Once I was kicked out of a border patrol point in northern Vermont in a snowstorm in February after they had sent my bus on without me hours before. I had to hitchhike to not freeze.
Border cops are the worst.
You used to be able to re-enter the US with just your birth certificate and a driver's license, ~18+ years ago or so. I was 19 and driving back into the US just north of Bellingham, WA, and this rule was set to change later on in the year, but it was still legal to use this method at my time of travel. The border patrol agent literally said to me, "You know, I have half a mind to not let you in right now with these, because that's what's going to happen to you in a few months if you try this shit again."
Like... what? He let me in, but that statement was bizarre.
The US border guards at that occasion where highly suspicious and questioned them for three quarters of an hour, whereas the Canadian official was indeed quite lovely and commented about his US colleagues that "ah yes, they have a… different frame of mind."
I checked out your blog. I don't know much about that area of USA or Canada, was worth my time, thanks.
So from personable experience I can't actually complain too much, but yeah, it seems to be easier to find that kind of stories involving the US rather than Canada…
They are just a symptom of what happens when you give people power and no accountability.
I wonder if there's some kind of bias against buses in border guard culture or training? Are you more likely assumed to be up to no good because you're travelling in the cheapest possible way?
People of all race/class/status/age/appearance too..
It even happened to me when I was 19, but I did not look very respectable at the time so I chalked it up to that.
I'm a US citizen re-entering the US with a valid US passport. They have to let me in and I don't have to answer a damn thing (because the appeals court has already ruled they can search everything you have, including all electronics, without probable cause, I refuse to make their job any easier than it needs to be).
On a separate incident at a separate border point (the Windsor-Detroit tunnel) they sexually assaulted my then-girlfriend (not a US citizen) during a very thorough body search which was also conducted for punitive reasons only after our refusal to cooperate in their search of our electronic devices (after they had already decided to deport her).
(In that case I was driving a rented luxury car, so I don't think it was bus bias, I think it was just retaliation for insisting on our human rights.)
US CBP is rotten trash.
Are they mad and frustrated and want somebody to suffer or is it a well payed job, so they do it for fun?
It’s a way for illegal immigrants to travel relatively cheaply. As opposed to driving or walking. So buses became this target.
Yes, that's a Constitution-free zone: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone