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I'm going to express my frustration and anger with the direction things are taking. We have a friend who is Colombian, this lady is a naturalized U.S. citizen, she is in her 60s and has been working her entire career at Stanford University. She travels internationally for work occasionally, and she also goes back to visit her family in Colombia once a year.
She just got back from such a visit, flying into San Francisco, and apparently had a very bad experience with immigration. They took her passports and detained her for six hours before allowing her in. I'm not sure about the details, but according to her nothing like this had ever happened to her before and apparently there was no reason for it other than to harass people coming from South America.
This morning she's back at work at Stanford. So, what was the point of immigration giving her a hard time yesterday?
I have to say I'm very disappointed. I'm not alone in thinking that we're headed in a bad direction. This isn't the U.S. we grew up with, is it? I remember growing up, and although there was a lot of racism and issues, there was also a very open-minded melting-pot mentality. We were diversified and we embraced it.
That was then. This is now.
I have the same problem.
I was born in Venezuela and am also a naturalized US citizen. For those that call BS on her, your US passport shows your country of birth. And when you cross back into the US they look at your passport, but they also look at your birthplace.
For years I crossed back into the US without issue. Then around 2010 or so I started getting asked all sorts of questions, asked to go into the "little" room and wait for an agent. One time, I even got stopped LEAVING the US!!!
Nobody would tell me why I was getting "special" treatment, but after a bit I figured out that it had to do with birthplace. But I still did not know why.
Finally, last year with all the Trump uproar over the vetting process a comment in the paper asked why people were not upset with the Obama's Administration executive order with regard to Venezuelans and their required extreme vetting when coming into the states. It turns out that executive order affected more than just Venezuelan citizens but also American citizens born in Venezuela.
I am ok with the treatment I am getting as a American citizen born in Venezuela. What I really object to was the Obama Administration issuing the executive order and then NOT telling people like me why we were getting constantly examined coming back into the country.
Trump didn't start the fire on immigration. Still mad at Obama for all the time I wasted crossing the border, without telling me WHY.
Trump didn't start the fire on immigration. Still mad at Obama for all the time I wasted crossing the border, without telling me WHY.
This thread seems to have about 3 subtopics. OP wants to discuss immigration policy changes but then is also trying to figure out what specifically might have been the issue with his/her friend. A related link is how security & customs is now working at entry. He/she is the OP so that's fine with me!
There are multiple screening programs that have morphed over time. None of them tell you WHY by design.
Earlier in this thread, I shared the story of my daughter who was on the Watch List (which I did not then know) but who due to a policy change in the middle of a weekend we were traveling domestically would not have been be allowed to board the return flight home.
The airline agent asked that I bring additional documentation to the airport. (DD was born in China and the requested documents were not easily replaceable and we certainly didn't fly around the country with them.)
Her manufactured explanation made no sense but I could tell from her voice that this was for some reason important. She was almost begging me so I said, sure, fine.
The airline then was able to use the documentation to get DD, a 12 yo, off the Watch List which was now essential with the program change since she was a minor who did not normally carry ID. And, yes, it was DD on the List, not someone with a similar name.
Not only could the airline agents not tell me WHY my DD couldn't download her boarding passes whenever I would call yet again (throwing us yet again into the long check-in lines at the airports), they couldn't tell you there was anything not to tell you and so would come up with these fibs and then feeling awkward about the whole thing pretty much hang up on me. Over and over. It *was* irritating - until the airline was finally forced to do something as she became non-flyable and then we were back to normal.
This was during the Bush era.
Edited to add - It's probably relevant how I found out. The airline agent who processed DD's paperwork on the airport to take her off the list had a Middle-Eastern name, appearance. He seemed pretty empathetic about the whole thing perhaps based on observable patterns. The minute the words came out of his mouth, he looked horrified and said please, please not to say anything about his disclosure which I did not.
Last edited by EveryLady; 07-25-2018 at 06:34 PM..
To comment on the other thread topics, I agree with OP that we did have a very open-minded melting-pot mentality where we were diversified and embraced it. This appears to have lessened somewhat and I share his/her disappointment.
As for security issues, I am concerned about terrorism on a personal level because of where we live and since we do frequently board flights into the US, most frequently these days from Europe. Here, I'd far rather see dollars thrown into scanners and the like (and to checking container ships), intel than into building walls.
About specific security procedures at entry, my attitude is to do what I'm told and hope that it's all worthwhile although I have my doubts. The Israelis "target" and it is effective - I got picked once and it was 3 agents on you for 2 straight hours ripping apart everything pretty much calling you a PLO *****. Like selectees got on the plane in tears. I felt like it. So here, I've got mixed feelings.
I'm going to express my frustration and anger with the direction things are taking. We have a friend who is Colombian, this lady is a naturalized U.S. citizen, she is in her 60s and has been working her entire career at Stanford University. She travels internationally for work occasionally, and she also goes back to visit her family in Colombia once a year.
