US Customs are Getting Bad

[ladislav]

Had a long trip 3 days ago- Cebu, Manila, Nagoya, Detroit, Akron OH. When in Detroit, the passport control now asks all kinds of questions- "Who do I know in the Philippines, do I have property there, etc., "

Then, a female Customs officer walked up to me and started asking me- "What were you doing there?" I said I have family and friends. "Family so far away?" "Yes", I said, I am a Godfather." "How long were you away? What else were you doing there? Were you working there?" Getting nosy.

As she walked away, she pulled Colombo on me. "Oh, one more thing, when you get your bag off of the carousel, come on back, we will do a secondary inspection".

She waited for me and then took me to the very corner of the huge claim area and left me sitting in the chair. I was very thirsty and dying to go to the bathroom. Plus I had a flight to catch to Akron.

She said' You will go to the bathroom when we're done with you and you may just not get on your flight".

Before me, there was a young African American guy whom them were examining very thoroughly. They had all of his stuff practically gutted. Every bag opened up, and contents lying on the metal examination counter in neat piles. All the electronics lying in front of him next to one another. He was looking very annoyed and scared. I saw them take his camera and go through photos. They took his tablet/i-pad and were clicking on every icon while wearing blue gloves. Then, they started with his laptop. Again, icon by icon. They looked very, very serious.

She told me not to touch anything and took away my digital camera which I was holding in my hand. And then she called me and asked me to open my bags. After she went through every compartment, she took all my electronics, asked for my passwords and put them on a small desk with a computer in there. She took notes on a pad as she was going through them. First the tablet- icon by icon.

I had to take a leak. She told the other officer to take me to the bathroom. As I was coming out, he stood outside and asked me to sit next to the bathroom as they were going through my camera, laptop contents and tablet again and again while filling out some forms. They also gave me a flyer explaining the details of the electronic search and that my content could be copied.

Next, my smart phone- again, icon by icon. Other customs officers were coming up, talking to her, looking at me and walking away. I tried to walk up to them, but was shooed away- " Go back to your seat, sir, we did not invite you to come up!" The ordeal lasted some 30 minutes. At the same time, they were still holding the young dude in front of me. Eventually he was let go and then she also walked up to me, handed me all my electronics and said" Sir, you visited a country with a high level of illegal activities and we were checking your electronics for illegal content".

Since I had no illegal content, I was OK. But the whole thing was still very tense. They are also looking for counterfeit items- knock off watches, bags with brand names, etc. Possibly cracked programs on the computer.

Just be warned that the US Customs are getting very serious. So, be ready and do not bring in anything that may be construed as illegal. And the list of illegal items seems to be growing.

[jamesbond]

I read an article recently that said Detroit has the most scrutinizing customs department in the USA. I don't know why that is, you would think New York or Los Angeles would have the most scrutinizing customs department in America.

Glad to hear you made it back to the US in one piece ladislav.

[Teal Lantern]

People with trade secrets on their machines may consider other places to meet, in the future.

[magnum]

Remember guys, it's land of the free, unless your suspected of something *wink*

[NorthAmericanguy]

They were going through your electronics to see if you took pics with any underage children. I'm glad they're looking for that stuff as guys who go overseas to have sex with underage children make normal men who want to travel overseas to meet a wife/GF look bad.

[ladislav]

Obscene pictures, that is. Not normal pictures with your kids/god-kids or at orphanages where you help kids. I once helped an entire elementary school in India and those are not the pictures they look for.

[WorldTraveler]

The whole thing you described happened to me before too. It's a terrible waste of time that the government harasses law abiding citizens. I think it was in Detroit too, but maybe Minneapolis. They spent over a half an hour with all my things out of my bags looking at everything. They also looked at my photos too. I missed my next flight thanks to their extended search.

I am in the same situation as you. I had a girlfriend in the Philippines and I was thought of as "Daddy" by her daughter, because she never knew her real father. I've known the child for 5 years since she was 2 years old. I'm no longer dating her mother, but we are good friends still. I guess you could say I'm the child's "Godfather" or "Daddy" now. I actually sent some money to her grandmother for her to have a big 7th birthday party.

