TWA884

Discussion of why people who have been living in the United States for a long time and are unable to communicate in English is off topic for this forum and belongs in OMNI.

Future off-topic posts will be deleted without further warning.

Thank you,

TWA884
Co-moderator

Kagehitokiri

as other replies noted, language is not race.

GUWonder

The CBP employee noted in the blog entry (mentioned in the OP) has some relatives of East Asian ethnicity. It may explain why he claimed to know more Chinese than the US LPR of Chinese ethnicity who couldn't speak English for whatever reason.

boboqui

Get Global Entry and you'll avoid dealing with customs officials, who for the most part are an obnoxious bunch of frustrated losers.

GUWonder

Global Entry use reduces the interaction frequency/intensity overall, but even that is no guarantee.

That said, I find that the vast majority of CBP employees have been doing just fine by me. That said, best to skip any expectation of a friendly exchange all around, as the likelihood of it being reciprocated is not all that great.

chollie

Gone are the days when the CBP immigration officer's last words to you, spoken as s/he stamped your passport and handed it back to you: "Welcome home".

GUWonder

I still get those words sometimes, but the frequency of it being said to me has dropped off big time.

Dalo

There is no justification for being rude . Regardless of the explanation he is still a rude person and has disgraced himself .

JackInThePlane

We only have one side of the story.

What was mom not doing to be accused of not following instructions? From OPs standpoint, just a little old lady standing in line waiting her turn.

There's probably a little more to it and not saying that it is plausible excuse for being rude.

Marschel

People are too sensitive these days.

GUWonder

Speaking of the named CBP employee.

Edgerfly

+1 are you kidding me? I thought I was gonna read a story on something legitimately racist.

Someone got their feelings hurt by a CBP officer, and made it into a "racist" fiasco. Not to mention that question is actually somewhat relevant of the officer to ask. I would also find it suspicious as a customs officer that someone claiming to have lived in a country for 14 years cannot speak the local language. What is this the school playground? Give me a break....

The age we live in now of political correctness is really reaching a breaking point.

YuropFlyer

If you read my other (almost 5000) postings, you'll know that I'm not a big lover of the US, and absolutely not against China.

But yes, if someone had been living in the US, for 14 years, and NOT being able to communicate in English (that doesn't mean being perfectly fluent on university level.. just basic level that you can learn in school within 1-2 months) then YES, I do absolutely understand why a customs officer would have some doubts whetever this is really the person that has been (apparently) in his country for 14 years - or if it's someone completetely different.

Obviously you don't have to learn English (I am not asking why, since we're not in OMNI here) when living in the US, but I suspect the border guard simply had some feelings that the person that showed up with a green card, stating she has been into the United States for 14 years, but spoke no English at all, isn't the person actually the Green Card got issued to. Which is a very valid concern.

GUWonder

You do realize that most US LPRs were entered into a fingerprint database? Unless fingerprint matching is extremely unreliable as a means off verifying identity, why would it be a valid concern to doubt the identity of the US LPR?

YuropFlyer

You're aware that it takes minutes - at most - to make perfect copies of your fingerprints (at any place) that won't be recognized easily? Don't try to argue IT stuff with an IT guy, please


This is from 2009, ie "antic", from some amateur.. guess where even half-professionalls have arrived nowadays..