Business As Usual
Source: Many foreign tourists say theyre afraid to visit the US after Trump travel ban | Stuff.co.nz
Something you’ll never hear: “Man, I love going through Customs and Immigration!” Anyone who has been fortunate enough to travel internationally knows that encountering surly and authoritarian border personnel is not an ‘if’ thing, it’s a ‘when’ thing. It’s a rare and likely non existent person who has never been given the 3rd degree as to the reasons for wanting to enter a country.
Of course people feel insulted when probing questions are asked of them, but it’s not like they have tickets to a ball game and are being impeded. The charming border personnel are there to make a quick 30 second judgement on the veracity of a traveler’s creds. They are not ticket takers. It’s not as if entering a nation’s borders is the same as any female entering a college frat party; there is a screening process. Perhaps not as subjectively whimsical as at a hot nightclub, but a process nonetheless.
The hysterical bleats of the travelers in the article are meant to reinforce the notion that since Trump, border security procedures have somehow become discriminatory, insulting and just downright not nice. I have news for such travelers; they’ve ALWAYS been that way from the time they started having border security. In my case, even as a Canadian, our reputation of being nice and law abiding doesn’t exempt me from having to endure the scrutiny of the occasional Barney Fifes at the checkpoints. People can take comfort in fact that they are being treated as everyone else has been for decades. Everyone gets a chance to run the gauntlet.