I really wonder what can reasonably be done about this. It seems to be commonly accepted that TSA and border security are generally totally incompetent [1], but AFAIK no politician is making a strong effort to fix the problem. To me it's not really clear how it can be fixed anyways, as long as we continue to give inordinate power to jobs which have minimal requirements.
I'm sure just about everyone who travels frequently has had a bad experience at a border. Here's an anecdote: One time when I was returning from an overseas trip a border security guy said there was a problem and started questioning me about my trip and my whereabouts for the past couple years. He wouldn't hand the passport back to me and wouldn't say what the problem was. I finally got him to say that I was missing a visa. About 5 minutes later after finally convincing him to keep flipping through the passport instead of asking me more pointless questions, lo and behold, the visa was right on a page in my passport where it was supposed to be.
And yet despite the utter waste of my time and uncomfortable questioning, I didn't dare to say something slightly snarky like "you couldn't have looked through the passport once before deciding I didn't have a visa?", because I've read too many horror stories of ppeople being thrown into cells at US borders with little or no recourse and certainly no responsibility on the part of whoever makes that decision. Ultimately, in its current state these procedures are far too prone to one dude having a bad day and taking it out by power tripping on some poor traveller.
This is incredible - he is specifically accusing the Trump administration and/or the CBP of targeting him for harassment. These are the important lines:
> Until this incident, I have never been questioned like this by the CBP in my life."
> "The only thing that changed recently is that I have spoken out against Trump administration policies, including immigration policies and CBP," Gal added.
I'm sure just about everyone who travels frequently has had a bad experience at a border. Here's an anecdote: One time when I was returning from an overseas trip a border security guy said there was a problem and started questioning me about my trip and my whereabouts for the past couple years. He wouldn't hand the passport back to me and wouldn't say what the problem was. I finally got him to say that I was missing a visa. About 5 minutes later after finally convincing him to keep flipping through the passport instead of asking me more pointless questions, lo and behold, the visa was right on a page in my passport where it was supposed to be.
And yet despite the utter waste of my time and uncomfortable questioning, I didn't dare to say something slightly snarky like "you couldn't have looked through the passport once before deciding I didn't have a visa?", because I've read too many horror stories of ppeople being thrown into cells at US borders with little or no recourse and certainly no responsibility on the part of whoever makes that decision. Ultimately, in its current state these procedures are far too prone to one dude having a bad day and taking it out by power tripping on some poor traveller.
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-...
btw, recent discussions on this:
(2 days ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19558161
(1 day ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19562920