US Customs jumpy

**467riverfix** · August-14-09, 10:23 PM

Lots of action at US Customs Amb Bridge Friday about 2 pm. As an on average weekly visitor to the US of A, I, a Canuckster, always have my passport at the ready. But today I forgot it. No worry. The Windsor Star reported US Customs would grant six months leniency to phase-in the program which began June 1. And last month I had a passenger in the car who didn't have a passport and went thru no problem. But not today!! Not only did I get lectured to at the primary inspection booth, I got YELLED at for ASSUMING there was a leniency period. This oversight sent me to Secondary inspection - the tiny office [[how come it's so small in this age of terror??) nearby. The place was packed! Seems US Customs was out for all manner of Canuck folk [[ok, ok, I know we're suspicious, especially when we carry Tim Hortons cups.) The place was crawling with unformed Customs - perhaps 25 in that confined space behind the counters. [[No wonder they were agitated.) In any case, ANOTHER YELLING LECTURE by the fat bald Customizer to me for not having a passport WHEN THIS PROTOCOL HAS BEEN PUBLICIZED FOR A YEAR AND A HALF! Then he gave me back by stand-in ID docs - birth certificate and driver's licnce, and I wished him a merry goodbye - da jerk.

**Lowell** · August-15-09, 12:29 AM

In behalf of my fellow and sister Americans, who like myself share the opinion that what is happening at the border between allies at war and two countries at peace for two centuries is insane, I apologize for the idiotic paranoia that is treating you, our Canadian friends and family, like felons and terrorist suspects.

Mr. Obama, Mr. Harper, tear down this wall. Give us the freedom to pass as freely between our countries just the same as old enemies Germans and French do today, people from two nations who slaughtered millions of each other's youth in the last century. The current laws are not making either of us safer. They are only making us miserable and doing great damage to our border economies.

Haikoont · August-15-09, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by lowell

in behalf of my fellow and sister americans, who like myself share the opinion that what is happening at the border between allies at war and two countries at peace for two centuries is insane, i apologize for the idiotic paranoia that is treating you, our canadian friends and family, like felons and terrorist suspects.

Mr. Obama, mr. Harper, tear down this wall. Give us the freedom to pass as freely between our countries as old enemies germans and french do, people from two nations who slaughtered millions of each other's youth. The current laws are not making either of us safer. They are only making us miserable and damaging our border economies.

+3.1415926535897932384626433832795

**reddog289** · August-15-09, 12:54 AM

From the B.S. that I hear that crossing the border can be, It would take my cousin up in Toronto to get really sick for me to want to cross the border which was not a big problem to cross for the first39 years or so in my lifetime.
I do relize that both our countries are at war with terrorism Yet there should be a way to treat law abiding citizens with respect.

**FlyingJ** · August-15-09, 03:17 AM

I had a lousy experience with a goth girl masquerading as a mountie in Windsor. Noting my California driver's license she said "Why are you here?". I should ask all the Canadian snowbirds flyin' the maple leaf out here the same thing. And when I mentioned I was riding the VIA Rail to Hogtown from Walkerville, her kicker, "Why didn't you just fly into Pearson?" I didn't bother explaining my Canadian heritage dating back to 1824-or I'll go thru Blaine next time I feel Canadian & waste no time in Onterrible

**sumas** · August-15-09, 08:20 AM

My husband worked for the Canadian federal government for many years. Because of his position, we spent lots of time in Canada. Crossing the border was no worry.

With this new law, I have not been to Canada for at least two years. I personally refuse to get a passport to visit a sister north american nation. My brothers wife is Canadian and they visit there frequently. He has five kids, I thought it sucked that he had to pony up the money for 7 passports.

I don't like the border guard mentality. I don't like feeling like they think everyone is some kind of criminal.

Silly story, many years back we had an African American house keeper/babysitter. She would frequently drive my husband over to Canada to the train station or airport with our youngest son in tow. We provided her with a copy of his birth certificate and a letter of permission. Never a problem. Today she would probably get arrested for kidnapping.

Canada should scream loud and clear that the border rules are preventing free commerce. I miss feeling that visiting Canada was an easy trip. I loved popping over for dinner or a visit with our many Canadian friends.

What makes me feel worse is that going to Canada is still easy but coming home is impossible without documentation. I feel rejected by my own country.

**Sstashmoo** · August-15-09, 08:41 AM

I'm not going to Canada or flying anywhere, Period. I will not be treated like a criminal at the hands of these government employed thugs. Zeig heil, it's here.

