what is the meaning of the word "detention"?

If some one is held back from the normal flow and was allowed to move only after relatively considerable time and questioning ,I guess it to be construed as 'detention'.
Also,one in 'detention',not in free normal movement along with others,is forced to some restriction .
Does these above,situations can be called a 'detention'?
As per some online free legal dictionaries,it is a kind of--
'The act of keeping back, restraining, or withholding, either accidentally or by design, a person or thing '

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Note: I am not a lawyer and I am just a lay man without any legal knwledge.!
Read the above STRICTLY at your own risk.
 
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Jackolantern said:
If the line is at the airport, you are not free to leave until the immigration officer lets you, even though you don't have chains.
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My point being that waiting in that line is not considered being detained, but being taken out of that line for secondary processing could be considered being detained. In my case, I didn't consider myself as being detained because the issue appeared to be some error in their system and not some suspicion that I was under.
 
I''ll say don't make trouble for youself and for USCIS by considering
secondary inspection as detention. Unless you can find an example
that show USCIS has ever accused anyone who ever experienced secondary inspection of lying because of not answering Yes to the detention question, forget about it.
 
Jackolantern said:
If the line is at the airport, you are not free to leave until the immigration officer lets you, even though you don't have chains.
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You are free to leave the line up towards immigration, but of course you won't be able to proceed. The same goes for waiting in a car at the border..if you are in the line up, you can always decide to pull out of the line and return to departing country.
 
Bobsmyth said:
You are free to leave the line up towards immigration, but of course you won't be able to proceed. The same goes for waiting in a car at the border..if you are in the line up, you can always decide to pull out of the line and return to departing country.
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I wasn't talking about land borders. At the airport, if you try to go anywhere outside a certain restricted area of the airport, you will be arrested if you have not been cleared by immigration. That is not being free to go.
 
Jackolantern said:
At the airport, if you try to go anywhere outside a certain restricted area of the airport, you will be arrested if you have not been cleared by immigration. That is not being free to go.
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There's a big difference between leaving a restricted area and leaving the line up for immigration. If you are in a line up for immigration , you are free to step aside, however you will not be permitted to leave the general area.

Also, it depends on where you clear immigration. For example, if I were to take a flight from Toronto to Chicago I would clear US immigration in Toronto. If I was in the line up for US immigration, I would be able to leave the line and return to Canada on my own free will.
However, if I take a flight from Paris to Boston, I would only clear immigration in Boston and if I decide to leave the line up I would not be allowed to leave the restricted area.
 
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NewRunner said:
I went through a similar experience when I had advance parole documents and I flew back from a business trip overseas twice in 2002. On both occasions, it was for less than an hour, and there were no additional photos taken or anything like that.

When everything was squared away, I asked them if there was something wrong with my file, and they said that this was routine secondary screening because there was something wrong with my record in one of their systems and so they had to check my identity and status using another system. I did not consider this being "detained" for the purposes of my N-400 and until I saw your thread, didn't even occur to me as being an issue. Somewhere along the line, the record was corrected because on subsequent trips returning to the U.S., I never experienced secondary screening again.


To really know what is in your record, and you may never obtain the full and complete record, you have to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USCIS. There are instructions for doing so on their site. But don't hold your breath, it can take a long time to get it.



A Wiki Answers response to the question of what it means to be detained by a police officer provides this as part of the answer.

A Detention is a non-consensual temporary denial of liberty. A police officer must have "reasonable suspicion" that

  • you are about to commit a crime
  • you are in the act of committing a crime, or
  • you have committed a crime
in order to Detain you. The officer has the authority to temporarily deny you the ability to leave while he investigates his suspicion. You may still refuse to answer any questions, but you have no right to leave. The officer must use a reasonable amount of time to investigate his suspicions until the detention elevates to the level of "probable cause" to arrest you. If the officer fails to determine there is probable cause for an Arrest, he must release you in a reasonable amount of time. The courts have determined that what is a reasonable amount of time is relative to the criminal activity being investigated. If you attempt to leave a detention without the permission of the police officer, you may be subject to Arrest. During a Detention, absent certain circumstances, a police officer may not move you to another location or the Detention becomes a de facto Arrest.

So by this description, if you were not free to leave, you could be considered to have been "detained" by the CBP officer, who is a federal law enforcement officer.
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I would say that the detention described here is what USCIS is interested in.
 
