent agency. However time and time again it's publically proved how poorly run the agency is and how prone they are to losing documents/paperwork, etc.

However they punish LAW abiding folks for their own stupidity. All we ask for is when the INS is wrong, ADMIT it and compensate the person.

A friend of mine had an emergency UK passport while travelling from Germany to Denmark. Danish border police did a random train check, he was detained as the emergency passport - well looks dodgy. No harm in this. They verified it was legit with the UK foreign office and basically apologized for stopping him, explained the continuous attempts by others to enter denmark with false documents and drove my friend to a closer in station to get into Copenhagen in time for a meeting.

The INS can't even get to the "We're sorry for being stupid" part...

[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited 12-24-2002).]