Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Travel&Dining > Travel Safety/Security > Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate
Reload this Page >

What questions were you as a US citizen asked by US border patrol agents?

What questions were you as a US citizen asked by US border patrol agents?

Old May 20, 2014, 2:54 pm
  #31  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: California. USA
Posts: 1,404
I am a white (swedish) legal resident . I have been asked why I divorced a american man. That is really none of their buisness at all.
tanja is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:15 pm
  #32  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Ambassador, Radisson Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 3,620
Originally Posted by tanja
I am a white (swedish) legal resident . I have been asked why I divorced a american man. That is really none of their buisness at all.
Ouch.
jphripjah is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:21 pm
  #33  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by tanja
I am a white (swedish) legal resident . I have been asked why I divorced a american man. That is really none of their buisness at all.
CBP on the hunt for spousal visa/residence status fraud, which some may consider to be a from of prostitution for visas/residence status even if cash is not being exchanged. As with this too, there is often an excuse for even the false suspicions and other micro-aggression from CBP. It all combines to show that racist and sexist prejudices are still in play at US POEs too -- not that the US is that unique in this regard.
GUWonder is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:28 pm
  #34  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: California. USA
Posts: 1,404
Originally Posted by GUWonder
CBP on the hunt for spousal visa/residence status fraud, which some may consider to be a from of prostitution for visas/residence status even if cash is not being exchanged. As with this too, there is often an excuse for even the false suspicions and other micro-aggression from CBP. It all combines to show that racist and sexist prejudices are still in play at US POEs too -- not that the US is that unique in this regard.
Yes Really I was a legal resident for like 10+- minus years when this was asked.
tanja is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:30 pm
  #35  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: California. USA
Posts: 1,404
I was in my my late 40+ when this happen.
tanja is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:39 pm
  #36  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Ambassador, Radisson Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 3,620
Originally Posted by GUWonder
CBP on the hunt for spousal visa/residence status fraud, which some may consider to be a from of prostitution for visas/residence status even if cash is not being exchanged. As with this too, there is often an excuse for even the false suspicions and other micro-aggression from CBP. It all combines to show that racist and sexist prejudices are still in play at US POEs too -- not that the US is that unique in this regard.

What about when they ask me, a white male, detailed questions about what I was doing in Latin America and why I went there and who paid for me trip? Is that racist and sexist prejudice? Or they ask to look at photos of my trip to Cambodia so see if there is kiddie porn? Is that racist and sexist prejudice? These constant allegations or racism and sexism, unsupported by any evidence, whenever a woman or minority are investigated are quite silly.
jphripjah is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:41 pm
  #37  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 506
I am a mid 50's Canadian white single male. I own a home
in Texas and legally work here as well.

I often cross between US / Canada with the primary purpose
to visit mom and to return to my home / work.

I have never been given what I would consider a difficult time
by either the US or CDN CBP.

I don't act belligerent... I look them in the eye and answer
the questions... they let me through. It is simple.

If you are driving across the border... not suggesting the OP
does not already do this but... turn your engine off, turn off
the radio/stereo, take of the sunglasses and look them straight
in the eye when answering.
Paul56 is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:43 pm
  #38  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by tanja
Yes Really I was a legal resident for like 10+- minus years when this was asked.
Originally Posted by tanja
I was in my my late 40+ when this happen.
I know some Swedish citizens who were LPRs -- some even may think themselves to be LPRs today -- but got divorced and moved back to Sweden and assumed they were still US LPRs only to have it be questioned on arrival back to the US. The CBP may have been fishing for the validity of the LPR status based on whether or not you had abandoned all residence of your own in the US or not. It's mostly a fishing expedition, one that fortunately ends quickly and well enough most of the time for most of the people but unfortunately not so quickly and well for all of the people all of the time.
GUWonder is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 3:51 pm
  #39  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by jphripjah
What about when they ask me, a white male, detailed questions about what I was doing in Latin America and why I went there and who paid for me trip? Is that racist and sexist prejudice? Or they ask to look at photos of my trip to Cambodia so see if there is kiddie porn? Is that racist and sexist prejudice? These constant allegations or racism and sexism, unsupported by any evidence, whenever a woman or minority are investigated are quite silly.
The allegations and even appropriate acknowledgement of racism and sexism are constant when supported by evidence -- they are anything but silly. They should be taken seriously and addressed to make sure all US citizens are and/or will be treated equally on bases free of racist and/or sexist stereotypes.

