GUWonder

They probably are failing to catch American bad guys while harassing American good gals for bad reasons -- natural consequence of misuse of resources in a world where resources aren't unlimited.

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that seahawk and his wife are unaware of what non-US citizen travellers get asked. I am very well aware of what gets asked by CBP.

Adults cannot be enrolled as GE members without their own consent.

nas6034

Why not use the Mobile Passport app if your wife doesn�t want to get GE? Mobile Passport the few times I�ve used (precovid) it helped me quickly thru CBP when there were long lines. I think it�s just as fast as GE and I believe there is a separate line for it as well ( at the airports I�ve been through)

GUWonder

Of the US airports where I see MPC advertised a lot on my arrival, it's mostly been off or history anyway. And where I've seen it open and used it last year, it sometimes lead to the same CBP counters as for those Americans and others coming in under Simplified (Biometric) Arrival without GE.

dfbg770

Came back from Israel into Newark, I have GE, but was with my husband who travels on a Swiss passport. The agent asked us if we're bringing in any food, after such a long trip. I answered no. He sneered (no better word) and said " Cmon, where's your Jew food". After looking at him in shocked silence for a second, I told him that we had indeed brought sandwiches with us from Tel Aviv, but we had left them on the airplane because we knew they couldn't be brought into the US. So he said " great, go back to the plane (LX18), and bring the sandwiches here so I can see them ". Honestly, we thought that he was joking, or he was being complimentary about kosher deli , until he muttered something under his breath which neither of us could catch, stamped our passports and motioned to us to move on. I thought about filing a complaint as I had his name, but really? There will a!ways negative people wherever one goes.

Raymoland

In the time that you've spent complaining on here about this experience, your wife could have applied for GE. Did she or will she complain again next time she is asked a few questions by someone doing their job.

And may I suggest that getting snippy with a CBP agent is probably not the most successful approach to shorten your interaction most of the time....

asovse1

Will be flying into the US for the first time from a non-Preclearance airport, so I've never gone through the traditional air border with baggage claim after the first CBP checkpoint. I have GE.

How would GE have helped in this situation?

Yeah, I get that they can check you off with the tablet and you can rush through the primary inspection, but wouldn't you also be subject to questioning by a second CBP officer watching you get your bags or hurrying to the exit? Wouldn't that just run the risk of a second set of similar questions, if, for some reason, they decided to flag you down?

Badenoch

Yes some are jerks, racist, stupid, general a-holes and any other descriptor you can find. It is not just CBP agents but their colleagues in other enforcement occupations, international counterparts and humanity in general. The key word is some. Your wife was lucky because when "she finally snapped" he let her through without delaying her further which he could have done.

They key isn't to bemoan the occasional jerk but instead learning know how to calmly handle them when they hold the balance of power. "Snapping" is not recommended.

Synapseturquoise

When I was single and traveled a lot solo I would get tons of questions and get "randomly" selected for secondary screening frequently and this happened at different airports around the world including the US. GE has definitely helped here in the US and the fact that I mostly travel with my husband as well. I am Hispanic but I can't say it is due to racism or xenophobia. I notice for example at MIA I would get harder questioning Hispanic CBP agents or other minorities than from a white ones. It sucks and I hope she gets GE soon. As others have mentioned you can always have her interview during a trip if your local office is always full. I did mine during a long layover at MIA on my way to SDQ.

Synapseturquoise

After clearing customs using the GE kiosks you just proceed to get your checked luggage and then exit or drop it to get to your connecting flight. I've never been asked to do a secondary luggage screening. The only time I saw this happen was at JFK, where one of beagles sniffed this guy's luggage and found fruits. They asked him to go through a secondary inspection.

afCAMEO

If you have his name, please report. we as Jews have a difficult enough time, dealing with anti-semitism in this country as it is. Having somebody like that working where he does exposes us more. He wasn't just being negative if you think about it.

Orange County Commuter

Yes they are jerks... but I don't know that racism is the reason.

I was in the GE line at ATL. The person at the agent was a Delta Flight Attendant (no idea if he had GE or was just waved into that line) The JERK spent 10 minutes quizzing him on why he had so many entry and exits on his travel record and stamps in his passport. GEE, you think maybe his JOB is to fly places??? We could hear him basically accusing the FA of trafficking things>..


Then I got the agent who saw my Russia visa and proceeded to quiz me to see if I was a " Red loving Commie" (His words not mine!) When he saw me writing down his name and info on a piece of paper he threw the passport back at me (Yes I reported him)

david_oz

id say its no different to the general population. ive had everything from the nicest kindest most helpful officers through to the rudest most arrogant power tripping ones who threatened to deny me entry. its a bit of a lottery which you will get

I've had my fair share of immigration complexities over the years. Australian passport with L-1 visa, then became Canadian with a nexus card, then later L-1 status and now a green card. The global entry machines aren't really designed to handle my use case and so until very recently I always required an officer to process manually and quite often was sent to secondary. However, my problems really started when I moved to the US with my L-1 status. Outside of Canadian ports of entry, relatively few CBP officers are aware that Canadians don't require a visa and usually don't receive an I-797 either. This caused a lot of headaches because I only had the L-1 stamp in my passport, and later began carrying my I-94 as well. Many of them also don't know that nexus includes global entry benefits. So in the end I just stopped using the global entry line except when entering from Canada, because "you're not supposed to be in this line" just starts the interaction off poorly.

Luckily now with a green card and my global entry fixed those hassles are over forever. Never encountered any racism or questions about my overseas travel, but I am a white guy which (sadly for the state of our society) means I am less likely to experience it. I do have visas and stamps from all over the world in my passport though.

F16wannabe

I recall shortly after 9-11 coming through CBP in LAX arriving from Australia. When the wife and I were next in line we stood and watched this agent who was a huge tough looking black dude just berate this lady with 25 questions. By the end she was very flustered. After bearing witness to that I was almost afraid to approach but I did and handed him our passports. He sized me up and then asked me who the all time leading passer for the Iowa Hawkeyes was (we live in Iowa). I was kind of dumbfounded but I looked at him and replied, "Chuck Long". He grinned and stamped my passport as well as my wife's and told us "welcome home".

GUWonder

People can behave in racist ways toward their own co-ethnic group members, and the same goes for ethnic minority border control types. I used to find that the “brown males” in my travel parties were slowed down more at UK airports by “brown females” working UK border control than by other UKBF members. Miami also has that same kind of dynamic but the opposite sex dynamic is not as profound. But when it comes to border control types in high income countries, CBP is in a league of its own — even with regard to the Anglophone countries — when it comes to my seeing them go rudely hostile on passengers and even airport/airline employees and contractors. But they are also in a league of their own in terms of being welcoming at times. But a fast way to increase the odds of getting slowed down more is to act agitated in response to whatever questions they throw toward the traveler. Best to respond calmly and then complain in writing after done with the FIS.

The most extensive questioning I’ve had on arrival to US airports of entry happened after I got GE. It didn’t happen before GE, it happened only after and probably because they had little else to do that time.

kabroui

Same here. As a single male traveler, I routinely come back from countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and barely even get a yawn out them with GE My last trip though, flying back from SIN, I was first off the plane at SFO, no baggage to collect, and I walked up to 2 CBP agents standing there with nothing to do and not a sole around. Boy did I ever get the 3rd degree. While I was counting out the 5 different currencies I had from my travels, I asked... "Doesn't global entry mean anything to you guys?" The response was something like, not when you are randomly select for inspection.