US Immigration and Customs

[chickenfeet]

 Reflecting on the latest douchebaggery from US Customs and Immigration which "service" seems to be on a tear to make entering the US even more awful.  I don't want to exaggerate the changes because these people have always been complete bastards and I have had plenty of unpleasant experiences though nowhere near as bad as many people I know.  They epitomise the callous, rules driven approach of American officialdom at its worst and they have only been encouraged by the lack of scrutiny they expect from the Cheetoh Benito regime.  Anyway, the thought I had was that quite possibly Douglas Adams based the Vogons on US Immigration.  They have all the right characteristics; rude, loud, absence of empathy, bureaucratic.  I just hope they don't write poetry.

Comments

[shezan]

I've never known them to be anything but sullen, petty and stupid. Makes you long for the permis de conduire dept. clerks at the Préfecture de Police and these worthies' Dyonisian attitude to their work.

[cmcmck]

Given my background (and that leaves aside the Jewish and Romani ancestry) I don't think I'll be heading across any time soon!

[chickenfeet]

I'm married to a US citizen and I do my best to avoid it!

[sabotabby]

I find it so weird that Americans say they hate bureaucracy and government and yet every decision they make seems to be geared towards causing the most possible bureaucratic clusterfuckery. David Graeber wrote a good book on it but it's gotten even worse since then.

[gramarye1971]

One of my good friends who works for US military intelligence was travelling on her diplomatic passport a few years ago and got grilled by a CBP officer who wanted to know exactly what she'd been doing overseas. She pretty much had to say to him, Look, do you have a TS-SCI clearance? Because if you don't -- and even if you do -- then this conversation is fucking over right now. I can only imagine it's ten times as bad these days.

Then again, she had committed the unfortunate triple crime of being a well-educated black woman talking to a white dude-bro.

(I used to edit Homeland Security audit reports. The ones who aren't involved in human trafficking are taking kickbacks to look the other way while narcotics get shipped across the border.)

[chickenfeet]

I once arrived in transit at LAX from Australia using my British passport (it had my Australian visa in it) and so wrote in the "country of nationality" box "UK". I was sharply told that the USA did not recognize the UK by an agent who crossed out "UK" and wrote in "England".

[cmcmck]

I bet my (Scottish) husband would love that!

[mamculuna]

When I was leaving Montreal last fall, I was totally amazed at the horrible difference in my treatment when I stepped over the line from the Canadian exit people, who were very nice and helpful, to the American entrance people. I'm a US citizen and was treated very rudely and arrogantly. I can't imagine what they're like to visitors. Or maybe they just have default setting of "Vogon"...