When the CBP assumption is that seemingly ethnic European males visiting Latin America or Cambodia are doing so for purposes of child pornography and/or child prostitution, it's generally a sexist and racist assumption too. It's not silly.
GUWonder is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 4:03 pm
  #40  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: A3, AA. Plasticy things! That give me, y'know, Stuff!
Posts: 6,293
Originally Posted by GUWonder
Whether we like it or not, there is often a kind of trade-off between convenience at a given moment and paying a price for exercising one's rights. I don't generally like it, but the trade-off does exist and it's doubtful that any one's going to change that by way of deciding what to do or not do at the POE.
I agree completely that it's a trade off for the person concerned to decide at the time it happens. The important part, to me, was the idea that someone should as a matter of course/practice, not consider protesting or acting upon their rights.


Originally Posted by jphripjah
Back to the racism point, it is the job of CBP officers to prevent inadmissible aliens from entering the country, even if they are bearing documents falsely purporting to be US citizens. That's why they question people. And, a lot of you won't want to hear this, but non-white people with foreign accents presenting US passports and green cards are more likely to be frauds than white people with native born American accents presenting US passports.


Think about it for a moment. 95+% of white skinned people born since WWII are citizens of the US or Western Europe or Australia/NZ or Israel or South Africa or some other country whose citizens are allowed visa free entry into the United States or entry with an easily obtained visa. The vast majority of foreigners who try to illegally enter the US on false documents are not white skinned.
Do you have any citation for that? Given ~25% of the US population isn't "white" CBP would be setting themselves up to fail if they started with the mindset you begin with there.


When a CBP officer sees white skin and hears an American accent and sees a passport that looks like the person, the chances that this is a foreigner pretending to be American so as to enter the US are infinitesimal.
The chances of someone presenting with a false American document are not exactly large, IIRC. Accent has little to do with it. Accents are learned.


That is why those people are not asked many questions about citizenship. Similarly, native-born African Americans who speak in an American accent probably get the same pass on citizenship questions.
Really? You think that? Even I give US CBP more credit than that for the underlying premise (ie. US CBP engages in racial profiling and is so badly trained that it's unaware of it) that you're running there.


Foreign born travelers with foreign accents who were born in developing countries where people have been known to try to illegally immigrate to the US (many of whom may have non-white skin) warrant scrutiny upon entry to confirm that they are in fact, who they purport to be and that their documentation of permission to enter or reside in the US is legitimate.
Most countries rely on establishing if the documents are genuine. Automated heuristics for judging flight/country patterns etc are also useful for pegging who to concentrate resources on. Judging via accent, skin colour, and where they were born is a crappy way to form a plan of interrogation at a border.
SeriouslyLost is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 4:41 pm
  #41  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Ambassador, Radisson Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 3,620
I don't disagree that 25+% of the US is non-white. Do you disagree with the notion that illegal immigrants to the US (and, by extension, illegal immigrants bearing false documents) are disproportionately non-white?

According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, over 90% of illegal immigrants to the US hail from Mexico, Latin America, or Asia. The populations of those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian, and the illegal immigrants attempting to enter from those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian. My point is not to bash non-Caucasian folks or to suggest that they are all criminals or illegals. I am simply trying to explain why a CBP officer might ask a few more citizenship and identity questions of foreign born non-Caucasians than he does of white people with American accents.
jphripjah is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 5:20 pm
  #42  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by jphripjah
I don't disagree that 25+% of the US is non-white. Do you disagree with the notion that illegal immigrants to the US (and, by extension, illegal immigrants bearing false documents) are disproportionately non-white?

According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, over 90% of illegal immigrants to the US hail from Mexico, Latin America, or Asia. The populations of those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian, and the illegal immigrants attempting to enter from those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian. My point is not to bash non-Caucasian folks or to suggest that they are all criminals or illegals. I am simply trying to explain why a CBP officer might ask a few more citizenship and identity questions of foreign born non-Caucasians than he does of white people with American accents.
Disproportionate? Ironic classification given most "illegal immigrants" in the US have far more indigenous American history than those of us US-born persons only of European, Asian or African ethnicities.

