Harrassment at the airport!

D

deshipublic

Member
This just happened an hour ago!

My wife was in a city in Texas for work for 3 weeks and she was at the airport an hour ago to fly back to Dallas, TX. She has been living in the States for the past 12 years and she has Green card for the past 3 years.(H4 before that) Never had this unique problem before!!

While she was checking in, she was asked if she is a citizen of United States!!! Then the guy asked 'where is your Green card'? She said she was not travelling out of the country and since she may lose it, she doesn't carry her green card with her. Then the guy said then you don't have any proof that you are a permanent resident and I can fine you $10,000!!! She got panicked and thankfully had her social security card and gave it to the asshole!! He went in and came back and said he cannot find her Alien number and hence there is no proof and he is not gonna let her get on the plane!!!! Then he got a phone call from someone standing a little far from there ( my wife could even see the other guy) and he got mad and said "I 'll let you go this time"!!

This is so strange. I know we are supposed to carry the Green card with us, I guess. But we don't do it for fear of losing it. We travel atleast once a month within the country for work etc. and never faced such harrassment! My wife is extremely depressed and feels humiliated. She said after being here for an era and and that too legally, this is how they treated me!!

Can someone tell me if it is true that you HAVE TO CARRY YOUR GREEN CARD ALL THE TIME?? if yes, then we learned our lesson, if not, I am going to lodge a complain against that guy for harrassment.
Thanks guys and please carry that card all the time with you, I guess.

I don't know what kind of world we live in anymore!! :mad:
 
He said he is an immigration officer. but my question is why does she need to prove anything if she is NOT GOING OUT OF THE COUNTRY!!
To my understanding she needed to carry a phone ID and she had her drivers licence with her.

She mentioned to me that he asked Are you a US citizen and she said no but I am a permament resident, he asked that question to everyone, but they replyed 'yes' and he didnt ask for any proof or anything from the other people. So if my wife replied 'yes', he wouldnt have questioned her too??!!!!
I'm really confused here!
I am about to call the airport and complain to them about this asshole!
 
I just called the Airport and wanted to complain about this guy. This is what I was told :

"we do not have any immigration offier working at this airport. The guy was a 'border security patrol". We get complaint like taht all the time. Don't waste your time, we can;t do anything about it. Since the broder security guys come from Dept. of Homeland security , trying calling there and complaint but then again, no use of doing that. You'll just waste your time."

I am so frustrated and mad now! This is NOTHING BUT Racial profiling (brown skin) :mad:

And I should've had a way to complain about this guy to someone!!!
 
After checking in for my flight in El Paso I was stopped by Border Patrol Guy and question. I had my Green Card with me...and no problem...my co-worker who's parents are from India said he was a citizen...they stopped him and questioned him for 20 minutes....he didn't have any proof of citizenship...and only ID he had was his Drivers License. He almost missed his flight...

I think this is normal business in small border town airports...
After that...each time he goes to the border town he takes his birth certificate with him....
 
hmcis said:
I am so frustrated and mad now! This is NOTHING BUT Racial profiling (brown skin) :mad:

And I should've had a way to complain about this guy to someone!!!
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When you receive GC, the letter said you have to carry GC all the time and she didn't, so that what guy said was correct(dont' know $10000 should be correct fine or not). CBP officer can ask anything if they thought necessary.
Yes, the guy might be rude, but you can see such thing everywhere. I'd say
get over it.
 
As harvydonald mentioned, this is quite common in the border cities. For example, around San Diego they have border agents within the country who pull people over regularly and ask for identification. It kinda makes sense around there, but not so sure why they do it in airports as well. Oh well, next time around, be sure to carry the card along.
 
hmcis,
Welcome to the real USA. Racial hatred which was masked under good manners all these years is surfacing.
 
you must carry the original card at all times. that is the law. an officer may be satisfied with a copy of the card, but he/she doesn't have to accept a copy.

