Harrassment at the airport!

i am a little confused by how this thread has progressed. The issue isn't whether one person thinks the US immigration laws are too this or too that. The issue is WHAT are the laws and WHAT do we immigrants have to do to ensure we comply with those laws.

In the case of the LPR card, a LPR must have the card with them at all times. The penalty for not complying, if determined by a US official, is up to $100 fine and/or up to 30 days in prison.

Now given the possible serverity of the penalty and given that the US government is currently taking Homeland Security quite seriously, it would be very prudent for all immigrants to ensure that they have their LPR cards with them at all times. You may find this inconvenient, but as you are a guest in the USA it would be wise to comply.
 
I think that somebody's ego was hurt in this "incident".

There is no sign of any discrimination here - neihter legally nor morally. This is issue of obeying the law vs. inconvinience.

You know.......in most cities you have to leash your dog. Do you know how many ppl do not obey this law? And, are they excused? No, they have no rigth to complain once they are caught, but pay their fine.

In life you have to decide about your risks. If you think that loosing GC is higher risk than facing a $100 fine and/or 30 days in jail, here you go..... Do not let anything disturb you in your intentions.

Even if it sounds stupid (and this one does not sound stupid at all)...it is the LAW. If you do not like it, you have every right to lobby for its change and there are million ways to advocate for its change.

Frankly, the real discrimination is often hiden among tons of cases where people scream "faul" without any reason. Therefore, when there is an ACTUAL discrimination going on....it is hard to pick it out among all this weed of cases where someone's ego was hurt.

I do not want even to mention what "liberal" Europe is doing in terms of their immigration laws when you do not have documents handy with you. Try to argue discrimination in front of French, German or Swiss policeman when you are caught without documents.

US has the most relaxed and fairly resonable immigration laws.
 
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Superstring said:
I think that somebody's ego was hurt in this "incident".
There is no sign of any discrimination here - neihter legally nor morally. This is issue of obeying the law vs. inconvinience.
Even if it sounds stupid (and this one does not sound stupid at all)...it is the LAW. If you do not like it, you have every right to lobby for its change and there are million ways to advocate for its change.
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Read the entire thread and my arguments, question is not one of the law being obeyed but how the law is implemented.
Superstring said:
Frankly, the real discrimination is often hiden among tons of cases where people scream "faul" without any reason. Therefore, when there is an ACTUAL discrimination going on....it is hard to pick it out among all this weed of cases where someone's ego was hurt.
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Agree and this is one of them.
Superstring said:
US has the most relaxed and fairly resonable immigration laws.
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Disagree with you, immigration laws here are no more fair and reasonable than other countries. In fact employment based immigration heavily favors employers.
 
sarrebal said:
Sorry.
I just feel outraged when I read that the US is a racist country, especially from people that come from countries with basically no respect for cultural and racial diversity.
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Well I am talking because I come from a country which has more respect for cultural and racial diversity!
 
gunt said:
Also the penalty is up to $100 and/or up to 30 days in jail for not carrying the original.
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I don't carry the greencard. instead I carry $100 with me all the time.
 
Here's my opinion.

I carry my GC in my purse, at all times. Yeah, I know, if I loose my wallet, or if it is stolen I will loose my GC. So what ?! I will file for a I90 and pay for it. But at least I complied with US law.
I don't think this was a case of discrimination : the IO or Boder Patrol officer asked for a GC, which you are supposed to carry with you to prove that you are a LPR.
Why her and not the others ? Random pick, that's all. Maybe bad luck for her as she did not have it.
She was the one not complying to the law, and she would file a complaint ?!

How about checking out the luggage ? Not all the bags are looked at. So, will I file a complaint if my bag is opened and somebody looks at my underwear or my tampons , and not the next guy's bag ? No, it's a random pick, I accept it.
I would prefer if they check everybody ( for both luggage or immigration papers ), but then, no planes would take off on time.
I don't remember which airport it was ( I think it was in Venezuela ), but they had a system so that there is no discrimination : there is a gate ( like the ones for the security check ) that you need to go under for the checking counter : if the light goes red, then your bags are checked, if green, they are not. So, it really is random : that's a computer's pick.

In this forum, I also read one post ( sorry, I don't remember the author ) about carrying the GC or not: he was illsutrating his theory with speeding on the highway. He said, if it says speed limit = 65. In theory, if you are at 70 ( or even at 66 ), you could get stopped and fined. That's the law, you were above the speedlimit, and you shoudl not complain about it. However, it's not very likely to happen. Usually, you would be stopped if you are the fastest one, saying like 10 or 15mph above the speed limit. But that even depends on the state you live in : I am on the East coast, and everybody' at 70 when the limit is at 65. But, when I was driving in some other states, 65 was 65, not 70.
There is a difference between the law, and how it is implemented. Still, the police officer would be doing his job. Same for the IO or other people at the airport.

