Unfriendly US Immigration
 

Today's Daily Telegraph, a U.K. newspaper with a generally pro-USA attitude, has an article about U.S. immigration officers at http://tinyurl.com/w48gc. What do others think?

I believe this same piece, or at least the same information, recently appeared in the "Washington Post" as well.

The notion was the subject of a recent thread on which i learned that some people here actually feel that rude and arrogant agents are more efficient at keeping out undesirables.

My personal experiences with immigration after 9/11 have all been good. Agents have been both efficient and friendly.
But you always think, what happens if a simple error occurs - with your name, with you fingerprint, your baggage.
A cousin of mine - a blond young lady - was recently very rudely interrogated for two hours at JFK because she had flown to often into the USA. (She has a relationship with a manager at Goldman Sachs who commutes between Frankfurt, London and New York.) Such experiences are everything but nice.
A fellow businessman received a green card for the USA but returned it and did not move to the USA because he learned that he and his wife would make themselves suspicous if they travelled between the USA and Europe too often.
Isn't is ironic that those persons with the strongest personal or familiar ties to the US are repelled most?
I know positivly that a huge number of Europeans abstain from travelling the USA because of immigration procedures.

Having had the pleasure of traveling in many countries, I can't say that any one country is worse then another. Coming back into the US recently, my husband was grilled by a immigration agent. He was born in India and although has been a citizen for 25 years, apparently he looks shady. But I was also questioned by the Italian Immigration police (who really scared me with their dogs and machine guns). So, I'm not really sure if it's just the US people or not.

My wife and I, 2 greyhaired seniors, returned 1 month ago to Philadelphia from a pleasure trip to Ialy. We usually sail through US passport control, but this time the agent asked us many more questions than usual. She asked us twice as to which countries we visited, how long we were away, what was the purpose of our trip, etc.

I could feel that there was a sense she suspected something.

Thinking it over, I felt that she was concerned because our passports, which we have had for 8 years, had added pages. We have travelled <b>a lot</b>, and I think she suspected that we were somehow involved in something.

I appreciated her concern. I did not get angry, feel humiliated, or complain to anyone.

Actually, I feel better that she was doing her job with intelligence and competence. ((*))

Both my planes, Air France, coming and going from Paris were loaded with French people. So, I guess while some Europeans won't travel here, many others are. I can certainly understand that being &quot;grilled&quot; by immigration would not be a pleasant experience.

Yes, in my experiences, US Immigration and Customs are not nice at all.

This has always been the case not just because of September 11th.

But why should they be nice? That is there job to intimidate.

Doubtful our customs and immigration are having at effect on visitors to this country.

Lucky us, we have never had unpleasant immigration officers, anywhere.
We just got back from South America, and when we zipped through customs, the officer looked at our papers and said Welcome Home.
ps.The customs people in Buenos Aires were charming and very nice.

We've had both very pleasant and very unpleasant immigration officers in the United States, as well as Europe, Mexico, South America, etc. It would seem that TSA workers are now added to the mix. Some are very pleasant, others officious and seem to enjoy their position of power to intimidate.

On the other side of the coin, I suppose if you asked these two groups about the passengers they screen, they might have similar experiences to ours.

We try to take it all with a grain of salt. Let's face it, the worst of travel nowadays is getting to our destinations and returning home. In my opinion, there's nothing much pleasant or fun flying any longer--it's just a means to get from Point A to Point B and back.

Several years ago (pre-9/11), I was questioned by the immigration officers at SFO. I was coming back from a business trip to Japan, but they were suspicious of my story. I was 25 years old, but I look younger than my age (when I was younger I hated that, now I think it's great - LOL). I probably looked to them like a high school student so my story about being an engineer coming back from Japan didn't add up. They started asking questions and I figured we could straighten this up really quickly since my boss was in the next line over and could vouch for me - there were 15 of us from my team on that plane, all going through immigration at the same time. Well, my boss was Iranian, so that didn't really help matters - LOL. Now we were both getting questioned.

After some more questioning, we did get it straightened out - fortunately we didn't get moved to the detention and interogation rooms or anything, but it did take awhile. When we got through, the rest of our team was waiting for us with our luggage wondering what the heck took us so long - LOL.

