←back to thread

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

(www.theguardian.com)
1009 points n1b0m | 3 comments | 19 Mar 25 11:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
BrandoElFollito ◴[19 Mar 25 12:37 UTC] No.43411050[source]▶
I traveled to the US (from my country -France- and many others) for 12 years. About a trip every month. The last time was 10 years ago.

I never had any problems (outside the horrible behaviour of border officers who show you that you are not welcome). I was stopped once by a policeman when I did an illegal car maneuver (which is tolerated in France), and when he realized I was a tourist with family, he just said, "Be careful, have a nice trip."

Today I am seriously considering never going to the US anymore because it looks like it is not a good destination anymore. I may be wrong though, I hope.

replies(7): >>43411095 #>>43411267 #>>43411338 #>>43411832 #>>43413107 #>>43415178 #>>43419600 #
gs17 ◴[19 Mar 25 15:15 UTC] No.43413107[source]▶
> outside the horrible behaviour of border officers who show you that you are not welcome

They've always (in my life, which is largely post 9/11) done that to US citizens too. Going into Canada it was "where are you going to? the beach, eh? have a nice day!", coming back seemed to be performed under the suspicion that our passports were fake and our car was made out of drugs. Despite doing nothing wrong, we were always afraid of getting in trouble because a border agent felt like it.

replies(2): >>43413890 #>>43414401 #
rsanek ◴[19 Mar 25 16:49 UTC] No.43414401[source]▶
never experienced this as a us citizen and I travel often. usually it is a polite "welcome home", otherwise it's a bored "ok you're good"
replies(3): >>43414573 #>>43414967 #>>43421361 #
1. riizade ◴[19 Mar 25 17:03 UTC] No.43414573[source]▶
I got a light interrogation as a US citizen. For the record, I have Global Entry, NEXUS, and TSA Pre-Check.

I handed the border agent my US passport and the conversation went like this

"why are you entering the country?"

"I live here"

"do you have legal status in the US?"

"I'm a citizen, you're holding my passport"

"have you ever overstayed a visa in the US in the past?"

"I was born here, so no"

"do you intend to do any work while you're in the US?"

"yes, I'm a US citizen and I have a job"

I didn't get pulled off to the side or anything, it was just standard questioning at entry processing when flying in, but it was just bizarre

the border agent kept looking me up and down suspiciously like I was hiding something, but he had my passport the whole time

even when I got questioned on my way to Canada (I would've stopped me too), they were much nicer about the whole process, it's an air of "we're just double checking cuz making a mistake here would be real bad, but as long as everything's legit, no worries, I hope you have a nice stay in Canada"

entering the US the vibe is "you're a violent criminal and it's my job to ask you questions until you slip up and admit that fact, the US is magnanimous for allowing you to touch our great country's land with your disgusting feet, and you should remember that every day you're here or we'll detain you so you won't forget again"

I'm a little surprised you've only had positive experiences.

replies(2): >>43414832 #>>43418737 #
2. jkaplowitz ◴[19 Mar 25 17:23 UTC] No.43414832[source]▶
That is indeed quite bizarre. Most of those questions literally don't matter for a citizen, and if you were somehow falsely claiming to be a citizen, the other questions also don't matter because a false claim to US citizenship is punished more harshly by US immigration law than the other things they were worried about. (Such false claims make one permanently ineligible for permanent immigration to the US, with no waiver available, and require a waiver for any kind of nonimmigrant admission.)
3. BrandoElFollito ◴[20 Mar 25 00:27 UTC] No.43418737[source]▶
> I'm a little surprised you've only had positive experiences.

I was talking about the experiences within the country. The border is horrendous, exactly like Russia. Same vibe of "we hate you, kneel before stepping into my country"

For a foreigner, even one that knows the US pretty well, there is a background feeling of "if it goes bad, it will go vey bad". This is mostly because of movies and news like this article but the everyday life was more or less friction free. I did not get into anything serious, though.