Also the penalty is up to $100 and/or up to 30 days in jail for not carrying the original.
 
lotechguy said:
Will a copy of the card work ?
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I guess so. That BP guy was interested to know the alien# right?
If yes, then a photocopy would do.....

As one of the previous poster said, we have to be little more cautious when we travel close to borders. Its always better to carry proper documents when travelling close to borders.
 
hmcis said:
He said he is an immigration officer. but my question is why does she need to prove anything if she is NOT GOING OUT OF THE COUNTRY!!
To my understanding she needed to carry a phone ID and she had her drivers licence with her.
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I have thought long and hard about profiling/discrimination issues for many years. The only logical conclusion I came was that it is just part of nature.
I am guilty of discrimination (atleast in my mind) against some people or certain group of people.

Though government policies do not allow for profiling, how those policies are implemented boils down to individuals. Some people are more aware and more open, others are not and there are others who are outright scum. Unfortunately when we encounter the second and third kind, such incidents of profiling/discrimination pop up.

hmcis, World is changing. They are talking of official profiling in UK. All I can say is take such incidents in your stride and be careful next time and dont put yourselves in a position that they can emploit or discriminate you.

I was a victim of discrimination a few times, in all those times, it was my mistake in the first place to give them an opportunity to discriminate against me.

Oh but the way, it does not matter if you are travelling within USA, but air or ROAD. In border states, there are lot of check posts within USA where they stop you and ask for immigration documents.
 
Apollo_13 said:
I guess so. That BP guy was interested to know the alien# right?
If yes, then a photocopy would do.....

As one of the previous poster said, we have to be little more cautious when we travel close to borders. Its always better to carry proper documents when travelling close to borders.
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In the above incident, an A# would have helped. But the problem seem that the original poster was pissed off because documents of others were not checked.

Frankly, I think hmcis is overreacting. The officers at the airport (provided they have some kind of authority to check immi documents) dont seem to be totally unreasonable.

I entered thru Detroit once, all I had was the receipt number of my H1 transfer filing (no real H1) and a visa stamp in my passport. They took the number, checked their Databases and let me get in with out many questions.
Ofcourse the rules say that they should.
 
unitednations said:
Yes, you are supposed to carry the greencard with you.

However, that isn't the point here.

The point is what legal basis does the particular person have to ask for it.
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First, it looks like they were border partol, that is their legal basis.

Second, they were asking others the same question, so there is no discrimination.

Third, why they did not ask for documents from others? The officer DOES have some kind of liberty to decide who to ask for documents. In this case, the traveller was not a citizen and she herselves said so. The officer asked for GC -- that's legal. The traveller did not have the GC - not so legal. Then the officer asked for A# -- thats being reasonable. Letting the traveller go -- that sensible.

To me, it seems like a simple matter of hurt ego rather than some real discrimination.
 
GreenCardVirus said:
First, it looks like they were border partol, that is their legal basis.

Second, they were asking others the same question, so there is no discrimination.

Third, why they did not ask for documents from others? The officer DOES have some kind of liberty to decide who to ask for documents. In this case, the traveller was not a citizen and she herselves said so. The officer asked for GC -- that's legal. The traveller did not have the GC - not so legal. Then the officer asked for A# -- thats being reasonable. Letting the traveller go -- that sensible.

To me, it seems like a simple matter of hurt ego rather than some real discrimination.
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I am not surprised by this kind of post. There is always someone who tries to pretend that discrimination did not occur and it was only a case of some official exercising their authority. It is no wonder that law enforcement feels free to do as it pleases.
As far as this particular incident is concerned, I would say that there was definitely some discrimination involved. Everyone knows that you are supposed to carry the GC with you in case you are asked for it. How many people really carry it? close to zero, because it is not reasonable to carry such a valuable document whereever you go. If there was truly no discrimination the officer present should understand the situation and not harrass people for a document he knows they won't carry.
In the same vein, he asked people if they were US citizens or not, did he ask them to show their passport? Have we heard of a case where a european was asked for his GC? Of course not. The treatment only applies to people of a different skin color.
 
hipka said:
I am not surprised by this kind of post. There is always someone who tries to pretend that discrimination did not occur and it was only a case of some official exercising their authority. It is no wonder that law enforcement feels free to do as it pleases.
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Ha, Ha. I spent lot of my hard earned money (15k) fighting what I perceived was discrimination and actually won the case base on "no probable reason to stop". I dont want to share that story, I am guilty of putting myself in a vulnerable position inthe first place.

