can new US citizen refuse to answer unreasonable questions by CBP officer at airport?
#76
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 628
There are examples of naturalized U.S. citizens who have been denied entry indefinitely.
So to get to OP's question, if a naturalized U.S. citizen refuses to answer questions, that citizen can be refused entry, on the apparent theory that the citizen is a dual citizen, and so the U.S. doesn't have to worry about deportation back to the U.S.
So to get to OP's question, if a naturalized U.S. citizen refuses to answer questions, that citizen can be refused entry, on the apparent theory that the citizen is a dual citizen, and so the U.S. doesn't have to worry about deportation back to the U.S.
#77
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 8
question
Maybe someone can answer this. What time frame does a CBP have to detain a us citizen? (example cops may only detain you 2-30 mins with a reasonable articulable suspicion) they can detail longer if PC exists.
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
#78
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: DTW
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Posts: 7,511
Maybe someone can answer this. What time frame does a CBP have to detain a us citizen? (example cops may only detain you 2-30 mins with a reasonable articulable suspicion) they can detail longer if PC exists.
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
#79
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 11
Maybe someone can answer this. What time frame does a CBP have to detain a us citizen? (example cops may only detain you 2-30 mins with a reasonable articulable suspicion) they can detail longer if PC exists.
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
I must be on some list; I am always taken to secondary, usually harassed about some BS from 20 years ago and then released. I have even been threatened and intimidated. I am always compliant, I answer questions etc...
Now that Ii have been reading up on my rights and liberties etc.. I don’t think I want to answer any more questions but I don’t know what the CBP's limitations are. Any ideas?
#80
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: in the sky
Posts: 490
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy2CDG View Post
................. I was even asked to show a CBP officer my bellybutton once, which I complied without thinking.(still have not idea what the purpose was... it's wasn't like I could hide WMD in my bellybutton
Originally Posted by Roy2CDG View Post
................. I was even asked to show a CBP officer my bellybutton once, which I complied without thinking.(still have not idea what the purpose was... it's wasn't like I could hide WMD in my bellybutton
#81
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 11,513
Unless you want to tell us more about your experience, there isn't much to discuss.
#82
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Retired in Houston, TX
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Posts: 305
If there's more to your story, feel free to share. If you did it simply on principle, you simply wasted 9 hours of your life.
#83
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 11
I was asked similar questions, even before 9/11. I never found it to be a problem. When asked the "Gun" question, I tell them that everyone in Texas owns a gun.
If there's more to your story, feel free to share. If you did it simply on principle, you simply wasted 9 hours of your life.
If there's more to your story, feel free to share. If you did it simply on principle, you simply wasted 9 hours of your life.
You gotta try it sometime! They had a REAL problem with that! So I didn't waste my time, I've done something very useful with it!
#84
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Retired in Houston, TX
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Posts: 305
I exercised my rights : mainly the right to privacy and my fundamental right as a US citizen to come back to my own country without some goons on the border asking me questions.
You gotta try it sometime! They had a REAL problem with that! So I didn't waste my time, I've done something very useful with it!
You gotta try it sometime! They had a REAL problem with that! So I didn't waste my time, I've done something very useful with it!
People get up in arms when a person comes into the country and commits a terrible crime. Citizen or not, everyone screams and asks how that person got through in the first place.
I'm all for freedom, but in reality, how would you handle the thousands who cross the border every day?
#85
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Newport Beach, California, USA
Posts: 36,062
But seriously, where do you draw the line? There has to be some sort of security. They don't know you personally. You could be anyone. I could be simply returning from work, which I am, but how do they know that? I could be a smuggler, convict, hit man, child molestor, or a number of other things. I've never been asked more than 3 questions, and I'm sitting here as free as I was when I came home a few weeks ago. That Officer never recorded anything, and he's since forgotten about me.
People get up in arms when a person comes into the country and commits a terrible crime. Citizen or not, everyone screams and asks how that person got through in the first place.
I'm all for freedom, but in reality, how would you handle the thousands who cross the border every day?
People get up in arms when a person comes into the country and commits a terrible crime. Citizen or not, everyone screams and asks how that person got through in the first place.
I'm all for freedom, but in reality, how would you handle the thousands who cross the border every day?
#86
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Retired in Houston, TX
Programs: Platinum-CO-DL-Priority Club WN A-list Diomond-Hilton-BW Gold-Choice Hertz Presidents Club
Posts: 305
Understood. That's the way it should be. This country is getting to the point where I wonder what will happen next.
#87
Moderator: Hilton Honors, Practical Travel Safety Issues & San Francisco
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Posts: 11,001
this is the practical advice forum
Discussions may be begun and continued in the TS/S Policy Debate forum..
thx
squeakr
co Mod TS/S
thx
squeakr
co Mod TS/S
#88
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
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True, in part. But CBP officers do much more than verifying your passport. Just being a US Citizen with valid, legitimate proof of identity and citizenship doesn't mean you aren't hiding a violation of a law that CBP officers are charged to enforce at ports of entry. Plenty of US Citizens with valid passports enter the USA every day and are cited/fined by CBP officers for customs/agriculture violations (ever seen the Customs secondary inspection area full of college kids coming back from Jamaica after Spring Break)? And some US Citizens with valid passports are arrested at ports of entry for outstanding warrants, felony smuggling, and other serious crimes.
So, the part that is true is that a US Citizen possessing a valid passport cannot be denied entry to the United States. You can refuse to answer any questions, and you still cannot be denied entry. However, if you do not cooperate with even the most basic questioning, the CBP officers can choose to search you and your belongings very thoroughly without a warrant, and detain you for the period of time necessary to carry out this search. Could be a few hours or more... And, if they find you in violation of any laws they are empowered to enforce, you could be charged on the spot without the benefit of legal representation!
Last edited by ESpen36; Oct 23, 2011 at 7:40 pm
#89
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 61
looks like American nation is a bunch of criminals. As the US is the only country in the world I'm aware of that interrogates its own citizens upon returning home.
#90
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PDX
Posts: 908
You might want to change it to "civilised country" because there are other countries who interrogate their own citizens but mainly to extort a small bribe. I agree that the US CBP should not be on a fishing expedition when it comes to US citizens - if there is a hit in a database, then bring a person to secondary and go from there; otherwise, quick swipe and "thank you" will be enough.