An Australian was deported from the United States simply because he flew here via Hong Kong instead of non-stop.
It’s often cheaper to fly via Asia (certainly easier to get frequent flyer award tickets in business class that way), and doesn’t add that much time to the total journey when traveling to the East Coast. However, it apparently looked odd to the border agent processing the man and a day one Executive Order from President Trump insists on “enhanced vetting.”
- The man was held and interrogated for 8 hours
- He was valid for his status with no criminal history, though immigration officers can deny entry for any reason or not reason
- He was enroute to Florida for a $15,000 cruise—which he lost because he didn’t make it for the sailing.
While questions have been raised about some stories around visitors from the UK, Germany, and Canada facing similarly stringent and invasive border checks, including confiscation of electronic devices and prolonged interrogations, there are enough of these examples to be scaring off visitors. A young British woman recently endured 19 days of detention in an immigration facility.
U.S. officials deny targeting travelers based on political beliefs or nationalities, which in some sense is even worse – Australians and Brits no longer feel safe coming here, and can’t tell themselves “well, I’m good, I’m white.”
Foreign visits to the U.S. were already off about 20% in March. Forward bookings by Europeans traveing to the U.S. are down 25% for travel this summer, according to Accor Hotels.
At New York JFK alone, 194 arriving foreigners were deemed ‘inadmissible’ in March up from “135 inadmissible aliens that were removed in February at the port of entry.” And the U.S. gets to decide who’s even allowed to fly here in the first place, reviewing airline passenger lists prior to departure.
As stories like this spread, more and more people are going to avoid flying here. I’ve been asked by friends, family and readers whether they should risk travel to the United States right now – knowing that they’re fully compliant with the law but that there’s simply discretion being exercised to turn people away in ways that cannot be predicted.
There’s always risk crossing a border, because so much is left to individual agents who do not judge things in the same manner. That’s true in the U.S. and elsewhere. CBP has historically rotated people around different roles, so sometimes you get inexperienced agents used to inspecting cargo processing passenger arrivals. But this is different. The stories stack. And even if you find the individual decisions reasonable, the cumulative effective is a narrative that keeps people away.
That’s bad for the U.S. economy and jobs. It’s bad for cultural understanding and peace. And it’s bad for international relations. The U.S. needs allies, and frayed relations diminishes U.S. soft power and an ability to exert influence in world affairs.
(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)
I guarantee there’s more to this story. There’s a series on Discovery (or a similar channel) about border control. Enhanced question/vetting happens on a regular basis and there’s protocol on how that’s done. It happened to me many years ago coming back from Thailand. I spent an hour answering questions and having my belongings and me searched.
On the surface, seems stupid on the US.. but….
I am ashamed to be a us citizen at this point. We have allowed a dictator to take over the country
This is only going g to get worst.
How many Boeing jet orders are going to be cancelled. Because of the tariffs being applied in France, Germany, UK ect. on products being Imported from the US? Going to be good for Airbus.
Why would anyone want to visit the US right now?
40% of the population has made it clear foreigners are not welcome and the risks seem to vastly outweigh the value. Of course, if the dollar continues to drop and the economy continues to dive we may eventually become a bargain destination worth the risk.
I suspect there is much more to this story than transit thru Hong Kong.
First of all you want to arrive 2 days before your cruise.
Second, I’m a Caucasian US Citizen with no criminal record except a few speeding tickets. I can remember flying thru Miami once from Brazil via Panama and I was probably the 1 out of 50 who was flagged for extra inspection.
And in the 1990’s Crossing the border from Canada to the USA were were the one out of 50 who our entire VW Campmobile inspected along with our luggage. The drug dogs gave us a sniff and were uninterested.
And in the 2000’s I was over my personal allowance by about $200 flying thru Seattle. I got the third degree inspection for about an hour and a duty bill of $10….
A Friend who’s Brother works for Customs says that they will flag travelers at random if something seems off or they are number 50 or 100
I can live with it if it prevents another 9/11 or illegal immigrants committing murders. The Trump admin is just cleaning up from the last 4 years. And a majority of Americans approve of doing just that.
Agree with you Trk, especially about the “friendly” relations with Putin. After having crossed the borders of well over 100 countries I like to enter them via land or sea, and the more remote the point the less likely you are to have trouble. But that’s not the point here. Some border people, like some TSA agents, cops or others in similar positions are great, others love their little bit of power and will stick it to anybody they feel like. And when the person at the top gives them permission to act out their worst instincts it’s open season.
While as George says there could be more to the story this does sound awful and it certainly will discourage others from coming and spending their money (and meeting the friendly Americans) here. Certainly it could well be arbitrary profiling. The whole thing sounds like when my wife and I flew back from Cancun with the kids. The customs people ignored our family while pretty much disassembling what the college students behind us were carrying. If I was a smuggler guess which people I’d use as my mules.