**Khartoum** · August-15-09, 08:49 AM

Moving away from Windsor, it`s nice not to have to deal with this bullshit anymore. Problem is, is that I love it over in the States so much, that when I go home, I still do have to put up with being treated like a criminal.

Not a problem for a lot of my friends though - the hassle of getting a passport and having to deal with customs has left them staying in Canada instead of going over every month to shop at the mall or grab something to eat. America`s loss.

I`ll add my own story in one of my favourite times at the border crossing - some British woman was in there and you could tell she wasn`t use to the belittling and harassment of the American border guards because she was getting really loud and yelling at them. My friend and I just sat back and enjoyed it, as we`ve always wanted to yell at them, but we don`t want to get red flagged.

In the end she was turned around and sent back to Canada.

**gazhekwe** · August-15-09, 09:06 AM

I will not be treated like a criminal at the hands of these government employed thugs.

That is how I feel, too. I want to just go somewhere without having to explain myself or "show my papers."

The fear that has been bred here is putting us all in cages. The terrorists have won. If Bin Laden is dead, he is probably sitting among his 100 former virgins, looking down and laughing his head off.

**Sstashmoo** · August-15-09, 09:08 AM

Quote: "America`s loss."

Oh yeah, Canada is really concerned about our "loss". If anyone wants to gauge the concern for the US by Canada they need to look no further than the trade policies. These US businesses are getting screwed royally. Buy something from a Canadian source and watch the manner in which it arrives here in the US duty free. Now try to send something to Canada. It's a Cluster-F of tariff codes, Customs agents, Customs brokers, You price is driven up due to the fact duties and any other fee they can dream up must be paid by the Canadian recipient, further deterring the sale by Canadian customers for US business. Free trade means every country we have a Free trade agreement with is FREE to dump their shit in this country for free. The other way around, we are deterred by those very same governments in any manner possible.

**Sstashmoo** · August-15-09, 09:23 AM

Gaz, it's not what our forefathers fought and died for. So their descendants could be treated guilty by the government until proven innocent at every juncture.

We were "attacked" 8 years ago, we going to live like this forever?

Haikoont · August-15-09, 10:09 AM

People who complain about having to get a passport are missing the larger picture. It's a multi-use document. For example, when I'm not traveling I use mine as a boat anchor.

**MCP-001** · August-15-09, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Lowell

In behalf of my fellow and sister Americans, who like myself share the opinion that what is happening at the border between allies at war and two countries at peace for two centuries is insane, I apologize for the idiotic paranoia that is treating you, our Canadian friends and family, like felons and terrorist suspects.

Mr. Obama, Mr. Harper, tear down this wall. Give us the freedom to pass as freely between our countries just the same as old enemies Germans and French do today, people from two nations who slaughtered millions of each other's youth in the last century. The current laws are not making either of us safer. They are only making us miserable and doing great damage to our border economies.

Better tell it to that dingbat, DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano, who claimed that the 9/11 terrorists were from Canada.

It's ignorance like that that is perpetuating the inadequacies of the Bush Administration.

**Gannon** · August-15-09, 10:51 AM

That must be SOME boat, Haikoont!

Toolbox · August-16-09, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by sumas

With this new law, I have not been to Canada for at least two years. I personally refuse to get a passport to visit a sister north american nation. My brothers wife is Canadian and they visit there frequently. He has five kids, I thought it sucked that he had to pony up the money for 7 passports.

I don't like the border guard mentality. I don't like feeling like they think everyone is some kind of criminal.

For the eleventybillionth time you do not need a fucking passport for children under 16 to drive into Canada. An enhanced state ID card will work too.

I have found the guards to be very easy to work with. During non peak times some have been very fun to talk with.

**Lowell** · August-16-09, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by MCP-001

Better tell it to ... DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano, who claimed that the 9/11 terrorists were from Canada. It's ignorance like that that is perpetuating the inadequacies of the Bush Administration.

Agree. Napolitano is a disappointment. My take is that as former gov of AZ she is intent on sealing the Mexican border, a huge issue there. To clamp down hard there and not move harder vs the northern border would create charges of favoritism among the politically powerful Latino electorate.

This is an unfortunate outcome of NAFTA. That treaty should have only been between USA and Canada at the outset as the relative parity of wages, standards of living, pollution control, education and many other factors would have opened the pathway towards an open border ala the European Union. Once that was achieved consideration for entry of Mexico, central America and Caribbean nations could be accommodated.