I also have never had the bad experiences some posters have described, especially in earlier threads. All of the border control folks I have encountered, both in the US and in other countries, have been polite and effecient. At worst, a few have been only civil, but mostly they have been friendly while asking the questions they are paid to ask.

Interesting article. I've heard all these same complaints from visitors to the USA, especially in the last two years.

On a positive note, US immigration officers treat US citizens pretty well.

Seemed like a good bit of the complaining in the article was about the difficulty of obtaining visas. I'm sure that is problematic for people from some countries. We still have a problem with illegal immigrants, including those coming over on valid visas.

The BP&amp;C people should not be arrogant or rude with anyone but they also definitely do not need to be cheerful and friendly and chirpy and chatty.

SO, there you are in your flat in London and you'd like to see the Grand Canyon, try your luck in Vegas, drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, see the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, Hollywood, Miami, Yellowstone, Yosemite. But, you figure, it might take an hour or maybe even two to get thru immigration and unsmiling government employees might ask you lots of questions. So you decide to go, yet again, to lie on the beach at Torremolinos or Mykonos.

Another piece on the same subject from the same newspaper. http://tinyurl.com/y82y3p Maybe it is the contrast between the generally friendly attitude of Americans towards visitors, and the curtness and bureaucratic approach of the U.S. immigration officials. After all, most of us are innocent travellers.

I was a bit &quot;put out&quot; this summer when returning through Miami when I tried to step up to the booth with my partner who has Alzheimer's, and I told the officer that, but he barked &quot;just one at a time&quot;, so I stepped back and waited while he tried to ask questions of poor Lee who was baffled and unable to tell where we had been or anything else. This went on for a while before the officer finally looked at me and gestured for me to join them. What part of &quot;he has Alzheimer's&quot; did he not understand?

NeoPatrick - first, this is not in any way a reflection on your honesty or integrity. However, the border official, or any other law enforcement officer, has to evaluate for themselves. You would be amazed how many people, of all kinds and appearances, will lie to an officer, even when it is in their best interest to tell the truth. Part of the officer's training and experience is to observe the person they are talking to and determine if there may be something suspicious in their manner that needs further checking.

When you approach the checkpoint or are stopped by an officer, you know who you are and whether you are hiding anything or are a risk. He/She does not and it is his/her job to find out.

It's nothing personal on the officer's part - he/she is just doing the job.

Visiting the US this year for the first time since 1996, I was bracing myself for an unpleasant experience. From what I'd been reading, I feared that we'd be given the third degree by large, baton-wielding ladies and possibly strip-searched (and no, I'm not given to S-M fantasies).

However, we found the officials at SFO, while not positively friendly, polite and matter-of-fact. Even the fingerprinting and photography was handled well - or as well as one can handle such things.

It was the same on the way out - even when I stupidly forgot to take a bottle of liqueur out of my carry-on bag, the TSA people took it in their stride and, had time permitted, would have let me return to the Qantas counter to have it checked as hold baggage.

No complaints from this end, but it does sound as though many other experiences haven't been as positive. The worst I heard was the case of three young men, one of them the son of my wife's workmate, who were handcuffed, detained in a cell for hours and interrogated without explanation at Newark NJ. All Australian-born, they're now convinced that having white skins would have made a big difference (their parents, also Australian citizens, were born in Sri Lanka).

Of course their treatment was very much the exception, but it does suggest the need to be on guard against officials who may feel that the &quot;war on terror&quot; has given them carte blanche to behave badly. While official rudeness is completely at odds with Americans' customary politeness and friendliness, I'm sure first impressions can indeed be lasting.

A lot of dark-skinned people arrive in Newark. They are not all detained. Is there something that else that happened? ((*))

Jed, your point is very valid - but as far as anyone could establish (and the case was widely canvassed in the media here) their travel docs, behaviour etc. were all in order. Maybe it was just a case of a rogue official throwing his weight around, can't say.

Having traveled all over the world -- including passing through the arms of Russian visa checkers -- I can say without exception the worst treatment my wife and I ever received was as tourists entering Tanzania at the border crossing at Namanga.

We had been warned by our guide to speak only when spoken to, answer questions as briefly as possible, and to look the hulking Tanzanian border policeman straight in the eye.

