
A software engineer was detained for several hours by U.S. Customs - palidanx
http://www.recode.net/2017/2/28/14764064/nigerian-software-engineer-detained-by-us-customs
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joatmon-snoo
Discussion at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13741746](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13741746)

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LeoNatan25
This reads like a The Onion article. I had to double check the URL to
authenticate it is an actual article.

U.S. border patrol is getting more ridiculous by the day, but considering the
ignoramus idiot at the top, it is not surprising. It's good that more and more
horror stories are surfacing.

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KurtMueller
I mean, it's good that if there are horror stories, that they see the light of
day. It's bad that there are more and more horror stories.

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joey_dev
It's my understanding that border guards are trained to ask random questions
and assess your body language while answering. The important thing isn't the
question or the answer, but how you answer.

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deathanatos
This is true, but the majority of the article isn't about that. His interview
is essentially here:

> _After a few minutes of grilling him about the job_

Which it appears he fails, since the next part is him being detained:

> _the border agent escorted Omin into a small room and told him to sit down.
> Another hour passed before a different customs officer came in._

Now, there's not enough here to say if he failed the interview due to his
answers, his body language, or something else entirely, such as some prejudice
of the border patrol agent. But the detainment is a bit ridiculous. Could I
determine if a tree is balanced? Probably. With CBP breathing down my back and
no sleep? I wouldn't bet on it.

> _Omin tells me that the answers to the questions were technically correct,
> but he suspects the customs official interrogating him wasn’t technically
> trained and couldn’t understand his answers._

Now this I believe. And _explaining_ your work to a layman under the stress of
sleep deprivation and detainment? Good luck! I'd be lucky to explain binary
trees to a layman on a _good_ day. And, if a border patrol agent can vet his
answers, he can make much more not being a border patrol agent.

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dmitrygr
As a US citizen (and thus unlikely to be denied entry), I'd write my answer in
hex-represented bytes (representing arm instruction set). good luck :)

