Interrogated at POE!

[Shenzhen 34]

Would like to know if anyone being the petitioner was ever questioned about their travel and relationship by customs? I was on the way back from China yesterday and was detained and questioned by customs. What was I doing in China? How long was I there? Who did I visit? Did anyone give me money to travel. How much money was I carrying. Made to empty all pockets and coat and all luggage searched. I said this is the 3rd trip in the past year to go and get married and visit my wife! Then they asked me what is her name? Her birth date? Lots of questions then they asked me if I ever filed a previous petition or petitions. Of course I had so I answered yes they knew about those. They then grilled me on those 2 fiance visa's. I said I withdrew both of them. Which lead to more and more questions? Filed visa 2-13-10 for spouse. He said they are not just customs, but immigration and we are looking for fraud. I said I understood. All bags and belongings were searched. Every item in my wallet. Lucky I had pictures in their of her and some wedding photos. Receipts from money exchanges. Wanted to know if I had any evidence of marriage. Went to Guangzhou and did a Evolution of Relationship letter and had a copy of that handed that to them. I said I left all my our information there for her interview. In the end they liked all my answers and said this will help your case! In may 2010 I was detained and let go. They told me they had the wrong guy. They didn't say anything else I thought it was because it was because of my purchases. I also am glad I wrote down everything I bought. because they did check the customs form against my bags. I just want to make people aware and curious if this happened to anyone else?

[Sam and Fen 41]

I have been also questioned by Customs at POE after coming back from China but just a couple of things like what I was doing there and where I worked here in the US.

Another member on another site was also detained at EWR and was Interrogated like you were.

[Casprd 167]

If I'm understanding correctly, you have been questioned twice now at customs? I can only guess that your name is in their system, maybe because you had previously filed immigration petitions, so you will be subjected to closer scrutiny any time you enter the country. Or maybe it is just someone with a similar name who is flagged in their system. I haven't travelled since we filed our petition, but I will be going to see my wife in February so I will be curious if there is any closer inspection upon my return. Sounds like you did the right thing by answering everything truthfully and with short answers. As one law enforcement friend told me. More people talk themselves in to trouble than talk themselves out of it. i.e. they volunteer too much information and it comes back to bite them.

I have been also questioned by Customs at POE after coming back from China but just a couple of things like what I was doing there and where I worked here in the US.

Another member on another site was also detained at EWR and was Interrogated like you were.

Was this after you had filed the immigration petition?

[Sam and Fen 41]

If I'm understanding correctly, you have been questioned twice now at customs? I can only guess that your name is in their system, maybe because you had previously filed immigration petitions, so you will be subjected to closer scrutiny any time you enter the country. Or maybe it is just someone with a similar name who is flagged in their system. I haven't travelled since we filed our petition, but I will be going to see my wife in February so I will be curious if there is any closer inspection upon my return. Sounds like you did the right thing by answering everything truthfully and with short answers. As one law enforcement friend told me. More people talk themselves in to trouble than talk themselves out of it. i.e. they volunteer too much information and it comes back to bite them.

Was this after you had filed the immigration petition?

I was not questioned on my first trip but then that was to HK, but was on the two trips to China after I filed the petition.

It was Customs and not Immigration that did the questioning but fortunately for me just 2/3 questions and I was let go.

[Shenzhen 34]

If I'm understanding correctly, you have been questioned twice now at customs? I can only guess that your name is in their system, maybe because you had previously filed immigration petitions, so you will be subjected to closer scrutiny any time you enter the country. Or maybe it is just someone with a similar name who is flagged in their system. I haven't travelled since we filed our petition, but I will be going to see my wife in February so I will be curious if there is any closer inspection upon my return. Sounds like you did the right thing by answering everything truthfully and with short answers. As one law enforcement friend told me. More people talk themselves in to trouble than talk themselves out of it. i.e. they volunteer too much information and it comes back to bite them.

Was this after you had filed the immigration petition?

Thanks, yes it was after I filed the petition. They also asked my occupation and where I worked. Asked how much money I was carrying all total.

[Lansbury 19]

Thanks, yes it was after I filed the petition. They also asked my occupation and where I worked. Asked how much money I was carrying all total.

As you say this was customs, don't you think this had nothing to do with your immigration application but more to do with arriving back from China and maybe them checking you were not carrying counterfeit items, large sums of money or other matters of interest to customs.

