HeHateY

Friday Harbor ferry trip turns into uncomfortable experience with U.S. Customs

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

Why would anyone think to pack a passport for a trip inside Washington state?

Yet that was the jolting advice my family received from U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this month as we returned from a weekend getaway to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

Our group — my husband and me; our 3-year-old daughter; and my mother, sister and nephew — arrived to catch the 1:40 p.m. Sunday ferry back to Anacortes. That happens to be the only Washington State Ferries run that originates in Canada; in this case, in Sidney, B.C., near Victoria. At the terminal, a flier left on the windshield of our minivan warned us that we'd be joining international passengers already on board and that all of us would be subject to a Customs search in Anacortes.

The flier advised us to take a later ferry if we didn't consent. But the next ferry to Anacortes wasn't for another three hours. So we decided to hop on. We figured that a "border crossing" for U.S. citizens returning from a domestic journey ought to be quick.

It wasn't.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ssport180.html

etch5895

My passport usually goes everywhere with me. My daypack has a pouch that is just perfect for it, and it is safer than leaving it at home.

Interesting that the screening would not take place for all int'l pax at the first actual port of entry into the US so as to avoid situations like this. All flights arriving into the US that continue on to another US destination (think the BA flight from London-DTW-IAH) clear customs and immigration at the first port of entry. In theory, the BA flight that I mentioned should be treated as a domestic flight between DTW and IAH (and it probably is).

So if I understood the article, the ferry originated in Canada, stopped at a small ferry port in Washington and picked up more pax, and then continued on to the final port. Why not simply segregate those vehicles and pax so as to keep the folks originating in the US 'sterile'?

tom911

Same article posted a few threads down in this very forum Monday:
Customs for internal U.S. travel

iCorpRoadie

I too for one travel everywhere in the USA with my passport, I never know when i will want to or need to just get out of the states

oneant

For some reason, I just don't see this as a big deal. Regardless of whether your trip was solely domestic, if you have to contend with Customs, bring the passport.

Now, if Customs is enforcing a border they shouldn't be, well, there's a problem.

Global_Hi_Flyer

This part of the article is the "winner"....

So, the passengers were already pre-cleared.

What's the point of pre-clearance if you've got to go through the whole routine again?

Interesting side note: I had lunch yesterday with someone from the Canadian Embassy. He was asking about border-crossing issues, and mentioned that they were having discussions with the US over "problems".

HeHateY

This is a hold over from when INS (US Dept. of Justice) cleared the human and US Customs (US Dept. of Treasury) cleared the baggage. Immigration was done at Sidney and Customs at Anacortes.

What is stopping DHS from doing everything at Sidney now that the INS and US Customs have been combined under DHS? Especially when IIRC DHS has agents stationed at YYJ and at Victoria Inner Harbour to pre-clear the flights to SEA and the ferries to Port Angeles and Seattle!

I thought DHS was created to bring about certain efficiencies?

MODERATOR: Please feel free to combine these two threads and my apologies for posting the story a second time.

NY-FLA

Just a SWAG, but it must be the same thing keeping any single TSA agent from doing anything but solely one of;
monitor X-ray,
monitor WTMD,
load bins,
bark,
do ID check #1,
do ID check #2,
do BP check #1,
do BP check #2,
do BP check #3,
do BP check #4,
do BP check # n+1...

Did Comrade Daschle promise that, as well??
I thought it was unrealistic to expect the TSA to bring about standardization across the check-points and to bring us professionalism thru federalization.

dstan

Here's the winner:

fairviewroad

As of last November, the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles operated the same way as the ferry from Sidney to Anacortes (minus the intermediate stop, of course). That is, immigration in Victoria and customs in Port Angeles. That being said, it felt as though it was the exact same procedure since most of the questions were the same.

stupidhead

Heads need to roll. New rule: it's called subzero tolerance. If a TSO so much as LOOKS at passengers funny, they get fired on the spot.

I don't care if your boyfriend broke up with you last night; that doesn't give you the right to take it out on me.

I don't care if your dog died, your boyfriend broke up with you, and your best friend got run over by a bus; I expect, check that, I DEMAND that you do your job to the best of your ability, act with class and professionalism, and take ownership and responsibility for your work. If you can't do that, DON'T COME TO WORK. If stuff like that affects your job performance, then DON'T COME. If you come regardless and do a poor job, then you DESERVE to be fired.

Polar Man

This is the result of 2 instances of emergency services being held up at the boarder in the last few weeks.

1st round a Canadian fire truck was responding to a backup call from an American fire department. Fire truck was held 8-15min depending on the source by CBP for identity checks.

2nd round an ambulance was transporting a heart attack victim to a Detroit medical center for emergency angioplasty. The ambulance was held at the border for inspection.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

stockmanjr

First off this doesn't have anything to do with TSO's... Second this has been going on for a long time and while silly isn't a huge deal except for how inefficient it is..
Cheers
Howie

stupidhead

Whatever. They all fall under the same DHS umbrella. To me, there's not much of a difference. They're associated with a government pork program.

fairviewroad

I hope you avoid interstate highways. They're also associated with government pork programs.