My reentry to the US

[Guest pete1969]

I've been back in the US for a couple of weeks now. I have been meaning to write about my reentry.

 

I read a number of stories about people who have been hassled from immigration on their return from Thailand. I didn't think much of it, but was mentally prepared for it just in case.

 

I came back through Seattle (a horrible, institutional looking immigration checkpoint). When I got up to the agent, he swiped my passport, looked at the screen, frowned, and gave me back my passport and said thanks. No other questions or look at my stamps. Every other time, I had a number of questions at that stage.

 

I go downstairs to collect my baggage. There was an agent checking passports at the bottom of the stairs. I hadn't seen that before. Later he actually came up to me why I was getting my baggage and asked to see my passport again. He asked others around me, so I did not think much about it.

 

As I got my bags (finally), the same agent pulled me aside and said he needed to look through my things. No worries. He took me to one of the lines and closely examined all of my stuff and asked me 100 questions. Then someone else came over and looked at my laptop. I do keep legal porn on my laptop, and being obstinate, I decided not to erase it as it is legal. I told the guy there was porn on the laptop.

 

He looks at it and then turns off my computer and gives it back to me. I think it is over. No, now I have to wait for another field agent who will be along in 30-45 minutes. The first agent is very nice and chats to me for some time. He tells me they are profiling passengers from Thailand this year and that I fit the profile (although I think he used target instead of profile).

 

After almost an hour, an agent arrives from Seattle that I never see. Instead, the first two agents come and ask if they can take my laptop and examine it. I agree, and they take my entire laptop case into a back room. About 20 minutes later the first agent returns. He apologises for all the time I spent waiting. He does tell me that normally they will take the laptop for a couple of days and then return it, but that since the field agent was free (I think he was FBI) that they just did the examination right then.

 

So, that's that. I may not have been subject to an extensive laptop search if I had not had porn on it, but I think I would have had to have the extensive search regardless. I had spent four months in LOS and all my Visa runs were to Burma. I was a single man travelling alone. I guess I was the perfect profile.

 

The agent also told me that it was all routine and that my passport was not flagged for any reason. He said it was all because of my being in Thailand. We will see if it happens next trip.

 

Pete

[Gaybutton]

I go downstairs to collect my baggage. There was an agent checking passports at the bottom of the stairs. I hadn't seen that before. Later he actually came up to me why I was getting my baggage and asked to see my passport again.

 

He asked why you were getting your baggage? I don't understand that part of the story. What were you supposed to do with your baggage, leave it there? On the list of ridiculous questions you've probably been asked during your life, that one sounds like it would easily fall into the top ten.

 

If you would, I wonder if you can tell us some of the other questions you were asked.

 

Obviously there's nothing we can do about it, but I really dislike the unfairness of profiling single males as probable pedophiles and then subjecting them to this sort of nonsense. I guess all of us horrible gays better schedule connecting flights so that you have at least a three or four hour layover at your first port of entry into the USA, especially if you are doing something horrendous such as carrying a laptop computer.

 

I can't help but wonder how many people they actually nab compared to the number of people they subject to their third degree.

[Guest daaraa]

The same thing happened to me when I returned to the US via Seattle in early September. They looked through all my luggage and took the memory card out of my camera for closer examination. After about 15 minutes they returned my memory card and thanked me for my cooperation. If was painless, but a hassle nonetheless after a long day of travel.

[khaolakguy]

He asked why you were getting your baggage? I don't understand that part of the story. What were you supposed to do with your baggage, leave it there?

 

 

 

It looks like a typo, should be "while he was getting his luggage".

 

[Guest pete1969]

Whoops. Yes, that was a typo. It was "while" I was waiting for my baggage to come that he asked to see my passport again.

 

They asked all the usual questions: Why was I in LOS for four months, what I do there, who did I work for, where did I visit, did I know anyone, why did I go to Burma, what was I doing back in the US (work or visit). They even asked me who was picking me up and how I knew that person.

 

Had I not had a laptop, I could have went through much faster.

 

Pete

 

[Guest mauRICE]

Had I not had a laptop, I could have went through much faster.

 

Hmmm, was that a typo too?

[Gaybutton]

Whoops. Yes, that was a typo. It was "while" I was waiting for my baggage to come that he asked to see my passport again.

 

That's too bad. It would have been much more fun if they actually asked why . . .

[TotallyOz]

Thanks for the story Pete and the time you took to write it. I appreciate it. My last experience was very similar. Thanks for sharing.

[JayBee]

I returned via JFK last month and had no trouble at all. However, for the first time I can ever remember, there were two agents at the end of the walkway leaving the plane asking to see everyone's passport.

[fedssocr]

I returned via JFK and was prepared for the 3rd degree. But I was one of the first ones to the passport control line as I was in business class. The woman swiped my passport stamped it and handed it back to me without saying a word. It was the 6:30 AM arriving TG flight. My luggage was among the first bags out and I was the second person to the customs line. A cursory glance at my declaration form a "thank you sir" and that was it. I was off the plane and past customs within 30 minutes I would guess. I was rather surprised at how completely painless it was. I even had declared more than the exemption amount for the stuff I was bringing back and they didn't bother to charge me any duty.

 

But any time I visit Toronto I get extra special treatment from Canada Customs for some odd reason.

[Guest BKKvisitor]

White returning to US from a European trip earlier this year, I was questioned by Customs about why I traveled to Thailand so often (determined by flipping through passport). Why do you go there? What do you do?

 

Customs agents have, as we know, been instructed to look for single males who travel to Thailand (and, I'm sure, other locations). I had no laptop with me and there was no luggage check, although I'm sure there would have been had I indeed been coming home from LOS.

 

This will undoubtedly continue until visitors cease doing stupid things like having porn on their laptops or porn in DVD or other forms. Once Customs determines that their extra efforts are not yielding results, they'll move on to more productive stuff like drug interdiction or terrorism prevention.

[PattayaMale]

Maybe this would be a good poll for someone who knows how to create one.

 

I have been in and out of the US Traveling internationally only to Thailand for about 8 years. I usually return to the USA twice a year through LAX. I have always been treated professionally and never been asked any unusual questions or detained.

 

I really need to find the spell check button. Help!!!

[Gaybutton]

I really need to find the spell check button. Help!!!

 

You can't find one because the board doesn't have one. There are two solutions. One is to simply first write your post on a word processor and let the word processor check your spelling. The second is to download the Firefox browser. That browser does have a spell check button and it works beautifully checking spelling before you submit your post.

 

I don't know why you are desperate for a spell checker, though. You haven't misspelled anything at all.