Originally Posted by
Skatering
I have three questions:
I'm a UK citizen with GE resident in Canada, and the lack of a Global Entry card (which isn't issued to us) causes problems. There are issues accessing the GE kiosks at Canadian airports (admittedly not a CBP problem) but I've also encountered situations where I've presented a current I-94 issued by a GE kiosk at YYZ at a land border (regular lane), only to be asked for my GE card as well. This has confused a lot of CBP officers when I say it's never been issued. Are there any plans to expand the issuance of physical cards to non-US citizens or LPRs?
I haven't heard anything about non-USC GE members getting a GE card. Though to be fair, that kind of stuff doesn't come to us locally. We would find out when you do.
I see many complaints about immigration officers on the internet, admittedly from less savvy travellers, who complain about rude immigration officers. In your experience, are there a significant CBP officers who are rude/unprofessional/vindictive/whatever
No. There's a few power tripping weirdos that can be unprofessional.
or are the majority of these complaints arising from passengers who were less-than-cooperative to begin with?
Yes. Or tired. Or dramatic. Or self centered.
I have worked directly with a Supervisor who handles complaints at my last port. 99.9% would make you roll your eyes. Complaints that the Officer "didn't welcome me home" to "they sent me to secondary without telling me why." Officers "speaking in a different language" to "the Officer demanded my passport without saying 'please." These are all complaints that I've seen in writing. They're fascinating.
I recently dealt with a guy who had his GE status revoked. I guess he tried to bring a family member through on previous trip. Due to his attitude, they revoked his GE status. I speak to him, he's confused, and not rude. I read the reason for the revocation. It says that he was rude, demanding, and threatened him team of lawyers on CBP. With me, he's being chill. Doesn't make sense. I tell him it has indeed been revoked and the option he has to try to appeal it. He's very cooperative.
I ask what happened on the previous trip. This sets him off. I ask if he has a lawyer. He used the same line, "No, but I have a team of them ready to sue!" He goes into a rant, and all of a sudden, the remarks from the previous Officers make sense. It got bad enough that a couple other Officers came over to call the guy down. We were about to go hands on.
Some people just have a short fuse. They're tired, they're traveling, they don't know what they don't know.
I've never had a negative CBP experience and I struggle to reconcile that with others who complain about them non-stop.
And you likely won't. We deal with thousands of passengers every day. Maybe a few have complaints. Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe the Officer was having a bad day.
Play the game, get out the door hassle free.
Similarly, to what extent (if any) would a traveller being transgender alter your perception when assessing admissibility or general risk profile, or is it a non-issue? I've heard many anecdotes from transgender women who claim they've been denied entry into the US/subjected to intensive screening just for being trans. I'm a trans woman (with matching documents) and I've noticed nothing like this to date, even though my previous name is on my ESTA/GE applications. Again I'm curious if the people I know who cite these issues are experiencing them due to other factors affecting their risk profile or whether trans status in isolation is a red flag for some reason.
Male, female, trans, etc it's all the same to me.
We're not denying entry based on being trans. That's impossible. The INA doesn't allow it. There's literally no legal way to deny entry to someone for being trans. We may send them home based on some other charge, like drug use or something they lied about on their visa/ESTA application.
Extra screening?
This would entail me calling another Officer over to see their opinion on your passport photo vs what we see in person. If I think it's still you, and they do too, down the road. Trans people raise no red flags for being trans. Maybe a childish comment to my booth mate afterwards...(we've all been fooled more than once)
Those anecdotes you read are just that. And I might even argue that half of them are made up. We of course can't release the true information as to why someone is being denied entry, so the subject and the media get to write a word or two about how we denied someone from seeing their dying mother. When in reality, we caught them lying about something.