FIRST WARNING

goosekirk says on Feb 5, 2006, 00:15:

What? They prevented you from getting on the airplane because you had a nine-hour layover? What, only the terr'rists have nine-hour layovers now? What airline was this, and was it the airline or some kind of government official that did this?

dave_travels says on Feb 5, 2006, 08:51:

You must be on file US Homeland security must have you on file. Your answers to the questions are unbelieveable. I would not let you in, and I am a Canadian too. I also had long lay-overs in Housten with Contenental airlines. But I told the truth; it is the cheapest ticket and I am using airmiles. Back up your answers with documents. The obligation is on YOU to prove that you will not stay in the US and work. Because you do not have a job in Canada, he assumed that you will get off that plane in Housten and work in the US.

I was a smart-ass once in LAX and I paid the price with a strip search with two big Bubbas. Now INS/Homeland Security gets my highest respect and the most sincere answers.

Gator says on Feb 5, 2006, 09:41:

A Clear Case Of POP. "POP" Pissing Off the Police. They do seem to have a way of dealing with a smart ass. Same rule applies to a traffic stop, in the USA or Colombia. "A soft smile turneth away wrath."

"Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapults habebunt."

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

goosekirk says on Feb 5, 2006, 12:14:

POP Personally, I make a habit of POP at the airport. They work for me. Their job is supposedly to make things safer, but they suck at it. I can't fire them and I don't have the authority to fix the system... best I can hope for is if they walk away feeling a little bit more tired, angry, or irritated than me, then I win. And that's not hard to do. I'm actually quite a patient guy, and I like to win.

Did you know the TSA maintains two special passenger lists? There's the no-fly list of people who aren't scary enough to arrest, but too scary to ever, ever let on an airplane. Then there's the special list of people who will probably be allowed on an airplane, but they'll always get the super-special search. Nobody knows the criteria for getting on these lists, who's on them, how you get off, who decides, NOTHING. There's no oversight and if you attend the wrong peace rally and get put on one, there's nothing you can do about it. There's no due process of any sort, just some mysterious person or group or agency who gets to decide who's suspicious and who's not. To me, this is a police-state restriction of travel and should be absolutely illegal. It's insane that the US has sunk to this level and no one cares.

So I did what I think every American should do - I wrote the TSA and volunteered to be on the Super Top-Secret Special Search List. Not that I've ever actually attended peace rallies or anything, but I might, and in this day and age we just can't be too safe. I think everyone except Pat Robertson should be on the list, although I asked for clarification if it'd be my patriotic duty to report my subversive friends and neighbors, or if that'd be un-American. I never heard back from them, so I'm still not clear on the right answer there.

I did get the special search a lot after that, which I especially enjoy because I get to help waste time and money and it affords an opportunity to make a TSA worker's day a little bit worse, up-close and personal. If you think about it, there's lots of creative ways to be irritating, creepy, and infuriating... it's hard to be AS irritating, creepy and infuriating as post-9/11 airport security, but I think it's my duty to try.

One easy example that anyone could do - when I fly, I usually have a large carry-on that's got dozens of pockets and zippers and compartments. It's great. They're supposed to search it thoroughly during the special search, but this bag just has too many pockets, so I like to help them out. I'll keep pointing out pockets they missed or may have missed and I'll continue going over the same ones, wasting as much time as I possibly can, until they get annoyed and make me leave. Sometimes they get pretty pissed off, but I just play dumb and cheerful - hey, I just wanna make sure I'm safe! Who can argue with that?

OK, so I'm a jackass about this stuff. Still, it's depresses the hell out of me that a guy like Dave, above, gets one strip search and then cows to an illegitimate authority. The original poster is supposed to PROVE that he's not going to get off the plane in Houston and go get a job? From CANADA? That is RETARDED. It's stupid. Ridiculous. Absurd. Get the thesaurus and apply all the similar words, they all fit. A complete and total waste of time and money. A very expensive airline ticket apparently got burned for absolutely not a ounce of reason or sanity, other than some tool who barely qualifies for a job washing cars felt like it, and there was nothing the original poster could do about it. It's arbitrary and irrational. It does not one bit of good and a whole lot of bad. And yet Americans just roll over and lap it up. Why? I don't get it. The America I thought I grew up in wouldn't tolerate such incredible BS.

That's partly why I'd rather be in Colombia. The US sure isn't the country of Steve McQueen and James Dean and Humphrey Bogart anymore. That myth is dead, and it's been replaced by something fat, docile, fake, greedy and stupid. It used to be Lauren Bacall and Katherine Hepburn, now it's Anna Nicole and Paris Hilton. Humbug.