She just got back from such a visit, flying into San Francisco, and apparently had a very bad experience with immigration. They took her passports and detained her for six hours before allowing her in. I'm not sure about the details, but according to her nothing like this had ever happened to her before and apparently there was no reason for it other than to harass people coming from South America.
This morning she's back at work at Stanford. So, what was the point of immigration giving her a hard time yesterday?
I have to say I'm very disappointed. I'm not alone in thinking that we're headed in a bad direction. This isn't the U.S. we grew up with, is it? I remember growing up, and although there was a lot of racism and issues, there was also a very open-minded melting-pot mentality. We were diversified and we embraced it.
That was then. This is now.
Three countries are the highest producers of cocaine and Colombia is one of them. They use mules (people) to get drugs into our country. Do you suggest that no one is checked. She'll get over it. Why don't you get the whole story before getting all emotional. Maybe you should be more mad at people bringing drugs into this country than an agency trying to prevent it.
Do you guys live for anything and everything to cry over?
I'm going to express my frustration and anger with the direction things are taking. We have a friend who is Colombian, this lady is a naturalized U.S. citizen, she is in her 60s and has been working her entire career at Stanford University. She travels internationally for work occasionally, and she also goes back to visit her family in Colombia once a year.
She just got back from such a visit, flying into San Francisco, and apparently had a very bad experience with immigration. They took her passports and detained her for six hours before allowing her in. I'm not sure about the details, but according to her nothing like this had ever happened to her before and apparently there was no reason for it other than to harass people coming from South America.
This morning she's back at work at Stanford. So, what was the point of immigration giving her a hard time yesterday?
I have to say I'm very disappointed. I'm not alone in thinking that we're headed in a bad direction. This isn't the U.S. we grew up with, is it? I remember growing up, and although there was a lot of racism and issues, there was also a very open-minded melting-pot mentality. We were diversified and we embraced it.
That was then. This is now.
By the way 80skeys, I'm white but on one trip back from Europe (2006 I believe it was) I was flagged and was pulled over by customs. It was my doing (it was no big deal but they had to). I took no offense, didn't cry the blues, certainly didn't look for a pity party and was glad they are doing their job.
Your friend is looking for a pity party to which you are obliging, she won't get one from me.
If you come from a country as questionable as Colombia or Venezuela, then you’re going to be looked upon with greater suspicion.
That is unfortunately the way it is.
Oh geez, our own intelligence agencies have been involved in bringing illegal drugs in for many years, The CIA used part of the money to fund contra training for Gods sake! Then we have DEA, who basically paves the way for the cartels, gets rid of any competition and fights very hard to ensure all drugs remain as illegal as possible, (not to mention, also supplying the cartels with weapons/ operation Fast and Furious)...Gee, I wonder who all that benefits?!
this kind of thing is probably off the charts nowadays, with the cost of heroin and cocaine being so high.
They are not trying to 'catch' anything at the airports that they do no want to find!! LOLO
By the way 80skeys, I'm white but on one trip back from Europe (2006 I believe it was) I was flagged and was pulled over by customs. It was my doing (it was no big deal but they had to). I took no offense, didn't cry the blues, certainly didn't look for a pity party and was glad they are doing their job.
Did they detain you for six hours?
Quote:
Originally Posted by EveryLady
Again, I'm sorry this happened to your friend. Personally, I would be less concerned about the past and more concerned about how she's been coded for future trips.
My primary concern is that I hope this is just an isolated incident and not the sign of a trend to unfairly treat certain groups of people, such as Latinos. My concern, of course, comes from all the anti-Mexico rhetoric coming from the Trump administration over the past year and a half. It's easy to see this evolving into a general bias against central/south america. Again, hopefully this is not the case.
Quote:
Still, the reality of travel today is that the power center when security is involved does not rest in the hands of the passenger - and I would tread carefully that their outrage not become her future problem.
But it needs to be ensured that the treatment of passengers needs to be applied equally and fairly across all passengers, without bias against any particular groups for religion, ethnicity or gender.
If they had detained her for 30 minutes or an hour, then I wouldn't have started this thread. But the length of it and the fact that by their own admission she didn't do anything wrong, there's something about this that raises a red flag to me.
Three countries are the highest producers of cocaine and Colombia is one of them. They use mules (people) to get drugs into our country. Do you suggest that no one is checked. She'll get over it. Why don't you get the whole story before getting all emotional. Maybe you should be more mad at people bringing drugs into this country than an agency trying to prevent it.
Do you guys live for anything and everything to cry over?
If you went on vacation to Colombia and then were detained for 6 hours, I'll bet you would be more than irritated. She's a US citizen, has a passport to prove it, has gone through security, so what's the holdup? If they want to search her for drugs, then just do it already, but the OP did not indicate that happened. Was every passenger detained for 6 hours; if not, then why her?
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