Detained by customs
 

My uncle (a Cardiologist and a non-US citizen) recently was detained by customs when entering the country in MIA. This happened around 5pm. He was finally released the next day at around 4am (11 hours). Apparently his name is the same as someone they are looking for.

During his dention he was not allowed to talk. When he tried to ask questions he was told to shut up. He was not given anything to drink or eat.

Thinking about being in a similar situation made my blood boil. It made me think about similar type situations that can occur both in the US and outside the US when traveling.

What are your rights?

What would YOU have [realistically] done as a US Citizen and as a non-US Citizen?

What happens if you continue to talk, but they tell you not to talk?

Any other similar travel stories?

This sounds pretty awful.

And I'm not sure if it's legal either, but I'm not an expert.

Hi AAaLot,

I am very sorry to hear about what happened to your uncle.

There have been quite a number of discussions about terrible treatment of both citizens and non-citizens at entry points to the United States over in Travel Safety / Security forum.

After 30 years of travel, a new problem for me at Customs

Unfortunately, there probably isn't much recourse for your uncle. He might have to expect that this treatment will continue, since whatever list his name showed up on is probably still out there and still wrong. In other words, he may have to brace himself for similar treatment whenever he enters the country. Can I ask where he's from and if he has a very common name?

At the end of his detention, I assume nothing was explained to him about what landed him there?

I found this Detention Operations Manual to be interesting reading:
http://www.ice.gov/graphics/about/or...n/guidance.htm

There have been *lots* of reports recently about the scandalous behaviour by US immigration/customs (or whatever they are called today). Last week I read a story of a Dutch tourist who was arrested at LAX for overstaying a visa 8 years ago.....he had overstayed for two *days* at the time because his young son was in hospital and he wanted to travel home with his son. When he arrived in the US last week for a family holiday, he was handcuffed, put in a prison cell for close to 48 hours, was not allowed to call home, was generally badly treated and finally put on a plane home. Widely reported here.

This can't be good for tourism to the US. I, for one, have decided not to visit the US for pleasure until this kind of behaviour by US law enforcement officers is corrected by sane policies.

That's right. It cannot be good for tourism. He was supposed to stay for a week, but decided to leave the next day. Furthremore, his experience is bound to make people less likely to visit than more.

A few weeks ago I was in Spain. A friend of mine there stated he no longer wanted to come to the US because of the hassle associated with it.

This sounds fishy. How would have the INS, eight years ago, known this person overstayed? There are no reliable exit checks for VWP countries. As a matter of fact, it is only recently that more careful exit checks have been implemented with the US-VISIT program. And even then, it is still spotty.

A lot of these claims of prison abuse sounds like torture okayed by Donald Rumsfeld. If the claims are true, and I believe they are, they should be reported to members of congress by the abused at the soonest possible moment. On the otherside, these incoming passengers should have their papers straight, no matter the circumstances.

Don't forget to vote Nov 2nd to rid America of the unelected goon squad as it will never change, and get worse, if they stay!

This actually isn't so far-fetched. Even eight years ago, the airlines generally tried to collect the I-94 departure record and give it to the INS with a date stamp on it. It wasn't reliable only in the sense that quite a few of the forms got misplaced and never made it back, so the absence of a departure record doesn't necessarily mean that the person never left. The presence of a departure record dated too late, though, would definitely be strong evidence that he overstayed.

I will add that I agree it's absolutely ridiculous to treat all minor immigration violators as probable terrorists, which seems to be the current policy. I would further add that it's totally shameful that we hold -anyone- prisoner for 11 hours with nothing to drink, especially someone not convicted of any crime.

Hey, the U.S.' recent hostile and irrational behavior towards "fuhrnurs" may not be good for tourism, but it sure has been good for business in other countries!! Witness the IT boom in India... largely started by Indian executives who lost their jobs in the U.S. and were sent packing when the U.S. tightened clamped down on work visas.

All sorts of interesting business models are presently being developed which build upon the impairment of movement between foreign nationals and business locations/activities which were traditionally sited in the U.S. and are now being compelled to locate offshore (what good does it do for a multi-national to call a meeting in the U.S. when half the management team may not even be able to get in to the U.S. in a timely fashion?)

With all due respect, most Congressmen care approximately zero about how a foreign citizen (read "non-voter") is treated at the border.

That said, my experiences (including 17 hrs of "interrogation" at the hands of the former US INS that featured racial taunts, physical abuse, etc...) with pursuing a complaint against the US Government machine is that you will maybe earn an apology (as I did after about 18 months) but you will never receive closure to the case, no matter who you contact. I had pretty decent contacts (including two Congressmen, a Senator, a Governor and a handful of high-level civil servants) pursuing my case but it went nowehere. Your average Joe-schmo tourist doesn't have access to those resources and short of prostituting himself to media attention (which I chose not to do on the advice of my lawyers) has absolutely no chance of getting his story heard.

When I first told people about my experiences two years ago, many (including a number of Flyertalkers) scoffed and told me that I must be exagerrating. INS agents didn't detain legitimate businessmen without legal/consular access, didn't engage in physical abuse and didn't force people to sign false confessions. Today the same story simply elicits a shrug of resignation as to what the United States has become.

That is the saddest part of this new age we live in. The United States which has been the role model of freedom, fairness and democracy for every country to aspire to for two centuries has now sunk almost to the level of a two bit banana republic as far as respect for its own laws goes. The entire world wishes it wasn't so. Fortunately, non-citizens can simply choose to deal elsewhere (as I have chosen) but US citizens do not have the same choice.

Hear, hear.

Even 8 years ago they stapled a green piece of carton ("departure record") in my passport, which the airline was supposed to take out on departure and give to the INS. Indeed, these exit checks were and probably are not reliable, but nevertheless the computers of the INS have all these old data and act upon them in today's climate of fear.

reminds me....
 

of a flight I took from IAH to MSP last year. Was talking to a 3M staffer who had been regularly commuting between MEX and MSP via IAH. He said his poor Malaysian colleague, travelling with him on company business, was detained every time (at leats 6) at IAH by BICE for hours and either missed or barely made the IAH-MSP flight.

I think that the 9/11 commission says everything about what is going on right now. We have become a *blame* *blame* *blame* society. Someone has to be found at *fault* for everything.

You can piss & moan about the INS & TSA all you want. But everybody is in CYA mode 24x7.

We won't get out of CYA mode until we get out of *blame* *fault-finding* and *sue everybody* environment we are all suffering through.