[garfield529 47]

You were questioned this way because there is an unfortunate history of Westerners going to Asian countries for illicit behaviors (drugs, sex with minors, ect.). A single trip in a year will not usually trigger the scrutiny, but as highlighted by members here and other site, multiple trips in a year will often times bring you under the microscope. It is unfortunate because they give the impression of guilt and then search for the evidence of this guilt. Until the time comes when these deviant behaviors cease, this type of treatment will certainly continue for the unfortunate "selected" persons.

[Crossed_fingers 128]

I never had anything that invasive, but after one of my trips to Morocco I got a few minutes of suspicious-sounding questions. Mostly it was a lot of repeating whatever I said in that "I don't believe you" tone. Like the officer saw an old stamp in my passport and assumed I'd been gone for months, and I corrected him and indicated that he was looking at an earlier trip, and most recently I'd only been there a few weeks. No real question would follow, but he'd repeat back to me, "Two weeks this time. So you've been to Morocco before. So you go to Morocco a lot. Hmm." I waited for an actual question, but none followed. Then he'd ask whether I usually make it a habit to travel by myself to foreign countries and whether I thought that was normal. This was earlier in my relationship and I just responded I had friends there so I wasn't alone. "Friends there. So you say you have friends in Morocco. Hmmmm." That kind of thing on every topic, what I did for a living, etc.

At the time, I thought perhaps I was getting flagged in the system because Morocco is a predominantly Muslim country, although it is a U.S. ally. But during a later trip home, I was standing in a different line and I heard that same guy questioning everyone in that same nasty, suspicious "So you say ____. Hmmmmm. Do you think ____ is normal? So you think that is normal. Hmmmm." style, whereas all of the other officers were being pleasant and polite and welcoming everyone back into the country. I guess that's just his thing.

[Shenzhen 34]

You were questioned this way because there is an unfortunate history of Westerners going to Asian countries for illicit behaviors (drugs, sex with minors, ect.). A single trip in a year will not usually trigger the scrutiny, but as highlighted by members here and other site, multiple trips in a year will often times bring you under the microscope. It is unfortunate because they give the impression of guilt and then search for the evidence of this guilt. Until the time comes when these deviant behaviors cease, this type of treatment will certainly continue for the unfortunate "selected" persons.

He told me they were looking for fraud. I assume marriage fraud. He really grilled me on the Philippine fiancee visa. He was very polite and thorough. They typed a lot of stuff in the computer. He studied the pictures of me and the wife. Looked at everything. Wanted me to tell him and write down everything I knew about her. I said tell me what you want? Her name and birth day I said OK. He asked me 2x if that was her birthday I said yes. He was checking to see if I really knew it. He asked me why I had her passport photo in my wallet. I said because she gave me 3 and I used 2 for her petition. He said this will probably help my case. I said I appreciate it. Anything to help?

I was quite nervous about the whole thing they just started hitting me with lots of questions I asked them to please explain what this is about. He said we are looking for fraud. I then relaxed because I have nothing to hide. And the truth is the truth. Never expected anything so invasive.

[belinda63 2,981]

Since when have we so willingly given up our rights. You are a US citizen returning to your country. The only things you have to do is permit them to verify your customs form vs. what you have and show proof of citizenship. I really wish the US government would read the Constitution. Land of the oppressed and home of the timid.

[Sklith 0]

Since when have we so willingly given up our rights. You are a US citizen returning to your country. The only things you have to do is permit them to verify your customs form vs. what you have and show proof of citizenship. I really wish the US government would read the Constitution. Land of the oppressed and home of the timid.

You can do this, but be expected to be held for a LONG time.

[Shenzhen 34]

You can do this, but be expected to be held for a LONG time.

They know you want to get to your next flight. They can hold you as long as they want. They made me miss my flight in Newark and they don't care!

[rlogan 2,036]

It's going to get worse belinda63. Most Americans are deluded, operating on a fantasy about American Exceptionalism instead of paying attention to what is actually happening. They think that just because it is America, we must be free people with more rights than anywhere else in the world, and as the Chosen People it will never change. They don't have an appreciation for why America had more freedom - those principles embodied in the constitution that are increasingly suspended.

