Originally Posted by
vernonc
While 95% of my interactions with US CBP have been perfectly fine, there is the 5%. And this is one of the primary reasons I got GE/Nexus. One CBP officer asked me what I did for a living after ignoring my pleasant good morning at 7 am. I told him I worked for "xx' which was a fortune 100 US company. He said that that's not what he asked me, he wanted to know what job I did - did I clean toilets, did I mow the lawn. Not sure if he was just having a bad day or being racist. On the flip side when I had a medial procedure that required radiation, I would set off the detectors on the officers belts every week for 4 weeks in a row. Got quite expert at the process and seeing the same faces - go to secondary, sit on a designated bench, do not use your phone, wait for the CPB officer to show up with a measuring meter, wait for a result, have a nice day. Took 30 mins to 1 hour every single time. Another time had a US CBP send me to agricultural because I had home made roast beef sandwiches for the kids which they then threw out. Guess what they were selling on the plane - yes, roast beef sandwiches. Also had a friend who is of Indian origin who was told his Rodrigues name was suspicious because how come a Indian has a Mexican last name. I do not really mind as they are doing their job, i just wish that common courtesy and politeness was more common. I have had some very friendly US CBP staff too so I guess it balances out.
Millions of Indians have names that sound like rather common Mexican names -- courtesy of Christian missionaries in India and the various European colonization of various parts of India. You should see what happens to Indian passport users with "Chinese"family names.. This just goes to show that passport control types aren't very well schooled in the ethno-cultural diversity that exists around the world and has even existed for more centuries in parts of the "Old Wolrd" than there has been an independent US -- let alone Canada, Australia and New Zealand.