So now I guess I shouldn't have any pictures of her or her birthday party on my camera. Did they hassle you about the pictures of your god-child? It's pretty sad when good Americans can't help out the less fortunate without being hassled by our own government employees.

I usually hate coming through customs for this reason. At least the last time I came back to the US, the customs agent was nice and just said, "welcome back home" and didn't waste my time.

[ladislav]

No. They did not hassle me although I have plenty of photos of me with neighbors' and friends' kids and birthday parties and all.

I have pics of me with kids in India helping them to buy books for the school. Having grown up in s Slavic country where homosexuality and other such "preferences" are extremely rare, I have a healthy and natural protective attitude towards children.

I don't think they mind and there's nothing illegal about that. If anything, they will just ask who that is.

What they look for is... well, you know what.

[***JP***]

I went through the same trouble in Philadelphia back in January 2012 because I stayed in Lithuania for 2 months when I got married to my wife. They even asked me the same thing. You have family in Lithuania? they didn't check my bags though but they asked me why I stayed so long and if I was bringing anything that I didn't declare on the declaration form. They even did the secondary inspection to a college kid who spent the semester in Europe too.

[Wolfeye]

Ladislav- I'm curious: Would any of the TSA touching kids at the airport stuff have happened in the Slavic lands? I figure for all it's reputation (some deserved & some undeserved) that wouldn't be too likely. I could see it being a problem if some bitch where to be touching some guy's wife/girlfiriend/relative (not just from the guy, either- it seems plenty of the Slavic women would "take counteractive strides").

In truth, I don't think they're looking for people with creepy pictures of kids- because they touch kids, themselves. Some woman (and, actually, it seems like this happened to a bunch of women) actually got raped through her pants during one of these pat downs. Things get strange at the school all the time (something goes missing, there's a rumor that goes around, etc...). Ther's even a documentary called The War On Kids & it's free on Youtube.

Besides, what's the idea? Some has a multi-faceted criminal investigation because they travel? Suspectability is not a reason for suspicion.

Look at something: There's something called the OODA loop (stands for Observe Orient Decide Act, for those that don't know). There's the fact that they've been doing more & more "observing" lately. Maybe so they can decide & act? Everybody putting all their personal information on the internet, surveys, and forms doesn't help, either. Can't help but remember a country in Central Europe that got very interested in people's nformation. Became very tortuous & dictatorial- had a real issue with the rest of the world, too.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

They were going through your electronics to see if you took pics with any underage children. I'm glad they're looking for that stuff as guys who go overseas to have sex with underage children make normal men who want to travel overseas to meet a wife/GF look bad.

I agree that they were looking for evidence of child porn and/or child exploitation. There was a recent Supreme Court case that made it legal for border searches to include electronic searches such as this.

One thing you have to understand is that the typical American cannot fathom why someone needs to go abroad to enjoy life so you are suspect already. But the fact that the countries you visited are associated with child sex exploitation made you a target for scrutiny.

[Hero]

Damn. I hope that Chicago O'Hare isn't so anal. Are airports that strict for travelers coming back from the Dominican Republic? In any case, no way I'm bringing a laptop or SmartPhone with me.

[TopSpruce]

Yeah, I had the same ...but it doesn't matter to me anymore. Once you permanently expat you shouldn't be bringing stuff with you besides a carry on with some food and a toothbrush.

[tre]

It's completely outrageous...US Customs is completely out of control. I thought it was bad in LA, but sounds like your experience is even worse. I got the secondary inspection when I went to the Phils. I haven't gotten any secondary inspections when I went back and forth from Singapore though. I guess one strategy would be to go to Singapore first and then fly to other countries from there...then fly back to the USA from Singapore. At least then you wouldn't be as likely to be hassled. As "Big Brother" as Singapore is, it isn't nearly the in your face police state that the USA is...

[Teal Lantern]

At least they didn't steal the devices to re-sell, later.
Enough of them have certainly been caught doing that.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-0 ... eners.html