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I tend to think it's not the agents themselves, it's the system, which is getting worse. Europeans can cross borders with little or no hassle. I believe they don't even have customs posts at most border crossings now. Here, because of 9/11 plus the millennium bomber things have gotten worse. They need find a better way to screen people and stop holding up people who have their passports ready and answer the questions fast.
By 2009 you'll be expected to present a passport crossing back and forth at the border. The geniuses at homeland security are at work and making sure our tax dollars are wasted on yet another ridiculous excercise in the "war on terrorism."
A pretty common experience I suspect. I travel regularly to the US and Canada and the difference in attitude between both nationalities of border guards is astonishing.
The Canadian ones are always pleasant and friendly and still manage to do their job just fine. They genuinely seem to see visitors as a welcome entity not people out to murder everyone inside their country or wanting to immigrate.
Note to American border guards, most people do not have any desire to move to the US. Visit yes. Immigrate no.
The American side is usually rude, overbearing and aggressive and completely over the top.
We are British tourists who look just about as respectable as you can and I'm disabled and I always end up feeling like a criminal.
I hate border crossing or immigration at airports in the US. It is just like waiting to have a tooth pulled. NYC airports are the worse but apart from a lovely US border guard once at the Washington/BC border I do not remember a single one being pleasant or smiling in over 30 years of travel to the US.
A bit sad and a rather unpleasant introduction to a country I actually love. When most Americans are so friendly and open I just do not understand why it would hurt American border guards to behave like normal human beings...
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It is as if they chose their border guards for their incredible attitude and rudeness.
A pretty common experience I suspect. I travel regularly to the US and Canada and the difference in attitude between both nationalities of border guards is astonishing.
The Canadian ones are always pleasant and friendly and still manage to do their job just fine. They genuinely seem to see visitors as a welcome entity not people out to murder everyone inside their country or wanting to immigrate.
Note to American border guards, most people do not have any desire to move to the US. Visit yes. Immigrate no.
The American side is usually rude, overbearing and aggressive and completely over the top.
We are British tourists who look just about as respectable as you can and I'm disabled and I always end up feeling like a criminal.
I hate border crossing or immigration at airports in the US. It is just like waiting to have a tooth pulled. NYC airports are the worse but apart from a lovely US border guard once at the Washington/BC border I do not remember a single one being pleasant or smiling in over 30 years of travel to the US.
A bit sad and a rather unpleasant introduction to a country I actually love. When most Americans are so friendly and open I just do not understand why it would hurt American border guards to behave like normal human beings...
.
It is as if they chose their border guards for their incredible attitude and rudeness.
I'm sorry you've had bad experiences. But some things to keep in mind: while perhaps you and many of the people you know don't want to emigrate to the U.S. and prefer only to visit, many, many more people DO. Our history of porous borders and the boom of illegal immigration bear that out, whether you believe it from your own experiences or not. And while the vast majority of these individuals are found on the SW U.S. border, they're now found regularly everywhere else, to include the Canadian border, airports, and seaports. As a law enforcement officer, you don't turn your guard down just because you change duty locations: that's just what people of ill intent are hoping for. And those people will say anything to get here: coming for business, to visit a friend, etc. Again, all the same things that honest, well-meaning people say. And it's the job of the officers at the border to try and figure out (in a very short period of time) if they're telling the truth or not. They don't KNOW you're a British tourist with no ill intentions just because that happens to be the case, because the next person - one who DOES have ill intentions - could be telling them the same thing.
Moreover, their purpose is not to "welcome" people to the United States, be cheerful, and make everyone happy. Some countries can afford to have their border personnel behave in that manner, but the U.S. obviously cannot and hasn't been able to for a LONG time. We're the country where people want to bring in loads of drugs and other illicit goods to sell on our streets (we're a bigger market than just about anywhere else), fly planes into our buildings, bomb our ships, kill our citizens, and generally make life miserable - for both U.S. citizens AND visitors alike. Canadian officers may "manage to do their jobs just fine," but they also don't face the same threat circumstances that the U.S. has to deal with. Once again, we are not Canada: different countries, different international feelings about those countries = different border enforcement priorities.
