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Comment by Beltiras | Hacker News Reader

I'm a bit worried about my trip to the US in the spring. I'm going to make a point of having a hair cut, not carrying any suspicious books, cultivate a super submissive nature against authority figures (of which I carry a well-deserved suspicion) and practive my TSA-smile.

Shouldn't have to be that way, but I really don't want to give any indication I am anything but White Bread.

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Relax. Trust me, you'll do a lot better to not be Mr. Guy Smiley- that would be much more suspicious. Just put on your bored face and do as Romans do.

On the other hand, it would be humorous if you wore a shirt, pants, and underwear with the American Flag on them. It'd make the TSA look extra ridiculous during a strip search, so make that Option B.

The truth is that millions of people a year travel, and don't have any problems. So you're most likely to be OK.

The worrying part is that you don't know what will be "alerted" on. Flash cards? Pictures of your kids in the bath? You have no idea.

> The truth is that millions of people a year travel, and don't have any problems.

He's not worried about being one of those that won't have any problems.

He's worried about becoming one of those that did and that chance is way too high.

I got secondary-screened upon arrival because:

- I told the border guy I got paid via 'PayPal' and he had no idea what that was, they had to spend 20min Googling it

- My friends friend paid for our plane tickets, so they grilled us why we didnt buy our own

- I made a mistake on the customs claims sheet where I crossed something out and replaced it. Apparently they think this means you are trying to hide something and need to look through every piece of luggage, including possible hiding places in the luggage (that didnt turn out to exist).

There are countless reasons to get harassed. Hardly has to do with obvious security issues.

My solution is simple (if a bit of a cop out): I've decided not to visit the USA again until they retire the madness. If that means I'll never visit again then so be it. I used to go there several times per year and at some point the frustration over yet another confrontation with the 'first line of defense' boiled over into 'I don't actually have to be here' and I have spent my holiday money elsewhere ever since. It's got to add up over time, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person that made that decision.

Same, my clients always want me to travel to SF (entirely paid for and everything) but now I rarely do unless it is really important.

The biggest reason is the frequent harassment I have went through going there on numerous occasions, not just by US but also coming back into Canada. But this is very much a quiet protest, same with you I presume, I'm not an activist. The true cost of their security theater is largely unreported IMO. I'd expect there are countless people like us not contributing to the US business world or tourism thx to overly-aggressive security.

I don't think you understand how small the chance is. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning than something like this happening.

We have selected you for further screening. Something about suspicious posts on the internet.

You should do that. I do that, and it's the only way to go through airports unchallenged I think, that and wearing a suit

Exactly how often do you go out of your way to aggravate police, customs and immigration officials in other countries?

You don't need to do anything of the sort for customs and immigration officials in America to panic. They're a fidgety bunch, and your greatest mistake may be to have a 'Muslim' name.

This happened to my parents, surgeons in their late 50s who travelled together visiting family in the UK and Canada having no trouble. My dad (having a name that is pretty Christian) passed immigration at the Canada/US border just fine. My mum (having a name that is pretty Muslim) had her immigration official's computer stop working and she was detained for hours. They did let my dad join her, so I guess we should be thankful for that. They had exactly the same itinerary and were eventually released with no explanation.

So excuse me if I don't buy the idea that you have to antagonize people.

Like that woman who wanted to use the TSA's approved screening process for her pumped breast milk; who had a letter from the TSA explaining what that screening process was and that it was okay to screen breast milk using this process?

Because she didn't have much fun.

http://rt.com/usa/154672-tsa-breast-milk-settlement/

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