The man was a dead ringer for Idi Amin, gold teeth and all. Fat, loud, and arrogant. He didn't tangle with me, but he gave a Filipina woman in our group a very hard time of it. She stood her ground, as did her Filipino husband. The official was fishing for a bribe, but we stiffed him.

American immigration? Just hardworking men and women doing a difficult job under increasing pressure. We salute them!

My brother who is American, lives now in the Netherlands with his Dutch wife.

She now refuses to come back to the US with him to visit after her treatment by US immigration last year.

My brother was ushered right through, but they took forever and were rude with his wife (who is a gorgeous blonde Scandinavian looking woman), and so they missed their connecting flight. Boy, was she pissed !

Someone told me he got very rude treatment from an official there and at the same time he was letting the US citizens through without problems. He complained about the double standards to which the official replied &quot; Well you don't expect us to treat you the same as Americans do you? &quot; I guess it really depends on who you strike ?

traveller:

why is it that blonde hair makes you more American? I have dark red hair and am caucasian but I don't think I'm more American looking than someone who is Hispanic or Asian. we need to treat everyone the same, hair color means squat.

In 1983 we were detained for 3 days while visiting the DDR, and never left alone. We also had to have our plans pre-approved, with all movements detailed. The entire time we were accompanied by soldiers with machine guns who looked about 16 or 17 years old. Every car we entered was also inspected underneath with cameras and throughout. We were given red cabbage salad almost exclusively to eat for about 48 hours plus at one point.

Also I do not remember one smile or interchange in any way, with bus driver, car driver, police &quot;lady&quot;, server in the dining hall. Not one. One lady spoke to me at a border jewelry purchasing depot.

This was nearly 40 years after a war, and no American citizen had ever terrorized Russian or German homeland territory. We went to see one relative and to view some areas where my Dad's cousins and Uncle had died.

I have been out of the country about 10 times this year, and some of the trips involved multiple foreign countries. Also, some of the trips were business trips, ironically working for the US government.

Never had any problem with immigration but I have noticed totally unecessary mistreatment of US citizens by customs, myself included. Coming back from Japan through Dallas, the customs officer collecting the forms decided to send me for a secondary customs check. Fair enough, but it was based on one question which was &quot;what was the reason for my trip?&quot; I had to wait about an hour in the secondary room to see an agent. As soon as he looked at my passport, checked my travel history, he apologized and told me this was a mistake. Never looked at my luggage.

My point is that perhaps if the first agent asked few more questions and took time to look at my passport (with about 50 stamps from the last few years, including Afghanistan and Lebanon), she could have performed her job better, instead she wasted my time and the agency's time.

I have been approached by customs agents at ORD and JFK while waiting for my luggage at the carousel and have been asked some questions but they did exactly what they were trained for, which is to determine if there is some &quot;hanky-panky&quot; going on, and there is nothing wrong with that, but to send a US citizen for secondary just because, is wrong.......

Years ago, 1976 to be exact, my husband and I were coming through British Customs, and we had quite a hassle with the agents/s. My husband and I were students then and when we bought out passport, we had decided to save money by buying a family passport and then flipped a coin to see who would be the head of the family. I won and my husband was put down as the spouse. Well, the UK agent thought it a riot and we were detained for some time with a lot of smirks and laughter. It was not pleasant, but hey, it was just a small thing, and we did not view England as an unpleasant, unfriendly place because of it, nor did it stop us from returning frequently afterwards. Now, the only thing that keeps us away is the high exchange rate! Unless, I was put throught some pretty obnoxious/torture or some thing extremely beyond the ordinary, I would not put off a trip. If someone puts off a trip to the US because of something minor at immigration, then they are probably looking for some other reason not to visit the US. Perhaps, they just want to boycott because they don't approve of our foreign policy (not that I blame them for their opinion!), but a little unpleasantness at the immigration gate will not ruin your whole trip. Frankie, with all due respect, your Sister-in-law may have been annoyed at immigration for missing her plane, but I think it goes beyond that. If she had a good time here, or enjoyed visiting, she would have put it aside. I don't know her, but I suspect, some people are making political statements, when they complain about immigration.