Also, as I stated before, when the vast majority of the people these officers come into contact with are rude to them all day long, every single day, it kind of rubs off. This is not an excuse, but a fact of life. I would challenge anyone to stand in a tiny booth at JFK airport for an entire 8-hour shift and cheerfully and politely "greet" people who've been sitting in a coach aircraft seat for 5-8 hours, often amidst screaming children, often intoxicated, and almost ALWAYS impatient to some degree, usually treating the officer quite nastily. Or to be the land border officer in Blaine, WA who gets car after car of people who've been sitting in the hot sun, waiting to cross on a summer day for several hours. I further challenge them to be vigilant at the same time, trying to elicit useful information from an often-uncooperative person and determine whether or not that person might be a threat or someone who intends to break the law. And the key: I challenge them to make that determination and live with the consequences afterwards, if something DOES go wrong or they make an incorrect judgement because they were too busy trying to be "polite". No pressure. Now, some officers DO manage to do it and are still effective at their jobs. Most are human, however, and cannot do it that way, reverting instead to focusing on the task at hand. Traveling is not fun for most people, especially when they see you - the border officer - as yet another obstacle; another hoop they have to jump through.
And of course, everyone's horror story about how terrible, rude, and obnoxious U.S. border officers are - all without any real understanding of the challenges of the job, what the officers are looking for and how, and the kinds of people they have to deal with every day - doesn't help much. We already have a bad taste in our mouths before we even step up to the counter and take out our passports. It's amazing that we can be so openminded and empathetic about some things, but not about others.
What's the solution? Make the process go faster? You really can only go so fast and maintain any reasonable security practices. And the thing is...everyone LOVES security when something bad happens, but any other time it's a nuisance. Train the officers to "don't worry, be happy?" Sorry, but there's not a law enforcement agency on the planet that requires the same level of security AND manages to make people feel good at the same time. If we want to put solid security in place to protect our borders, we need to also learn to patiently deal with it when we want to pass through it, ourselves. Personally, I'm happy that the border officer is not busy smiling, patting me on the back or offering me coffee. If he or she is rude, it's probably because they're concentrating on doing their job and is not chit-chatting or exchaging pleasantries with me for that very reason.
As far as "looking respectable" or the fact that one is disabled or appears to be no threat - that's really not a reason for you to merit any less scrutiny than anyone else. No officer who has ever let pass an individual who later committed a criminal act has ever been exonerated by "well, he looked respectable..." Bad guys aren't stupid and don't come in one package: dirty, unshaven, sullen, mean-looking, brandishing a weapon, making threats, etc. The "unsavory" criminal persona you see on TV is almost totally fabricated. Timothy McVeigh was "clean cut" and "looked respectable." So did all of the 9-11 hijackers. The 70-year-old man who was detained by 2 U.S. Customs officers years ago on the sounthern border for having a bag of marijuana in his car seemed feeble and non-threatening to them at the time...until he produced a handgun and killed them both inside the inspection area.
Again, I apologize if I'm offending anyone. That is not my intent. But if I can shed any light on the "whys" of long waits and frustrations with these folks, I'd like to do so. It may make their jobs easier and by providing some understanding. It might even create a little public support for people who don't get a whole lot.
I'm sorry you've had bad experiences. But some things to keep in mind: while perhaps you and many of the people you know don't want to emigrate to the U.S. and prefer only to visit, many, many more people DO. Our history of porous borders and the boom of illegal immigration bear that out, whether you believe it from your own experiences or not. And while the vast majority of these individuals are found on the SW U.S. border, they're now found regularly everywhere else, to include the Canadian border, airports, and seaports. As a law enforcement officer, you don't turn your guard down just because you change duty locations: that's just what people of ill intent are hoping for. And those people will say anything to get here: coming for business, to visit a friend, etc. Again, all the same things that honest, well-meaning people say. And it's the job of the officers at the border to try and figure out (in a very short period of time) if they're telling the truth or not. They don't KNOW you're a British tourist with no ill intentions just because that happens to be the case, because the next person - one who DOES have ill intentions - could be telling them the same thing.