My 2cents. Like me or hate me, it's a free country. But as a guest in it, I try to comply to its laws.
 
sarrebal said:
Sorry.
I just feel outraged when I read that the US is a racist country, especially from people that come from countries with basically no respect for cultural and racial diversity.
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Ok lets go one by one,i feel sorry for you, that you are outraged.Welcome to reality.Racial discrimination is a integral part of every single country in this world,including u.s.a.Now if a person is racially discriminated in a nother country its coz there is no respect for cultural and racial diversity,but when a person is truely discriminated in america everyone simply tries to cover it up.
There was a ruling in a houston court last year,where a african american was awarded 10 million dollars,coz his bosses used to physically assault him,abuse him & torture him.This is something the court has acknowledged.Whether you like it or not racial discrimination is existing as of this moment in our beloved country.
That said,racial discrimination is not just from the white people,i have been racially discriminated by my fellow indians here.
I still remember when i applied for a contract & the middleman told me that particular job is only reserved for a certain sect of indians(andhra),i fucked tht mofo so bad,him being on a h1.
You walk to a jack in the box/taco bell/dominos if there is a mexican store manager,its pretty obvious that all the employees in that store are going to be mexicans.Not that there are no other ppl from latin/asian/european ppl ready to work.
I know a guy who was fired only reason being he was the sole white employee in the store and the rest were mexicans(they just framed him for stealing).racial discrimination is not particular to one sect of ppl,it includes everyone.
how can we forget Suzy,a immigrant himself who was yet another nazi fan.
So please stop getting offended about such petty issues and face reality.
Now for the op,sir with due respect if your wife is not carrying her gc with her it is her mistake.not that of the border patrol.They were just doing their job.i would go one step ahead and say she was lucky not to be arrested.
Surprised,i just got a black and white copy of my naturalization certificate a couple of days ago and its with me all the time.A couple of days ago,one of my friend who owns a gas station called me.His store was inspected by ice,guess what they almost arrested one of his emploees(a citizen),even though the employee was a citizen he didnot have anything to proove that he was a citizen.Fortunately he lived closeby and he had his wife bring in his passport.Thats not racial discrimination,they are doing their job.
I have heard of another gc holder who was arrested and was in custody for 12 hrs,coz he did not have his gc with him.Now,i would say that was a good job by ice coz that has caused a lot of awareness in the houston immigrant community.Its unfortunate that it was him.
Now if you dont want to comply with the law,dont blame others.We know,you know that you are a gc holder/citizen,but there are millions of others and you are not the only one.Unfortunately,these offcials have to deal with these millions of ppl...who probably come up with all kinds of stories for not complying with the law.
So step into their shoes for a moment and comply.These days complying with the law is a must especially if you are a immigrant.
And hipka,i have been telling this for almost 8 months...Indian govt officials do the jobs darn well,its just that we never realised it. :D ....till we had to go through this....

have fun
 
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ok for all the ppl who say that keeping a gc with you is inconvinient....hmmmm...most probalby women carry about 1/2 a pound of cosmetics/perfumes...yet a single gc is inconvinient,come on now....
All the guys who have atleast 5 credit cards/dl in their wallet,another card is too heavy...this is hillarious...
And when was the last time you got robbed/lost a credit card from your wallet?
where is the inconvinience?
I would differ if u r living in downtown chicago..but lets be practical ppl...most of the guys posting here live and work in safe neighborhoods...
 
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sarrebel, dude what are you going on about?

i feel that some type of racial profiling might be essential in the future however i don't think its very effective. can you really tell where someone is from these days just be looking at them? there is so much mixing going on and so many hybrid generations that racial profiling is just a waste of time.

another thing, all arabs don't look the same and don't like al qaeda, or terrorists. all muslims don't look the same, don't all have long beards. so you can't just pick them out. and if you pick out the ones who do "look" arab or muslim, is that really effective?? if they were looking for guys with heavy beards, i could be a terrorist and be clean-shaven and they would totally miss me. see my point??

i truly believe that the most effective type of screening is a behavior profiling. have US Marshalls around watching ppl at airports, and at least one on every flight. behavior profiling is far better than guessing if someone looks like an arab, muslim or terrorist. it is very hard for people who are planning something destructive to not act suspicious or out of the ordinary.

and just b/c ppl say that america is racist doesn't mean they don't understand cultural and racial diversity, or come from countries that don't share that. i come from a place which is quite like new york. almost the same actually just less people comparatively.
and i will say that racism and discrimination is rampant in america.

look at for instance the funding that surburbs kids get for education and the limited ones that inner-city or "walmart babies" (as they are called) get. there are many other examples. discrimination and racism exist. what sucks is that so many claim it when its not really the case that the real cases are side-lined. discrimination happens with everyone, among everyone. it's not just a black and white thing. it happens between ppl from the same country. in fact even the president (Bush) stated that discrimination still exists. check out his NAACP speech.

my opinion about the topic at hand, it maybe inconvenient, and also not applicable b/c the person was not travelling abroad, but the law says that she has to carry it around, and i would guess that its most pertinent when in an airport.
i wouldn't post a complaint against the officer, b/c i don't think you would win. he'd just say he was doing his job and he asked everyone, not just her. since her reply was different from others he questioned her further.
 