What I wrote is in a perspective of what is arguable as discrimination in a court of law.

I was reading the original post again, one thing I dont understand is that what was that 10,000 fine about? Is there really such a thing?
 
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hipka said:
As far as this particular incident is concerned, I would say that there was definitely some discrimination involved. Everyone knows that you are supposed to carry the GC with you in case you are asked for it. How many people really carry it? close to zero, because it is not reasonable to carry such a valuable document whereever you go. If there was truly no discrimination the officer present should understand the situation and not harrass people for a document he knows they won't carry.
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Oh, be serious.

The same can be argued for a Driver's License, which is probably even more valuable and necessary than a GC, yet if you get pulled over by the police and cannot produce the License, you will be getting a ticket. Trying to claim discrimination from the judge will (at best) result in being laughed at and (at worst) getting yelled at and fined.

The law says you need to have the GC in your posession, and the Border Patrol and ICE have the absolute right to question any non-US citizen and see if they are here legally.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
Oh, be serious.
The same can be argued for a Driver's License, which is probably even more valuable and necessary than a GC, yet if you get pulled over by the police and cannot produce the License, you will be getting a ticket. Trying to claim discrimination from the judge will (at best) result in being laughed at and (at worst) getting yelled at and fined.
The law says you need to have the GC in your posession, and the Border Patrol and ICE have the absolute right to question any non-US citizen and see if they are here legally.
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The analogy is not appropriate, a Drivers License is required to drive. How would you like it if someone came and asked you for your DL when dining in a restaurant or came knocking at your house and asks for DL? Now what would you say if this same guy does not ask DL for people of another color?

I know the law says that GC should be in possession always. Does this mean I will need to carry it each time I visit the mall or go to a moive?? It is unreasonable to ask for it when you know that people will not have it and that is exactly the way a law should be enforced.

After all discrimination is not always in the law but many times in the way it is enforced!!
 
hipka said:
The analogy is not appropriate, a Drivers License is required to drive. How would you like it if someone came and asked you for your DL when dining in a restaurant or came knocking at your house and asks for DL?
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But that is equally inappropriate. The DL is not required when you are not driving. However, the GC is required when you are in the US.

It is unreasonable to ask for it when you know that people will not have it and that is exactly the way a law should be enforced.
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So according to your logic, if most drivers stopped carrying the DL, it would no longer be appropriate for the Police to ask for it????

After all discrimination is not always in the law but many times in the way it is enforced!!
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If you believe you have a discrimination claim, you can certainly try to raise it. The courts, on the other hand, will not agree with you. There are plenty of white indiviudals who speak English without an accent (like me) who are not citizens yet are never asked for a GC; that doesn't mean that the Border Patrol must waste their time asking everyone for a GC instead of concentrating on those who are most likely to be non-citzens and not complying with the law.

It's no different than strip-searching 90 year old grandmothers in wheelchairs to prove that that security is not discriminating. It's just stupid.
 
hipka said:
After all discrimination is not always in the law but many times in the way it is enforced!!
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Totally agree with you on this. I just want to put across a point that there are a lot of unreasonable officers out there, the onus lies with us whether we would let them to be unreasonable with us.

One scenario I am not sure of what to expect is what if at the airport she said "yes" when asked if she was a citizen. Should the officer ask for documents? Would that be profiling/discrimination? I would say it is.

We were going thru Yuma to San Diego, my wife was driving. The border patrol stopped and asked if we were citizens, and my wife not kowing too many specifics of immigration said "yes". The officer just let us go. We did have all out documents with us just in case.
 
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