DonkeyDust says on Feb 5, 2006, 12:39:

If they were in charge of a gulag or a stalag in ww2 these guys are proving they are the ones who would sink to lows that we see as nitemares. We arent a jews in nazi germany and dont have cow-tow to thier using power for bullying & rudeness. Tell them what they are when they are it. as for not being told ahead of time you are not allowed to set your own itinerary... shouldnt you be able to sue¿

Latitudes attitudes & platitudes.

utopiacowboy says on Feb 5, 2006, 17:30:

I must be on some list that says let this guy do anything he wants. They never ask me any questions. They never search my luggage. They just say, "Hey, welcome home!" Maybe I don't look like a bad ass.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

Gomezman5 says on Feb 5, 2006, 18:15:

UTC And You thought it was you? Maybe they are to busy looking at that hot paisita wife of yours, so they don't have time to check your travel documents...It has nothing to do with you. If you want to test my theory, try traveling alone next time and see what happens

Rubiazo says on Feb 5, 2006, 18:18:

Dangerous game Remember
-US Immigration offices anywhere in the world are NOT part of any sovereign nation and are considered no man's land. If they want to rape you or kill you they can do so with NO RECOURSE!

I am not making this up. A stripper going to Miami from TO once got raped by 3 US officials in that very office you sat in!! There was absolutely no way the offenders could be charged under either Canadian or American law.

They can also hold you as long as they want without food, water, the right to make a phone call or even use the bathroom. They have been known to do all of the above on purpose, and I am saying this based on personal experience! You would seriously be better off fucking with the Russian mob than fucking with US immigration officials on their own turf.

Also, NEVER tell a US official that you hold more than one passport! They HATE that! That was probably the red flag right there. And remember, Canada is one of the countries that is high on the list of people working illegally in the USA, so yes, if you don't have a good job there already, they tend to suspect you!

miamimike says on Feb 5, 2006, 19:07:

Rubiazo, Tienes Razon.... You wouldn't beleive the shenanigans I saw by US Federal Officers when I worked at the Krome detention Center(US Dept of Justice in sw Miami). 15 Federal Officers at Krome(in the period of 2000-01) were suspended for various "Discretions" and inpropieties and it wasn't the first or only time. I could fill a book! There is a reason INS and Krome were always in the paper and it was never for anything good! . They are presently closed due to Hurricane Wilma Damage and detainess have been detained at other Detention centers across the USA. If posible always have a witness when you asked to do anything by these US Immigration Agents in the Airport or at a Detention center. Unless you were actually present, you would NOT beleive what I saw and you would think I was crazy if I related ONLY a few of the incidents I was privy to!! In the last 2 years or so they have fired 3 different groups of US Immigration Officers at the Miami Airport for selling Fake Visas and have the people who purchased them file through their line at MIA Immigration so they(or one of the crooked INS officers in the group) stamping the Visa personally. One was a Colombian/American INS Officer who actually went to Cali to sell the Fake Visas for $5000+ per False Visa. Him, his wife and 2 others are still in the Federal Slammer! SO much for the integrity of our Federal US Immigration Offcers! Caveat Emptor!

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? ... That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.,

Rubiazo says on Feb 5, 2006, 19:29:

I remember that well They were in BOG too. They were telling girls they were going to work as stage hands in a modelling agency and that's what it said on the visa :P

miamimike says on Feb 5, 2006, 20:17:

Plenty of Blame to go around with Various Country's Immigration Agents. Our US Immigration Agency aren't any Saints. You would and should think they are above reproach, reletive to other country's Immigration Depts, but the sad truth, our US Immigration leaves a lot to be desired. AND worse, Bush just picked some wet behind the Ears, Inexperienced, 36 year old Attorney named Julie Meyers-a Political Appointee to head this Dept.(she is the niece of recently retired joint chief of staff-General Meyers and is married to homeland security chief Michael Chernoff's chief of staff). Many could not beleive Bush would put some Kid(reletively speaking)WITHOUT any law enforcement experience to head a 20,000 person dept with an annual budget of over several billion dollars. INS needs an experienced Manager, maybe a CEO from Private Industry to implement some radical changes and a major personnel shake up and look at what he did! Don't expect INS to improve any time some by this action! LOL

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? ... That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.,

tobntno says on Feb 5, 2006, 20:19:

Unbelievable... ...that's all I can say about this.

When I flew to Bogotá (with a layover in Atlanta) the lady said something like: What?!? You won't fly back for 8 months and don't have a visa?
I said: well I don't need one - I'm going to Bogotá.

That's where the story ended and that's where this story should have ended, too.

I seriously doubt that working in the US ist THAT attractive for canadians. A colombian making the same trip to Canada - then I would understand suspicion.
I mean what's the point? It takes a little more than an hour to get to the US from Toronto by car and at the border nobody will ask you that many questions, do they even ask for a passport or can you just go with any photo-id?
And if you really want to get into the US the thousands of miles of the US-Canadian border have enough holes to do so.

This is ridicolous - almost as bad as that one story with the green party memeber not getting a flight because at the airport they told him that "greens weren't allowed to fly that day"...

Rubiazo says on Feb 6, 2006, 02:09:

Tobnto you would be surprised. There are millions of Canadians living and working in the US (I'm one of them.) and a lot of them are just as illegal as any illegal Latino. Although with newer tighter restricitions the numbers are slowing down a lot.