Any insight on why I was treated poorly at the Sarnia, ON - Port Huron, MI border crossing?
Question:
This week I drove from Buffalo, NY through Canada to Lansing, MI. When I came back into the US at Port Huron, I had a terrible experience. I don't mind waiting, and had my passport. The custom's agent was rude and insulting. While I was sitting there another customs agent came up to my passenger door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I tried to unlock it but he was pulling on the door so the automatic locks didn't work. The agents kept yelling at me "Open the door! Open it right now!!" They then grabbed my purse and looked through it and made me hand over my keys. Overall, I was treated like a criminal even though I had all my proper documentation and nothing prohibited. I would have appreciated being told that they were going to search my car or purse or being asked politely to open the door. I have never had an experience like this at any of the Ontario- NY crossings into the Buffalo area. I present all my documentation and they are polite to me. Does anyone have any insight on what the story is at this border? I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Answer:
You have to understand the mentality that the US border agents have now..........
They are told that they are " America's first line of defence against terror " and they are "guarding the front lines of the war on terror ".
Add to that kind of strident hyperbole, the fact that many fo them are ex Marines, with the usual amount of macho stupidity that entails, and you get robot like idiots who follow " the rules " to the most bizarre ends of the earth..
The biggest problem is that their supervisors are no better, and any complaints from the public will be ignored, or scorned. They are literally " a law onto themselves ". On that small area of the US side of the bridge, they can do just about anything they want to do, and they DO.
Contrast that to the Canadian side where some of the summer part timers are female university students, who are trained to be polite and friendly, and only one out of 5 officers is armed, and no one in the adminstration office is wearing a hand gun at their desk, like on the US side.
A totally opposite mental attitude and way of treating the public they serve, from one country to the other.
Now you can tell your friends about the bad attitude of the US border agents, to you, as a US citizen.
And that was NOT an abberation, it was normal procedure, based in my 5 years of weekly crossing in my 18 wheeler at the Blue Water Bridge.
Jim b. Toronto. Ontario. Canada.
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