I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

Why do people want to live in the US and jump through all these hoops and be subject to arbitrary detentions, anyway? The bureaucracy is hellish. Many other countries have decent living conditions and don't randomly mistreat the people trying to make a living, nor do they behave understanding or cruel at the whim of whoever's in office. Or if they do, it's not as bad as in the US.

Is it just that the US is closer to these people than other, saner countries? I can understand if that's the actual reason.

Also: why do border officers have so much power? It seems wrong. They are low level employees, they shouldn't be able to change your life (or trip plans) just because they feel bored and want to spice things up.

> Also: why do border officers have so much power? It seems wrong.

The US democratic process is not good at protecting small groups of disenfranchised people: Non-citizens, LGBTQ people, prisoners, etc.

Those people get the burden of making their own allies and fighting their whole lives for rights, while most voters prefer not to think about them.

Hell, black people are 12% of the population and their rights have been on the frontline for over 100 years. So many groups are even smaller.

I'm not sure if any other country does this perfectly. Rawls' veil of ignorance is extremely hard to enforce in practice, no wonder we all live in Omelas.

> Why do people want to live in the US and jump through all these hoops and be subject to arbitrary detentions, anyway?

Lots of people, especially those from third world countries, don’t know what they are getting into. They’ve been brainwashed into believing “the American dream” (that anyone can find good jobs, be homeowners, etc.) by movies, television, social media, and other immigrants making money in the immigration business (many of whom were, ironically, lured in by their predecessors and ended up not able to find the dream jobs they were promised). This is why you hear about people blowing $10-100k on gang trafficking services to get in from Mexico, which is super puzzling otherwise when you consider that kind of money goes a long way in their home countries.

I would again refer you to the Statue of Liberty, and what America once stood for. You might be right about the brainwashing from media, but there is an older, deeper story and promise of the United States as the land of the free.

I think there is even a song about it, "land of the free home of the brave" or something like that. I hear it occasionally at sporting events.

And it was written while slavery was still in full swing, right? And long before women were given any say in the democratic process. When did the genocides of the natives come into the picture, were they also counted among the free and the brave?