You get sent to secondary as long as you don't have your greencard (eg you just have a stamp in your passport). Hard to imagine that is considered "detained"

I am not sure about it, but I think if you are standing in line waiting to clear immigration, you can theoretically withdraw your application for entry into the US and leave on another flight.
 
c1mth0g said:
You get sent to secondary as long as you don't have your greencard (eg you just have a stamp in your passport). Hard to imagine that is considered "detained"
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Generally speaking I agree with you, but the OP describes the incident as the following,

"- At one time several yrs back, when I had become LPR but not yet received GC, I had gone to Mexico through land. While coming back, I showed my Indian passport with the LPR stamp on it. I was immediately sent to a room and asked to sit for several hrs. They took my photo, fingerprints and did all kinds of check . When all was clean, I asked them " Why am I even in this room in the first place"? They told me its because I was a citizen of a country of special interest - wierd..."

Being held against his will for "several hrs", and then being processed for photos and fingerprints, would all suggest that the OP was "detained". This is apparently in his record now because of the subsequent questioning he has received at the border crossing. I could make an argument either way, but it may be safer for the OP to answer the question in the affirmative and then explain it to the IO at the interview. The alternative is to have the IO wondering why the OP isn't talking about an incident that appears to be logged in his computer A-File.
 
OK, I am the OP.... looks like I have confused everyone!

It appears that the general consensus is if you were to apply the original dictionary meaning of the word "detained", anyone who has to go through secondary screening and has to wait for maybe several hrs for his turn - is DETAINED.
However, I think the INTENT of the question is " did they detain you if they had a reasonable doubt/suspicion; questioned you and then later determined no charges had to be filed".
The answer to this is clearly NO. They had no suspicion on me. They did not even check the records before doing this. Here are the sequence of events
- I arrive at the POE. Give my passport with the 551 stamp page opened.
- The IO looks at the cover of the passport and immediately summons his folks to do s FULL CHECK on me. **** THERE IS NO COMPUTER CHECK DONE - HE DID NOT EVEN TYPE ANYTHING*****
- I am taken to a special counter. The guy puts my passport on the table. There are several people ahead of me.
- Another guy comes, looks at the passports/GC/ other docs on the table and selects mine and tells me to go to a room.
-Full body search is done and everything I have is taken and asked to sit for an officer to review my case.
- My turn comes after 4 hrs. After that it was 10 mins before they called a guy to return all my stuff.
- Inspite of my asking why etc - they said I had a special passport plus it was a RANDOM search like they do at the airport....


Now is that "detained?" What suspicions did they have? NONE.

So either I declare it in the application or not. Both of them have risks

Risk of declaring
- It is possible it was a routine secondary inspection and someone decided to do it in a room and I had to play by the rules there.
- I will have to explain it. I am VERY SURE they will not decide there itself if I should be approved - reason being - DETAINED at a border is a VERY serious issue - its 100X worse than - say not paying your taxes.
- Do you think they will easily give citizenship to a person who is detained at the border?????
- It may take several months or yrs for several people to review it and then decide it was not a serious thing.
- So in other words, I will be making a HUGE issue out of something which may not serious.

Risk of not declaring
- I was not asked EVERYTIME I entered - only twice when the officer took some time to go through my record . So it must be not be detention.

- If the IO asks me about the incident, I will tell it was a secondary inspection and not anything - EVEN REMOTELY they had suspicions on me. I will show them the passport having I551 stamp.
- The reasoning they gave was that I was an Indian citizen - is nonsense - I will tell it to IO.

- If the IO is not happy and declines my application, I will contest it. The chances of this happening are low.
Reason? Almost everyone has had to go through secondary inspection at some point of time. They routinely ask non-ordinary questions like - why do you want to go on spring break in Mexico when you have those avenues in Miami or LA..
- If they do fingerprinting and FBI check, it does not qualify for being in detention.

- It was the WAY they handled me due to their staffing etc - dont know. Plus they repeatedly told me it was not anything big.

If they STILL decline, I will make a huge issue because they definitely overstepped their authority and I am being penalized.
I am being honest - if they had told me it was detention I would have mentioned it.


- I will still be eligible to reapply for N400. I will mention it the next time.
 
I entered USA in 2003 using my Advanced Parole document since my I-485 was not yet approved and was sent to secondary inspection for additional verification of documents. Would that be considered as detained? Also I received my GC one year later in 2004. Is the good moral character only applicable for 5 years immediately before the date of N-400 application?
 
coolguy446 said:
I entered USA in 2003 using my Advanced Parole document since my I-485 was not yet approved and was sent to secondary inspection for additional verification of documents. Would that be considered as detained?
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Just to be clear, I do NOT believe that routine secondary screening at immigration checkpoints is the same as being "detained" for the purposes of the N-400.
 
new_LPR said:
Here are the sequence of events
- I arrive at the POE. Give my passport with the 551 stamp page opened.
- The IO looks at the cover of the passport and immediately summons his folks to do s FULL CHECK on me. **** THERE IS NO COMPUTER CHECK DONE - HE DID NOT EVEN TYPE ANYTHING*****
- I am taken to a special counter. The guy puts my passport on the table. There are several people ahead of me.
- Another guy comes, looks at the passports/GC/ other docs on the table and selects mine and tells me to go to a room.
-Full body search is done and everything I have is taken and asked to sit for an officer to review my case.
- My turn comes after 4 hrs. After that it was 10 mins before they called a guy to return all my stuff.
- Inspite of my asking why etc - they said I had a special passport plus it was a RANDOM search like they do at the airport....