Trying to figure out if someone is telling the truth or lying for the purposes of committing some crime in the United States is an absolute pointless endeavor. The only way to be certain is to run criminal background checks on each person passing thru and searching their cars and baggage with dogs and patting down each person. This is of course for anyone going thru a border crossing. Any smart criminal or terrorist could just cross from canada to the USA and back again thru the countless unguarded miles between both countries. Furthermore Canadian border guards should be more afraid of american citizens coming into their country to commit crimes and kill ppl, not the other way around.
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Moreover, their purpose is not to "welcome" people to the United States, be cheerful, and make everyone happy. Some countries can afford to have their border personnel behave in that manner, but the U.S. obviously cannot and hasn't been able to for a LONG time. We're the country where people want to bring in loads of drugs and other illicit goods to sell on our streets (we're a bigger market than just about anywhere else), fly planes into our buildings, bomb our ships, kill our citizens, and generally make life miserable - for both U.S. citizens AND visitors alike. Canadian officers may "manage to do their jobs just fine," but they also don't face the same threat circumstances that the U.S. has to deal with. Once again, we are not Canada: different countries, different international feelings about those countries = different border enforcement priorities.
The day we start worrying about all the crazy canadian terrorists, drug dealers and killers coming from Canada to wreck havoc in our beautiful, peaceful and crime free country is the day it's all over for us.
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Also, as I stated before, when the vast majority of the people these officers come into contact with are rude to them all day long, every single day, it kind of rubs off. This is not an excuse, but a fact of life. I would challenge anyone to stand in a tiny booth at JFK airport for an entire 8-hour shift and cheerfully and politely "greet" people who've been sitting in a coach aircraft seat for 5-8 hours, often amidst screaming children, often intoxicated, and almost ALWAYS impatient to some degree, usually treating the officer quite nastily. Or to be the land border officer in Blaine, WA who gets car after car of people who've been sitting in the hot sun, waiting to cross on a summer day for several hours. I further challenge them to be vigilant at the same time, trying to elicit useful information from an often-uncooperative person and determine whether or not that person might be a threat or someone who intends to break the law. And the key: I challenge them to make that determination and live with the consequences afterwards, if something DOES go wrong or they make an incorrect judgement because they were too busy trying to be "polite". No pressure. Now, some officers DO manage to do it and are still effective at their jobs. Most are human, however, and cannot do it that way, reverting instead to focusing on the task at hand. Traveling is not fun for most people, especially when they see you - the border officer - as yet another obstacle; another hoop they have to jump through.
And of course, everyone's horror story about how terrible, rude, and obnoxious U.S. border officers are - all without any real understanding of the challenges of the job, what the officers are looking for and how, and the kinds of people they have to deal with every day - doesn't help much. We already have a bad taste in our mouths before we even step up to the counter and take out our passports. It's amazing that we can be so openminded and empathetic about some things, but not about others.
What's the solution? Make the process go faster? You really can only go so fast and maintain any reasonable security practices. And the thing is...everyone LOVES security when something bad happens, but any other time it's a nuisance. Train the officers to "don't worry, be happy?" Sorry, but there's not a law enforcement agency on the planet that requires the same level of security AND manages to make people feel good at the same time. If we want to put solid security in place to protect our borders, we need to also learn to patiently deal with it when we want to pass through it, ourselves. Personally, I'm happy that the border officer is not busy smiling, patting me on the back or offering me coffee. If he or she is rude, it's probably because they're concentrating on doing their job and is not chit-chatting or exchaging pleasantries with me for that very reason.
As far as "looking respectable" or the fact that one is disabled or appears to be no threat - that's really not a reason for you to merit any less scrutiny than anyone else. No officer who has ever let pass an individual who later committed a criminal act has ever been exonerated by "well, he looked respectable..." Bad guys aren't stupid and don't come in one package: dirty, unshaven, sullen, mean-looking, brandishing a weapon, making threats, etc. The "unsavory" criminal persona you see on TV is almost totally fabricated. Timothy McVeigh was "clean cut" and "looked respectable." So did all of the 9-11 hijackers. The 70-year-old man who was detained by 2 U.S. Customs officers years ago on the sounthern border for having a bag of marijuana in his car seemed feeble and non-threatening to them at the time...until he produced a handgun and killed them both inside the inspection area.
