US Customs and Border Patrol

[pervez 4]

What´s up with US Custom´s and Border Patrol officers, why does it seem to be a requirement for that job that you are an a**hole?

Commonly on my travels I hand my passport over to that countries border patrol. They lazily look at the passport and then wish me welcome to their country, or "welcome home" when in my native one. Here in the US however they grudgingly ask where I´ve been, why I go out of the US, what I do for living etc. every single time. It´s like they´re offended by people going abroad or something...

And lets not get into the finger printing and picture taking, I´m close to being of the belief that US citizens should be treated in the same ####### way when they go abroad.

Why does the country that likes to believe they are bastions of liberty and freedom, some sort of "shining beacon" like to treat residents and visitors like dirt?

Edited October 18, 2010 by pervez

[Obama 2012 1,714]

The same reason all government workers are rude: Unions.

[pervez 4]

The same reason all government workers are rude: Unions.

No, they´re also unionized in other countries.

Lets keep the domestic politics out of this.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

No, they´re also unionized in other countries.

Lets keep the domestic politics out of this.

You asked a question, I was making a point.

Unions here aren't exactly the same as those overseas. There's an "attitude" that comes with being a union worker, especially if you have to deal directly with the public. It's the whole "i can be a #######, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it." attitude. Non-union workers would be fired for such things, Union workers cannot be. Well, not without a bunch of red tape. Add "power" to that being a border agent and you only enhance that attitude. Your life in that moment literally sits in the palm of their hands and the 'mood' they are in.

It does make a difference.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

For the same reason US cops are human waste material. (COPS stands for Criminal Organization in Public Service).

CBP officers and Police Officers are the bottom feeders, mentally too messed up to work in a real job. Their mission is not to help but to play the power game, which is why they don't give a ####### about the law themselves and break it frequently, knowing that a cop will not turn against a cop, the same way a criminal will not snitch against another criminal.

After work they stand naked, just with uniform jacket and badge in front of the mirror, and admire themselves (for lack of a more graphic description).

[Amby 490]

They're always really nice to me. I never get a ton of questions or rude people. I just smile and make eye contact as I walk up to the person and hand over my passport. They're always really friendly.

The only time I've had an encounter I thought was odd was in Italy. It wasn't even that the guy was mean, he just stamped my passport and waved me off. No questions or anything.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Amby

[AlinaH 38]

Strangely enough, I usually get a harder time (more questions asked) when trying to come home than I do going into the US. Like seriously, I'm a Canadian citizen and they have to grill me about where I work and why I left?

Anyways, I think it's just a power trip. They were probably bullied in school and now they get so high off of having some sort of power position that they abuse it.

[milimelo 4,260]

What´s up with US Custom´s and Border Patrol officers, why does it seem to be a requirement for that job that you are an a**hole?

Commonly on my travels I hand my passport over to that countries border patrol. They lazily look at the passport and then wish me welcome to their country, or "welcome home" when in my native one. Here in the US however they grudgingly ask where I´ve been, why I go out of the US, what I do for living etc. every single time. It´s like they´re offended by people going abroad or something...

And lets not get into the finger printing and picture taking, I´m close to being of the belief that US citizens should be treated in the same ####### way when they go abroad.

Why does the country that likes to believe they are bastions of liberty and freedom, some sort of "shining beacon" like to treat residents and visitors like dirt?

Fingerprinting and picture taking is common for visitors in the US (foreign students included) as well as for LPRs - they started with LPR fingerprinting and picture taking back in Dec 2008 I think.

I don't see what's the big deal in being asked couple of questions - I was asked some of those questions before too. No big deal unless you want to make it a big deal.

[Ban Hammer 12,885]

cbps officers are the 2nd most assaulted of all jobs - the most assaulted are park rangers. i suppose having a job where being attacked is the norm tends to make one a bit cranky.

[scandal 951]

I've never found US CBP officers to be rude or discourteous. I've always found them to be professional and proper. I've entered the US at many different POEs dozens of times over the years, and never once had a bad experience.

As to why they ask intrusive questions about where we've been and where we're going and what we're doing : that's their job. They've been trained to ask those questions. It has nothing to do with being unionized or with being on a power trip.

It has everything to do with keeping the country safe, allowing the right people in and the wrong people out.

The vast majority of people at POE are legitimately entering the country but as we all learned so well on 9/11, if we didn't realize it earlier, is that there are people intent on harm. The CBP officer needs to quickly filter those people out for further screening as efficiently as possible so the rest of us can get on with our travels. Asking intrusive questions is a way of screening the bad guys. Instead of complaining about it, be grateful that they're keeping us all safe.