Now is that "detained?" What suspicions did they have? NONE.

So either I declare it in the application or not. Both of them have risks

Risk of declaring
- It is possible it was a routine secondary inspection and someone decided to do it in a room and I had to play by the rules there.
- I will have to explain it. I am VERY SURE they will not decide there itself if I should be approved - reason being - DETAINED at a border is a VERY serious issue - its 100X worse than - say not paying your taxes.
- Do you think they will easily give citizenship to a person who is detained at the border?????
- It may take several months or yrs for several people to review it and then decide it was not a serious thing.
- So in other words, I will be making a HUGE issue out of something which may not serious.
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With your more detailed explanation, it seems reasonable to assume that you were not "detained" based on any set of suspicions about your past, present, or future conduct.

Like I said, I can make an argument either way here, but I don't think this will be an issue for the approval of your N-400 regardless of how you answer the question.

But I do not agree with your assumption that, "DETAINED at a border is a VERY serious issue". It is a serious issue if they detained you on suspicion of perpetrating some kind of immigration fraud, contraband smuggling, or other serious crime. I don't think the border per se makes any of this worse or better. Being "detained" on suspicion of perpetrating domestic violence is right up there in the serious category and that has nothing to do with the border.

Since you have successfully navigated border crossings since the incident, and because you raised no suspicions that they discussed with you, I think you could answer NO on the question. When the IO runs through that part of the form with you during the interview, you can ask the IO if a longer secondary screening at a border checkpoint should be considered being "detained". The IO may ask for the circumstances but after hearing your explanation will most likely just move on.

But just to clarify, I do NOT believe that routine secondary screening at an immigration checkpoint should be considered as being "detained".
 
new_LPR said:
Risk of declaring
- It is possible it was a routine secondary inspection and someone decided to do it in a room and I had to play by the rules there.
- I will have to explain it. I am VERY SURE they will not decide there itself if I should be approved - reason being - DETAINED at a border is a VERY serious issue - its 100X worse than - say not paying your taxes.
Click to expand...

IMO, you're being paranoid about the whole thing. Even if you decide to declare the incident as a detention, all you have to mention is "secondary inspection at POE" and the IO will move on. What they are interested in are detentions that led to something more serious such as an arrest.
 
Hi Experts
After reading all Replies, I am confused and worried
As in my case, coming from Canada to USA at POE, Officer asked me If I had any fruit/vegetables. I just heard fruit and mentioned like I had 1 dozen mangoes, vegetable part I skipped I didn't had that in mind. I probabaly just had $10 worth of some vegetable.
The Officer said that the Agriculture specialist will do secondary check and make sure the mangoes are good to go into US. And that point they find a small bag of vegetable. They fined me $300, for not declaring that.

The process took roughly an hour and half. As they were trying to fill form finding exact name of vegetables. May be they were just finding the agriculture term for Okra, Drumstick and Pegeon peas.
I was not taken into any room or something and no one searched me, obivously they did search Van trunk. I was just sitting in the lobby till they gave me a paper which mentioned at this and saying I agreed to pay the fine.

I paid the fine.
I asked the officer specifically will this be a problem in future, he said no the fine is paid and case is closed.
The took fingerprint of my Indexfinger saying that just need to make sure, I am the same person as in my Green card.

All this happened after I filed for N-400
Obivously I am gonna mention this to IO at Interview
My only question, is this a crime, or detention or what is it.
Will this cause problem for Naturalization

I would appreciate a sincere feedback from all you experts.
 
GC_KA_CHAKKAR, I think I would put that down as a detention, as you were held for a violation and even paid a fine for it. It was not an everyday immigration check at primary or secondary inspection.

But as far as secondary inspection in general is concerned, USCIS knows if you've ever been to secondary inspection, so if they considered that a detention for N-400 purposes they would have been denying or at least hassling numerous people for answering NO to that question. There is no evidence of that happening, so it's fairly safe to answer NO if the only detention-like incident you had is secondary inspection.
 
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