Again, I apologize if I'm offending anyone. That is not my intent. But if I can shed any light on the "whys" of long waits and frustrations with these folks, I'd like to do so. It may make their jobs easier and by providing some understanding. It might even create a little public support for people who don't get a whole lot.
The vast majority of ppl crossing the border are rude? What do you base this on? Are you a border guard? If not then you have absolutely no argument at all.
I'll just say what I told my Wall Street son when he complained to me of the inconvenience of men with automatic weapons outside his office every five feet. -"These men are there in an attempt to save your life. You should appreciate this fact a lot more. I know I do, as long as I am not allowed to be there myself to protect you. The inconvenience of it is a small price to pay."
There are people out there in the world who would be estatic to kill anyone in order to make a statement merely for the fact that they are not and can never be them or subscribers to their beliefs. Until they have that fact tattooed to their forehead the best we can do is be cautious. The Founding Fathers would have called up the everyman militia. We are not Nazi's and never will be.
I'm sorry you've had bad experiences. But some things to keep in mind: while perhaps you and many of the people you know don't want to emigrate to the U.S. and prefer only to visit, many, many more people DO. Our history of porous borders and the boom of illegal immigration bear that out, whether you believe it from your own experiences or not. And while the vast majority of these individuals are found on the SW U.S. border, they're now found regularly everywhere else, to include the Canadian border, airports, and seaports. As a law enforcement officer, you don't turn your guard down just because you change duty locations: that's just what people of ill intent are hoping for. And those people will say anything to get here: coming for business, to visit a friend, etc. Again, all the same things that honest, well-meaning people say. And it's the job of the officers at the border to try and figure out (in a very short period of time) if they're telling the truth or not. They don't KNOW you're a British tourist with no ill intentions just because that happens to be the case, because the next person - one who DOES have ill intentions - could be telling them the same thing.
Moreover, their purpose is not to "welcome" people to the United States, be cheerful, and make everyone happy. Some countries can afford to have their border personnel behave in that manner, but the U.S. obviously cannot and hasn't been able to for a LONG time. We're the country where people want to bring in loads of drugs and other illicit goods to sell on our streets (we're a bigger market than just about anywhere else), fly planes into our buildings, bomb our ships, kill our citizens, and generally make life miserable - for both U.S. citizens AND visitors alike. Canadian officers may "manage to do their jobs just fine," but they also don't face the same threat circumstances that the U.S. has to deal with. Once again, we are not Canada: different countries, different international feelings about those countries = different border enforcement priorities.
Also, as I stated before, when the vast majority of the people these officers come into contact with are rude to them all day long, every single day, it kind of rubs off. This is not an excuse, but a fact of life. I would challenge anyone to stand in a tiny booth at JFK airport for an entire 8-hour shift and cheerfully and politely "greet" people who've been sitting in a coach aircraft seat for 5-8 hours, often amidst screaming children, often intoxicated, and almost ALWAYS impatient to some degree, usually treating the officer quite nastily. Or to be the land border officer in Blaine, WA who gets car after car of people who've been sitting in the hot sun, waiting to cross on a summer day for several hours. I further challenge them to be vigilant at the same time, trying to elicit useful information from an often-uncooperative person and determine whether or not that person might be a threat or someone who intends to break the law. And the key: I challenge them to make that determination and live with the consequences afterwards, if something DOES go wrong or they make an incorrect judgement because they were too busy trying to be "polite". No pressure. Now, some officers DO manage to do it and are still effective at their jobs. Most are human, however, and cannot do it that way, reverting instead to focusing on the task at hand. Traveling is not fun for most people, especially when they see you - the border officer - as yet another obstacle; another hoop they have to jump through.
And of course, everyone's horror story about how terrible, rude, and obnoxious U.S. border officers are - all without any real understanding of the challenges of the job, what the officers are looking for and how, and the kinds of people they have to deal with every day - doesn't help much. We already have a bad taste in our mouths before we even step up to the counter and take out our passports. It's amazing that we can be so openminded and empathetic about some things, but not about others.
