US Citizen Rights at US Border

This is a very unfortunate and is the case of borderline racism - provided you were diligent in answering their qsns, were polite and were not acting smart eg by questioning them back.

Thing is many of the people would FOREVER believe you are not from here EVEN if you get citizenship. The reason they ask all those qsns is " how did this jerk from 3rd world country become citizen" and they will ask you your life history to satisfy themselves.

I had a similar experience once after becoming PR. http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=300971
In my case they EVEN fingerprinted me - all 10 of them + took my picture in a secondary inspection room - prompting some officers to ask at future POE on why were I stopped before ( even they did not know).

I had written to San Diego Tribune and they had responded saying they will investigate ( whether the letter made it to their columns - I do not know).


About 2 months back I was stopped by a cop in my home city where I have lived for 10+ yrs. He kept insisting where I was from originally and EVEN if I told him I was an LPR ( actually now I am a citizen) he would still think I am an Indian.
The cop then asked me "what was I doing in US" - such a moron. I should have politely complained about him.

In your situation, if they stop you and ask zillions of qsns for no reason and then on your asking they tell that it is routine ( well we know it is not), get their name politely and write to DHS that those folks have harassed you and they are misusing their powers.

Contact media , like CNN and give their names. Those people ought to be punished for their rude , unprofessional behavior.
 
König said:
Hmm, this is not a very optimistic prognosis of my upcoming trip to Germany :cool: I for one would not want to be in your shoes after enduring 11-hour flight.

Did they give you any hint on why you were asked so many questions? Did you use your US passport to enter the visited countries? Maybe your passport did not have any entry/exit stamps? Some of the naturalised US citizens immediately lose a previous citizenship (e.g., India), so it would not be possible to provide any foreign passports.

As for myself, I have only visited Canada by car twice since becoming a USC. Both times coming back to the USA were exactly the same way as coming back with GC - standard set of questions, minimal time. Never "welcome home" or anything of this sort.
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I was flying from Germany too, 11 hours flight :) That was my 3rd trip oversees in 6 months (and 3rd trip as USC) and that might be the reason they questioned me like that, when I entered first 2 times they just asked couple of questions and let me go. Still, I find questions like "how did you become a citizen?" discriminating, it's not their damn business. I wonder what can they do to me if I refuse to answer such question next time?
 
new_LPR said:
Thing is many of the people would FOREVER believe you are not from here EVEN if you get citizenship. The reason they ask all those qsns is " how did this jerk from 3rd world country become citizen" and they will ask you your life history to satisfy themselves.
Click to expand...

I don't see why it's racist to ask this question. A friend of my father's was born in Balitmore years ago, then left the US as a child and lived thirty years in Czechoslovakia before returning with a strong accent. He is regularly asked how he got his citizenship, and the correct answer is "by birth".

When things are a little different, it's not unreasonable to ask more questions to make sure that the answers are correct.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
When things are a little different, it's not unreasonable to ask more questions to make sure that the answers are correct.
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Well, if you are being asked how you acquired citizenship every time you come back from a trip just because you have an accent or don't look like an average Joe the American, then it indeed can be considered discriminatory.

In case with your father's friend, it was really a bit different since his place of birth in passport was the USA while he had a strong foreign accent. This may warrant additional questioning. However, if a person's place of birth is not USA and he/she has an accent, then it should not be considered "a little bit different".
 
Next sunday should be interesting then.
First trip as a US citizen.
I'll be back (one week after my wife) with a blank US passport, as I got my egyptian, israeli and jordanian stamps on my italian passport and I'll use it also to enter italy of course.
Funny thing, the usual interrogation at the israeli border, I was asked my paternal grandfather first name and couldn't remember it... Then I remembered he had the very same first name and last name as I do. Even the israeli immigration officer laughed (whoever went to israel knows they never joke at the borders).
I think I'll be ok though. I have nothing to hide and I'll answer every question. At the end, they're just doing their job...
 
Hi New LPR,

Take it easy. When you crossed the Mexican-American border by land with your Indian passport and just LPR stamp, you were bound to attract some attention. Had you had your green card, it would have been probably less eventfull.
The immigration officers definitely wanted to make sure that you are the person you claimed to be. Taking into account how many illegal immigrants try to cross the border, their behavior is understandable. I do think that it is all right if they , say, ask how one obtained his/her green card or US passport. Such questions should be worrisome only for the bad guys, right?

I also had to go through the secondary inspection once. I am a European and I was returning to the US by air with passport and my green card. We almost missed the connection. I am not trying to draw the conclusion that immigration officers discrimminate against Europeans :)

On a general note, I would think that USA is more tolerant to foreigners than your or my country of origin. If you do not think about yourself as a second-class citizen, the vast majority of people do not think that way as well.

Enjoy your citizenship.
 
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I actually got back to the US today instead of Sunday.
I had a stampless US passport, as I entered Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Italy using my italian passport.
At immigration I presented my US passport and my customs declaration.
The young and good looking (for once) officer swiped my passport and asked me if I was traveling alone. I told her I was with my wife, but she came back on Monday while I went to Italy.
She then asked me what I was doing in Jordan and I said just tourism.
She stamped my passport and customs declaration and that was it!
 
She stamped your US passport with "Admitted" stamp? I have always heard that US passports don't get stamped upon returning to the USA.
 
As long as the passport is swiped in the OCR reader, you're good. They know when you came in or out and thru which port of entry, etc. The only thing is to keep track of it for your own records, or for the jet-setting crowd, bragging rights :)
 
Fresh experience coming from Germany on US passports. We filled one customs declaration, so my wife and I went to CBP agent together. He took our passports and asked my wife her city of birth and when she became a citizen. Then, he asked both of us what cities we were visiting, and after we replied, he then smiled and said "So, was this your second honeymoon?" Then, he asked how much cash we are bringing, and finally let us go without stamping our passports. For the first time, we got "Welcome back" from CBP.

Being admitted to our country of citizenship (USA) was drastically different than being admitted as tourists to Germany. German Bundespolizei scanned our passports, put the stamp and handed them back to us saying "Danke". He did not ask a single question or tried to have an "innocent" chit-chat with us. Much more pleasant than dealing with our own CBP agents. [Sigh].
 
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