I recently had two family members fly in from overseas. I held my breath the entire time they were going through immigration at Miami. My wife now carries a passport card in her purse just in case
“It’s bad for cultural understanding and peace. And it’s bad for international relations.”
The majority of MAGA folks don’t really care, do they?
Many of the horror stories have turned out to be hoaxes. One transplant surgeon was denied entry back into the US “for no reason” but turned out to not be a surgeon but a nephrologist and someone who supported terrorists, attending the funeral of a Hezbollah leader who was not her relative and had deleted photos of Hezbollah officials.
Even this newspaper that reported the story lied by being deceptive. They said ” A young British woman recently endured 19 days of detention in an immigration facility.” when she was, in fact, trying to cross the land border from the US to Canada when Canada (Not Trump or the US) denied her entry because she was planning to work illegally. When she appeared at US customs after being kicked out of Canada a few minutes earlier, they had to do something. Canada should have deported her but they are an evil country and pass the buck.
This person could very well have had multiple suspicious factors and the Cathay Pacific part is just the person’s own excuse. He could have very well said “the only reason they deported me was because I wear Adidas shoes” and then complained that American is anti-Adidas.
Bottom line: we need more information before slamming America. So far we have only the information provided by the bad guy.
The United States would certainly be on my “no go” list for another three years, nine months, and 15 days if I weren’t a citizen.
It certainly seems unusual to fly from Oz to Florida for a cruise.
People are just so stupid saying that Trump is a dictator when you don’t even have a clue the meaning of a dictator. Do you think Trump is on the likes of Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Ze Dong? Really? How is protecting the border dictatorship? How is getting rid of waste in the government dictatorship? Think about this people…Biden was more of a dictator than anything else. He implemented heavy censorship with the media. That is one characteristic of a dictatorship. Educate yourself people.
Wait till it starts happening more to US citizens.
This seems like a mix of incompetence and unnecessary cruelty, which sadly is becoming the new norm. Other examples would be the ‘renditioning’ of all those non-criminals to El Salvador without due process, merely ‘because they (in this government) can’. Or the scapegoating, vilifying, and firing of tens of thousands of civil servants, who were neither corrupt nor inefficient.
So, where are those ‘common sense’ folks, now? Oh, turns out, they were just rabid partisans.
And to those like @Al (and @derek), who claim that others (like me) are merely over-reacting in-response to instances like this: No. It doesn’t have to literally be 1945 for this to be fascistic. @Bob is right; it’s likely going get worse. We know better, and this is just wrong. Time to wake up. You don’t have to wait until it affects you personally. Speak out now, in any way you can.
Travelled entensively in the US for many years up to 2016. Nothing since then, and plan on keeping it that way.
It’s now too risky (power-crazed border officials), too expensive (and set to get way worse) and too violent (random gun violence). So, no thanks!
I feel sorry for those of you who are still reasonable and sane people.
Glad I saw so much before the country went down the gurgler.
I would love to hear the follow up on this story. They didn’t stop this guy for nothing and anyone with half a brain cell knows it.
Gary, are you going to rant against Trump on every article for the next 4 years. It is kind of tedious. We get it, you hate the guy. I mean, I do not watch the View for a reason. I come here to read interesting news about the airline industry. Ok, I know you cannot help venting, he affects you emotionally. But just tone it down a little. You used to pretend to be moderate.
When she appeared at US customs after being kicked out of Canada a few minutes earlier, they had to do something.” Why? She had to go somewhere other than Canada. She was (presumably) a US Citizen, what were the legal grounds for not letting her re-enter? Everybody denied entry into the US is sent back home.
I could be wrong, but I’ve always felt that border was agents don’t really know much about travel. Especially international travel. I could be wrong.
Nice ‘need more information’ excuse by @George N Romey, @Dave Flaat, and now @cairns.
Fellas, the Sydney Morning Herald, which Gary linked to, stated that the person in-question was ‘accused of no wrongdoing’ and that the border patrol found his circuitous routing via HKG to be suspicious. Like, that’s it. We’re not going to learn more.
This is just another example of the administration abusing its power, allowing border patrol to be cruel and unusual to innocent visitors. We didn’t stop a terrorist here. Rather, we made a bad example of an Australian tourist, and now we’re going to hurt our economy further because the word is out that we’re not a safe or welcoming place anymore.
Gary’s take was correct.
Seems like Fake News. The only reference to this story is in an Opinion Piece in the Sydney Morning Herald. There is no face, no name, no identity, and no fact checking, only a narrative that the opinion writer / Editor wanted to get published.
Let’s get to the bottom of this “opinion”
Landing in Singapore: “Good evening Sir, Madam. Please enjoy your stay in Singapore.”
Landing in the US: “Next in line! No! I said Counter 2, not 3! Behind the line!” “Laptops out!” “Purpose of visit?” “Next!”
Looks like the Trump supporters are on the defensive.
By.saying things like there is more to this and this is normal the Trump supporter are nervous. And rightfully so!
derek and al appear to be trolls. they are most likely in Russia