What's the solution? Make the process go faster? You really can only go so fast and maintain any reasonable security practices. And the thing is...everyone LOVES security when something bad happens, but any other time it's a nuisance. Train the officers to "don't worry, be happy?" Sorry, but there's not a law enforcement agency on the planet that requires the same level of security AND manages to make people feel good at the same time. If we want to put solid security in place to protect our borders, we need to also learn to patiently deal with it when we want to pass through it, ourselves. Personally, I'm happy that the border officer is not busy smiling, patting me on the back or offering me coffee. If he or she is rude, it's probably because they're concentrating on doing their job and is not chit-chatting or exchaging pleasantries with me for that very reason.
As far as "looking respectable" or the fact that one is disabled or appears to be no threat - that's really not a reason for you to merit any less scrutiny than anyone else. No officer who has ever let pass an individual who later committed a criminal act has ever been exonerated by "well, he looked respectable..." Bad guys aren't stupid and don't come in one package: dirty, unshaven, sullen, mean-looking, brandishing a weapon, making threats, etc. The "unsavory" criminal persona you see on TV is almost totally fabricated. Timothy McVeigh was "clean cut" and "looked respectable." So did all of the 9-11 hijackers. The 70-year-old man who was detained by 2 U.S. Customs officers years ago on the sounthern border for having a bag of marijuana in his car seemed feeble and non-threatening to them at the time...until he produced a handgun and killed them both inside the inspection area.
Again, I apologize if I'm offending anyone. That is not my intent. But if I can shed any light on the "whys" of long waits and frustrations with these folks, I'd like to do so. It may make their jobs easier and by providing some understanding. It might even create a little public support for people who don't get a whole lot.
I accept all your points but the fact remain that it is possible to do your job as border guard / US customs officer and still be pleasant. Any major airport in the world will be a pressurised environment to work in and other nationalities manage so much better. Heathrow airport in London is the most heavily used airport in the world. I won't pretend all customs officers are lovely but on the whole the majority are quite pleasant, they do occasionally smile and security there is incredibly high. Same with the security check people. They too work in a rather unpleasant environment surrounded by screaming children, rude, drunken excitable people and potential terrorists. They still manage to remain human.
I remember when Europe had proper borders and you used to get grumpy border guards too but the vast majority were still pleasant.
I don't think rudeness and arrogance has to come with the job. It should not be part of the job description.
Canada gets hundreds of thousands of immigrants wannabes too and they still manage to remain pleasant. Landing in Canada is usually a pleasure, landing in the US is a complete horror.
It's just a question of balance really.
I don't have a problem with them doing their jobs, I do however have a problem with them treating everyone like criminals.
I would have thought being friendly, approachable and reasonable makes your job a lot more pleasant anyway so it would be in their interests to behave like human beings.
And the problem started long, long before 9/11. It has been like that for as long as I can remember.
As I said I find it odd considering how friendly the vast majority of Americans are. It still puzzles me. One thing Europeans learn very quickly is never, ever joke with an American border guard or customs officer, or an American Policeman. Any smart remarks will be tantamount to being deemed a national security risk.
It's pathetic really. I had to actually teach my fiance to button up his lips and leave out any hint of sarcasm or wit when we come to the US. It's just not worth the hassle to even emit the smallest of complaint.
Those guys are so power hungry that any deviation from what is considered an appropriate response and you will most likely end up in a dark room being probed in places you don't want to think about just as a punishment for daring to challenge anyone.
I find it sad that people can't do their jobs like human beings not petty little dictators without compassion and with humour by-passes.
Nowadays I will for example avoid NYC airports at all costs . It's not worth the hassle. We always try to land at smaller airports and cross at smaller border crossings if we can so we don't end up feeling so much like criminals and even then it's pretty bad.
Note to American border guards, most people do not have any desire to move to the US. Visit yes. Immigrate no.
Someone should tell the +1 Million immigrats that became legal permanent residents in 2007. With numbers like that, clearly LOTS of people want to immigrate to the US.
Someone should tell the +1 Million immigrats that became legal permanent residents in 2007. With numbers like that, clearly LOTS of people want to immigrate to the US.
The initial statement still holds true irrespective of this.
Most people who present themselves at an immigration check point on any given day have no wish to immigrate.
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