[pervez 4]

I've never found US CBP officers to be rude or discourteous. I've always found them to be professional and proper. I've entered the US at many different POEs dozens of times over the years, and never once had a bad experience.

As to why they ask intrusive questions about where we've been and where we're going and what we're doing : that's their job. They've been trained to ask those questions. It has nothing to do with being unionized or with being on a power trip.

It has everything to do with keeping the country safe, allowing the right people in and the wrong people out.

The vast majority of people at POE are legitimately entering the country but as we all learned so well on 9/11, if we didn't realize it earlier, is that there are people intent on harm. The CBP officer needs to quickly filter those people out for further screening as efficiently as possible so the rest of us can get on with our travels. Asking intrusive questions is a way of screening the bad guys. Instead of complaining about it, be grateful that they're keeping us all safe.

That´s a very optimistic assumption that questions such as the below will actually get them some answers that would keep anyone safe. The only people with nefarious intentions they would catch would be of intelligence less than half that of the average person.

Here are the standard questions, almost always asked with a grudging annoyed tone, and sometimes accompanied by some ignorant remark about the answers:

- Where have you been?

- How long where you there?

- What did you do?

- What is your work?

- What line of ......?

- Who do you work for? (and you reply with the name of a obscure small company they´ll never have heard of anyway)

I´ve heard them grudge "what ya doing here", "why you go abroad so often", "why´d you leave the US" etc. Maybe it´s because I fly into a airport that only has 1 international flight and they´re less sophisticated than at other terminals...

I don´t feel any safer with the silly antic safety precautions used at airports now than 5-6 years ago. The bottle ban is merely annoying and nothing else. In any year, except 2001, I´d stand a greater chance of being killed by a lightning than a terrorist so I´m not that much in awe of this "be grateful they´re keeping us all safe" stance. But then again I always chuckle when I hear "the current threat level is orange", because when has it ever been lower and when will the safety-nerds ever allow it to go lower?

Edited October 18, 2010 by pervez

[scandal 951]

That´s a very optimistic assumption that questions such as the below will actually get them some answers that would keep anyone safe. The only people with nefarious intentions they would catch would be of intelligence less than half that of the average person.

It's by no means a foolproof system. There's a very difficult balance to be struck. On the one hand, allowing the hundreds of thousands of travelers and billions of dollars of commerce which daily pass through the nation's airports and land crossings to efficiently go about their business. On the other hand, making some reasonable effort at keeping out undesirable and illegal and dangerous people and goods.

Part of the solution is technology: improved detection capabilities, tamper proof documents. Part of the solution is human assessment.

The questions they ask, and the actual answers you give, are less important than the assessment they are making while asking you. Do you appear to be answering truthfully? Do you appear to have something to hide? Are you fidgety and nervous and uncomfortable? Are your answers incongruous with your presented documentation and demeanor? Even so - the intent is not to make a firm conclusion on the spot, only to pass on some small percentage of possible threats for secondary processing.

It may not make you feel safer. It does make me feel safer. It doesn't catch everyone, but I have no doubt it has caught many who have never made the 6 oclock news.

[cartaverde 12]

Ther border patrol in DFW seems much nicer than the ones in other POEs, at least based on our experiences.

However I don't think the attitude is exclusive to US border control. Seen it in Europe too...

[AlinaH 38]

It may not make you feel safer. It does make me feel safer. It doesn't catch everyone, but I have no doubt it has caught many who have never made the 6 oclock news.

I've had border patrol interrogate me about my religion, separate and interrogate friends coming to visit me, and tear apart our cars for no reason other than they appeared to be having a bad day. That doesn't make me feel safe.

Yes, I agree that many of the questions are necessary and they do it for a reason. But you can't deny that a lot of them are on a power trip and abuse their power.

[luckytxn 2,263]

I used to have to go to Canada a lot and every time I came back into the states the patrol were always rude but I learned to expect it. I just answer back in the same vein. They can't exactly deny me reentry even though they may want to.

I have noticed for the past couple of years though that the inland checkpoints that I have to go through that the patrols are getting ruder and more intrusive. They have even asked the last few times for permission to look into my truck. I just say NO unless they have a reason. The last time the guy got miffed when I blew cig smoke in his face as he was climbing up on the running steps to get his head in my window. He said that wasn't nice and I said the same can be said of him getting into my personal space.