A significant proportion of South Americans and of Latin Americans more broadly are only self-identifying as being of European ethnic backgrounds; and even most Latin Americans are "mestizo" in the sense of having some European ethnic background even if they don't appear to be "Caucasian". Most of the Brazilians, Colombians, Ecuadoreans, Venezuelans, Uruguayans, Chileans, Argentines, Mexicans, Costa Ricans and Peruvians I hung out with at or after work or on vacation or met in school are Caucasian. Any of their relatives who violated US immigration rules were usually of the same ethnic backgrounds as the relatives whom I consider friends or family. Most of my Latin American relatives are more "white" than my Swedish relatives with the King Vasa family blood. Latin America is very diverse too.

Last edited by GUWonder; May 20, 2014 at 5:32 pm
GUWonder is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 7:38 pm
  #43  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: A3, AA. Plasticy things! That give me, y'know, Stuff!
Posts: 6,293
Originally Posted by jphripjah
I don't disagree that 25+% of the US is non-white. Do you disagree with the notion that illegal immigrants to the US (and, by extension, illegal immigrants bearing false documents) are disproportionately non-white?
I think you're moving the goalposts. You said:
"The vast majority of foreigners who try to illegally enter the US on false documents are not white skinned."
I don't see how you can relate (perception of) race to arrival methodology as far as it applies to whether they bear false documents or not. But if you want to claim that as an extension then, again, feel free to provide evidence via citation.



According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, over 90% of illegal immigrants to the US hail from Mexico, Latin America, or Asia. The populations of those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian, and the illegal immigrants attempting to enter from those countries are almost entirely non-Caucasian. My point is not to bash non-Caucasian folks or to suggest that they are all criminals or illegals. I am simply trying to explain why a CBP officer might ask a few more citizenship and identity questions of foreign born non-Caucasians than he does of white people with American accents.
You've never been to Texas or New Mexico, have you? Spanish is L1 in many of the communities closer to the border. They speak English "with an accent". Yet they many of them have been in the US far longer than "whitey" has, let alone this "American accent" you keep mentioning. The idea that "accent warrants further questions" or "they don't "look American"" (let alone in Texas?!) is simply farcical.

Bringing this back to topic, I don't see that you've provided any actual argument as to why it is ever a good thing for a CBP officer to profile their questions. Other factors, objective factors, and most importantly from the legal point of view, articulable facts are what they should be using. "He was brown and spoke funny" isn't going to cut it in a courtroom.
SeriouslyLost is offline  
Old May 20, 2014, 9:26 pm
  #44  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 364
OP - please, just answer the questions. Don't be goaded into getting your back up at a border crossing. Save that for something important such as when your morning paper isn't delivered.

My wife and I cross most of the time at the sleepy Chief Mountain crossing in Montana during summer vacations. We have been asked if we carried $10,000 or more in currency, if we had firearms, cigarettes or alcohol and if we possessed bear spray (which you cannot bring into Canada). Sometimes we are asked about fruit. Once we were asked by a good humored agent if we were eloping. We answer all questions. Before beginning each trip we always look in the trunk of our rental car before making our first border crossing. We have never had a problem going north or south.
rmiller774 is offline  
Old May 21, 2014, 7:06 am
  #45  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Nashville, TN
Programs: WN Nothing and spending the half million points from too many flights, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 8,043
Originally Posted by rmiller774
OP - please, just answer the questions. Don't be goaded into getting your back up at a border crossing. Save that for something important such as when your morning paper isn't delivered.

My wife and I cross most of the time at the sleepy Chief Mountain crossing in Montana during summer vacations. We have been asked if we carried $10,000 or more in currency, if we had firearms, cigarettes or alcohol and if we possessed bear spray (which you cannot bring into Canada). Sometimes we are asked about fruit. Once we were asked by a good humored agent if we were eloping. We answer all questions. Before beginning each trip we always look in the trunk of our rental car before making our first border crossing. We have never had a problem going north or south.
There is a monumental difference when crossing for leisure and crossing for work. About 25% of the time, close to 50% since 2007, I have been given various levels of problems on the Canadian side. Nexus has stopped most of the US questions as use of the Nexus is an assumed declaration for many of the questions.
InkUnderNails is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.