An important part of this delusion is thinking that despite more than thirty million illegal aliens in the USA at this time, that the police-state thugs interrogating the law-abiding at the border are even remotely effective. Whenever you hear people excusing this police-state behavior you know they live in some fantasy bubble where all the government has to do is say that it is for a good reason, and they're satisfied. They don't even want to look at any evidence that it is effective because their delusional views are too precious to their ego. They get angry when you point out how ridiculously ineffective it is.

We often hear people saying they are glad the government treats the law-abiding like criminals because it is keeping the thirty million illegal aliens that are here from entering. Those thirty million simply avoided the line the law-abiding must stand in. The police state thugs love a line of innocent sheep that will meekly obey every command. Why go out into the hot desert to stop what you know is 100% illegal entry by people potentially dangerous when you can have a nice cushy air-conditioned environment where you are the only person armed, every square inch is under your control, and less than 1% are criminals?

That's why the government sets up speed traps to ambush the regular citizens while allocating insufficient manpower to unsolved murders, rapes, assaults, etc.

I was entering in LA and seeing everyone with a laptop go through extremely invasive interrogations as they went through pictures on their computers. The guy in front of me was standing in front of a bed of flowers in one photo and the officer kept hounding him about it. Re-asking the same questions, expressing suspicion and doubt. I don't take any kind of computer or thumb drive if I can help it now because I got tired of these searches.

I was in the middle of a hostile interrogation from a border thug who was very envious that I travelled a lot, demanding to know more about my business and how I could run a business and still be able to travel, how much money I made to be able to do it, demanding I show him evidence of my business on the computer...

But there was an American in the next line who was questioning why they were doing such extensive interrogations of people - and every border guard in the area swarmed upon him. Mine left me to join the shark attack, which I was relieved about, but they strong-armed this guy into a room. The only thing he had done was question why they were being so invasive, but he was cooperating.

While they were forcing him into this room they were telling him loudly enough for eveyone to hear that the treatment by U.S. border officials was better than anywhere else in the world - that he should be grateful this was not China or some other place. As he was being roughed-up and forced into the room he was responding that he had been through China, Russia, Japan, Korea, etc, and no border people were worse than the USA. "Just look at what you are doing to me..."

He was absolutely right. Anyone looking at this had to be impressed at how delusional these thugs were, preening about how grateful the guy should be for being treated this way by his own government.

A couple of hours later I ran into him because we were taking the same flight to Seattle. He was extremely shaken by the experience. They had strip-searched him in there, including cavity search, and basically terrorized him because he dared to ask questions.

That action would be taken as sexual assault if it had been perpetrated by him on someone else. But because the government was doing it by force upon an innocent citizen, it is perfectly OK. That is how backwards and delusional our thinking is.

Most places I enter there are no questions, no searching - nothing. It is only the USA - my own country - that interrogates me and searches my stuff.

I have never seen border people do that to anyone except the USA. I even overstayed my visa in Russia once because my secretary had filled out the application to come home on the day my visa expired - but it was one day later in Russia as it was across the international date line.

The Russians asked me about it, but they were polite, courteous, and understanding. If I had been exiting from the USA, I would have been handcuffed.

My Fiance was interrogated when she entered. The border guys were very rude, asking in detail about sexual relations, and saying she really should be with them instead of me. Here again, these people can behave like lewd peeping Toms simply because they wear a government-issued costume.

Just watch though. Historically all empires become increasingly vicious and paranoid. Everything the USA is doing with respect to foreign policy, immigration, and domestic police-state spying is moving in that direction instead of getting better.

[Wayne and Claudia 40]

It's not just china my friend. My wife is from Colombia and I have already been sitting in first class, ready for a long journey home, when I have had Colombian military (DAS) come onto the plane and escort me off. They totally ruining the chips and other small snacks my wife and her family packed for me. One trip last April they refused to let my son take his soccer ball who his grandparents gave to him into his checked luggage. I guess they figured I fit the profile of a cocaine smuggler. All I could do, as well as you, is answer their questions and take the "perp walk" when asked. I don't blame the Colombian authorities since this is one method they have used to clean Colombia up. Embarassing? yes. But it's doable. I never have been questioned hard at the US poe but I would rather be questioned there then in the foreign country.

[carocaro 22]

Reminded me of George Orwell and his book 1984...totalitarian government bent on total manipulation.