A minor point, annetti, but in January 1976 a British pound cost over $2 US. Although it dropped considerably during that year, it isn't really the &quot;high exchange rate&quot; to blame. It's called &quot;inflation&quot;. Things have gone up more in cost in the UK than they have in the US. Many people mistake the idea that because it costs them nearly $2 to buy a pound that means you're getting a bad rate, or that things are costing you twice as much. The dollar and the pound are not the same currency. Would you have suggested before the days of the euro that everything in Italy cost only 1/2000 as much as in the US because you could get 2000 lira for a dollar?

I must say that the AR to/from UR aduana in late Oct was the worst bureaucracy we have faced in maybe 15 years - like the &quot;previous USSR&quot;.
M

Neopatrick,It may be inflation that makes it expensive in the UK and not necessarily the exchange rate, but whatever, I do find it expensive to travel in the UK. That's a shame, because I genuinely enjoy my trips there. And we are not talking about visits to London. We usually avoid the city. Our last trip was a month around the West Country, while hotels did not kill us since we had a home exchange in Bath,(lucky us!!) food prices were high for us when we ate in restaurants. And so were tourist sites.

Yes, I do agree with how expensive it is, just wanted to point out that the high cost really isn't because of the exchange rate. Being a theatre nut, I join in the complaints about Broadway ticket prices which have gone up something like 20 % in the last few years. But in London, theatre ticket prices have nearly doubled in the same amount of time. That's doubled in pounds -- so it has nothing to do with the exchange rate.

<i>She now refuses to come back to the US with him to visit after her treatment by US immigration last year.</i>

Really? How was she treated on previous visits, if she had been here before? Seems silly to hold a grudge like that. Nothing good is going to come of it. The only consequence is that brother can't come back home to be with his family, and be with his wife at the same time. Apparently visiting her in-laws is not very important to her.

A person on vacation has a choice of where to go and if you <u>perceive</u> that the immigration hurdle might be too high to jump then you might want to choose another destination.

When I return home to the USA I see dozens of foreigners of all colors and nationalities being admitted without trouble, and I've met many who were enjoying their visit.

The reason that the story Neil_Oz related was 'widely canvassed by the media' is because it is unusual. I wonder if the media told the immigration authorities' side of the story.

I bet both those stories appeared because of one particular officer at Dulles. He was horribly rude. I remember thinking that I was glad he was in charge of the American side because he was going to prevent any foreign visitors from coming again. You can be efficient, business-like, and official without being rude and insulting.

Does anyone know of a source that has ranked U.S. airports in terms of immigration/customs/security efficiency and/or friendliness?

I have talked to several international travelers about this issue that the Discover America Partnership is raising, and their experiences seem to differ by airport.

I am a reporter covering tourism for the Herald-Tribune of Sarasota, Fla.

Kathleen - I suppose there might be some measures of efficiency that could be used such as travelers processed per employee per hour or similar measures but I have no idea how one could rate friendliness. I expect that might vary day-to-day even with the same inspector and it would certainly vary depending on which inspector one had the luck (or bad luck) to encounter.

To answer your direct question, I am not aware of any such surveys, rankings, or studies.

Regarding one message above, I personally think that people who refuse to return to a place because of one rude immigration officer, or one temperamental waiter, or one nasty hotel employee, or one confrontation with a nasty native, would be best to stay home and NEVER travel. How very, very silly.

We have never had any bad experience with mmigration or security personnel.You have to think about the grave responsibility those people have and the very stressful job.We had thought that security would be especially strenious arriving from Brussels in Washington DC but we did not have any problem whatsoever.I guess you can get a bully once in a while.Some persons when they wear a uniform can get a bit macho sometimes. Anyway I would not want their job.Lets be thankful that they are there.Paul

If you see the number of foreign posters on Lonely Planet who want to avoid complying with US immigration rules for visitors, you would understand some why agents assume a tough demeanor.

people from poor countries have been treated poorly at just about every immigration desk in the developed world since the beginning of international travel.

now that it's happening to 'nice people' from 'nice countries' it's making the news.

no, i'm not defending harassment by immigration officers, just putting it in perspective.

unfortunately, borders around the world are getting less open for all...that's not progress.