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query11. said:
I still remember when i applied for a contract & the middleman told me that particular job is only reserved for a certain sect of indians(andhra),i fucked tht mofo so bad,him being on a h1.
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Little hard to believe. What would the middleman get out of it? May be guys from that region are willing to work for dead low rate.

Anyways, discrimination could happen if you are short, fat, bald, dark, dont dress well, have different accent, or look young, or ugly.

Discrimination is just nature of "animal kingdom". Since humans are the most intelligent, they have to learn not do discriminate to differentiate between them and animals.
 
gc virus i am assuming u r a desi,it did happen to me....and he told me on my face that sap projects in this particualar firm is only for kultis,coz that was a well sought after implementation going on back in the days,this was in 04......if u r a south indian u will probably know what a kulti is.
 
query11. said:
gc virus i am assuming u r a desi,it did happen to me....and he told me on my face that sap projects in this particualar firm is only for kultis,coz that was a well sought after implementation going on back in the days,this was in 04......if u r a south indian u will probably know what a kulti is.
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Some one said it is somewhat reverse of telugu like gulte. By the way, stereotyping is also a type of discrimination/profiling. Life teaches you not to as you keep putting on years.

I hope what you experienced is more of an exception than something common. While such behaviour is higly deplorable, it is quiet common that such thing exists everywhere. The place I work has unproportional number of Gujjus among desis. The team I work had a very high proportion of Tamil guys.
 
I don't wanna go OT that much, but you guys didn't get my point.
I didn't mean that there are no racist people in the US. There's plenty, like in any other country. But you can't say the US is a racist country. There are so many anti-discrimination laws and court sentences that protect us.
I might be not considered a minority anymore, but Italians were definitely discriminated when they massively immigrated in the first half of last century.
A lot changed since then. We have a naturalized citizen who rules in the most populated state, something unthinkable even in western european countries.
And my wife is Jewish and had to flee her country 14 years ago because of heavy discrimination. Don't tell me she's not better of here.
 
sarrebal said:
I don't wanna go OT that much, but you guys didn't get my point.
I didn't mean that there are no racist people in the US. There's plenty, like in any other country. But you can't say the US is a racist country. There are so many anti-discrimination laws and court sentences that protect us.
I might be not considered a minority anymore, but Italians were definitely discriminated when they massively immigrated in the first half of last century.
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What you are saying is true but then each person has his own viewpoint and you should be tolerant when its expressed, not go into some crazy argument for racial profiling.
sarrebal said:
A lot changed since then. We have a naturalized citizen who rules in the most populated state, something unthinkable even in western european countries.
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Ok going by this logic, that means people from countries which have naturalized citizens ruling a state have less discrimination than western europe. Great, now I know that India, where an Italian, Christian Lady (Sonia Gandhi , who else?) is ruling the entire country has much less discrimination than western europe.
 
hmcis said:
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"!!
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Very interesting discussion folks! But I will add some info to the initial point....
After you get GC, you should go to Social Security Office and update your information, they will mail you new SSN card without employment restrictions. At this moment, they add your information in their computer, I think including your updated address, alien number, date you became PR. So you should have less problems if forgot your GC but tell them SSN and they look and see all your info is updated...
We had SSN card with restrictions, went to SSN office, all info was updated, they took our old SSN cards and later we got a new 'not restricted' SSN cards. My daughter for some reason had already 'not restricted' card, but I insisted she goes and makes same, she did, they updated all her info from her GC and they left her card with her since it was ok...
 
compass said:
Very interesting discussion folks! But I will add some info to the initial point....
After you get GC, you should go to Social Security Office and update your information, they will mail you new SSN card without employment restrictions. At this moment, they add your information in their computer, I think including your updated address, alien number, date you became PR. So you should have less problems if forgot your GC but tell them SSN and they look and see all your info is updated...
We had SSN card with restrictions, went to SSN office, all info was updated, they took our old SSN cards and later we got a new 'not restricted' SSN cards. My daughter for some reason had already 'not restricted' card, but I insisted she goes and makes same, she did, they updated all her info from her GC and they left her card with her since it was ok...
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Thanks for the information you provided. after having updated at the nearest SSA do they send a new number or with the same old number?
 
Immigration status

Well, I agree that GC should be carried in person. I have few questions:

1. Do all non-immgrants have to carry passports all the time to prove their visa status?

2. How will some prove that he/she is a US citizen?
 
madgu-gc2005 said:
what is the difference you see in the new card? is there any time frame you need to update your stuff after getting GC.
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No "valid only with authotization of INS" wording on it.
 
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