Now we seem doomed to a lose-lose situation where tourism will be destroyed by bullying border guards and large businesses will pay more for needless delays to commerce. It is a ridiculous catch 22 that disproportionately falls on Detroit-Windsor and other border cities forcing us to pay a 'taxes' not levied on those in the interiors. At a minimum we have to buy and carry passports just to go from one part of our metro to another, a de facto tax that someone in, say, Manhattan crossing to Brooklyn doesn't pay ... Not to mention the added 'taxes' of getting sent back because the passport is forgotten, lost or stolen.

Enhanced state driver's licences are a good idea but still constitutes a de facto tax and nuisance in time spent obtaining them. And don't dare leave home without them or hitch a ride with a friend to pop over to Windsor.

**Sstashmoo** · August-16-09, 11:20 AM

Or we could simply stop making enemies.

Haikoont · August-16-09, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Sstashmoo

Or we could simply stop making enemies.

Easy Solutions, if you please ...

**Bobl** · August-16-09, 12:52 PM

We no longer cross the border. Frequent visitors in the past, our few bad experiences were all on the U.S. side. Just plain rudeness from the agents on our side.
Who would have thought, during the "cold war", that it would one day be easier and more convenient for travelers in Europe to cross many borders than for us to visit Windsor?
This is not progress, people.

Has anyone shown how the rudeness and more stringent requirements does anything to improve security? Does anyone really believe that those who would harm us will not simply acquire forged documents, or cross undetected in small boats?

**Bobl** · August-16-09, 06:56 PM

Lowell:
Your entry is an intelligent and persuasive argument:

"...This is an unfortunate outcome of NAFTA. That treaty should have only been between USA and Canada at the outset as the relative parity of wages, standards of living, pollution control, education and many other factors would have opened the pathway towards an open border ala the European Union..."

But, it ignores the fact that the redistribution of wealth and wages away from US and Canada was the real reason for NAFTA, which is why it was applied to Mexico and points south.
You are correct in pointing out how NAFTA should have been applied.
Ross Perot was correct in his assessment of the treaty as it was written.

**Dustin89** · August-16-09, 08:47 PM

I was nodding my head in agreement at 467riverfix's original post. The last time I went to Canada was this past January...it was during a snowstorm, and I was already on the way from my home in North Oakland County to the tunnel when I realized I didn't have my birth certificate or passport on me. I called the Detroit customs office on my cell phone and explained the situation to them, and they assured me that I would be allowed back into the US, but would probably be delayed.

Crossing into Canada was a breeze but, the following day, when I crossed the Ambassador Bridge and came to the US checkpoint, an extremely hostile border agent acted as if he could go either way in terms of letting me back into the country or not, and we went back and forth for about ten minutes before he handed me some literature on border crossing regulations and sent me on my way. I thought he was unprofessional. It doesn't surprise me that there has been confusion for a while now in regards to border crossings...now that there is a passport/enhanced ID requirement, for the border folks to say that there will be "leniency" is laughable. That is a vague term and I believe that your experience at the border depends more on who you end up talking to than what the actual policy is.

lilpup · August-16-09, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by Bobl

Has anyone shown how the rudeness and more stringent requirements does anything to improve security? Does anyone really believe that those who would harm us will not simply acquire forged documents, or cross undetected in small boats?

I think some of the rudeness is an attempt to rattle any small time law breakers. I've had agents be absolute a-holes upon first approach but then drop the attitude just as fast when they're satisfied with the responses they get.

Toolbox · August-17-09, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Dustin89

I was nodding my head in agreement at 467riverfix's original post. The last time I went to Canada was this past January...it was during a snowstorm, and I was already on the way from my home in North Oakland County to the tunnel when I realized I didn't have my birth certificate or passport on me.

Was turning around to get the proper documentation out of the question. You knew going in that you would probably get a hard time but choose to go unuprepared.

**Lowell** · August-17-09, 07:11 PM

^IMO turning around to get an ID is not the point. The issue is absurdity that he should even need any to waste his time and money doing so just to go to another part of town. That is another hidden tax we are punished with for being on the border, not to mention the insulting behavior of the border guards he faces. The net result is a loss of millions to our already ailing economies for no gain security or anything else.

**FlyingJ** · August-17-09, 08:08 PM

Sstashmoo Or we could simply stop making enemies.

Nice one, but here's a guy before 9/11. This is the guy Napolitano was thinking of. They must've done some pretty good recon to send him from Montreal up the TCH instead of cutting thru via the Peace Bridge, Sarnia or Windsor;
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...mber-sent.html
these guys were probably running a similiar gameplan;
http://varifrank.com/archives/2007/0..._have_you.php#