Teenage German tourists deported from Hawaii over ‘suspicious’ hotel booking
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Yeah, with you on this. I know in the past these arrangements have been very lenient but the recent political developments just show this isn't the case anymore. It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already.. Guess this is a thing of the past now.
The treatment however is definitely over the line.
I used to teach a unique culinary technique, and had clients visit me from all around the world for training, including several Muslim countries. Only one client had a serious problem at the border, a young Muslim guy from India. His dad was a major Bollywood director, and was fairly wealthy.
He had gone to college in America, so he was using this trip to both visit me for a few days for his training, then going on to Miami to meet up with his American college friends.
His visa said he was here on a pleasure trip, but for some reason he was pulled aside for grilling. They demanded his phone, and looked through his texts, where they found messages between him and I, making arrangements for his training. That lit them up, and they started claiming he was coming here for work, not pleasure. He explained that he wasnt being paid, he was paying me, and it wasn't work. It was educational, if anything. It was really just an expensive experiential vacation adventure for a rich kid, like something I'd experienced before. Some clients really wanted to learn this technique to expand their culinary portfolio, while others just wanted to try it out for fun, and had the time and money to do it. If you came to America to learn to scuba dive, or surf, would it be considered work, or even educational?
The fact that he was here for education or work wasn't the point, the point was that the visa was for pleasure, so they were claiming it was a violation, even though most of the trip was with his friends (3 days with me, 2 weeks with his buddies).
Then they focused on his money. He was carrying about $2600, and they acted like that was an outrageous amount of cash for a rich young man to carry on an international trip. They demanded he tell them exactly how much cash was in his wallet, which they were holding, and had searched. He told them the exact amount, because he had counted his money on the plane, after they had landed. They told him he was lucky he knew the exact amount, or they would have kept his money and sent him home.
Eventually, they grudgingly allowed him to leave, and he got his training, and visited his friends, but he went home with a very negative view of the US government.
This all happened during the first MAGA administration.
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They found it suspicious that we hadn't fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii
Fuckin seriously? We all know what backpacking is. I've never pre-booked an entire stay when traveling internationally except when it's for work.
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I used to teach a unique culinary technique, and had clients visit me from all around the world for training, including several Muslim countries. Only one client had a serious problem at the border, a young Muslim guy from India. His dad was a major Bollywood director, and was fairly wealthy.
He had gone to college in America, so he was using this trip to both visit me for a few days for his training, then going on to Miami to meet up with his American college friends.
His visa said he was here on a pleasure trip, but for some reason he was pulled aside for grilling. They demanded his phone, and looked through his texts, where they found messages between him and I, making arrangements for his training. That lit them up, and they started claiming he was coming here for work, not pleasure. He explained that he wasnt being paid, he was paying me, and it wasn't work. It was educational, if anything. It was really just an expensive experiential vacation adventure for a rich kid, like something I'd experienced before. Some clients really wanted to learn this technique to expand their culinary portfolio, while others just wanted to try it out for fun, and had the time and money to do it. If you came to America to learn to scuba dive, or surf, would it be considered work, or even educational?
The fact that he was here for education or work wasn't the point, the point was that the visa was for pleasure, so they were claiming it was a violation, even though most of the trip was with his friends (3 days with me, 2 weeks with his buddies).
Then they focused on his money. He was carrying about $2600, and they acted like that was an outrageous amount of cash for a rich young man to carry on an international trip. They demanded he tell them exactly how much cash was in his wallet, which they were holding, and had searched. He told them the exact amount, because he had counted his money on the plane, after they had landed. They told him he was lucky he knew the exact amount, or they would have kept his money and sent him home.
Eventually, they grudgingly allowed him to leave, and he got his training, and visited his friends, but he went home with a very negative view of the US government.
This all happened during the first MAGA administration.
a young Muslim guy from India
Well there's your problem. The rest is just an excuse
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USA has never been welcoming at immigration
My mother got questioned when she was in her 70s
And got followed to the baggage area.. she was travelling with airline cabin crew and didn’t know the hotel, they didn’t believe her -
a young Muslim guy from India
Well there's your problem. The rest is just an excuse
I get it. Frankly, i was surprised that ALL my Muslim clients, who also came from India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa, and other countries, didn't have problems of their own. I also had people from many other countries luke Vietnam, Phillipines, Russia, Serbia, England, etc. None got hassled at all. This one guy just won the Border Patrol Lottery. Yay!
The closest I saw was when one got pulled over by a local cop, who kept asking him over and over "Who else is in the car?", when it was easy to see that the guy was all alone in the vehicle. The only thing i could think of was that in order to get from my shop to his hotel, he had to travel through a small zone that is known for prostitution, and a lone brown guy in a car tickled that cop's lizard brain.
That area is also a MAJOR tourist/ convention zone, so its not the only reason to be there. 99.99% of the people going through are there for perfectly legitimate reasons, including just getting from here to there. My client didn't even know about the prostitution angle, and was horrified when i told him. -
In german media (Rostock newspaper) the girls said that (they planning to work) was put into the documents without their knowledge.
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It seems like themselves admitted that they intended to work?
They did not. It was put into the interrogation documents without their knowledge.
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But the bulls will only either kill you or break a few bones if you don't get out of their way. Here, the "bulls" make sure to corner you and pummell you down, just for the thrill of it.
Also, it's not bulls. It's pigs, but the RPG kind of murder-pig with metal plating and steel-tipped tusks.
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Aaand this is why the national governments in the EU should already have issued an official travel warning... or simply state on camera: "Don't go to the fucking USA!"
Well, the German government has. It's just that some people think "It won't happen to me" until it does.
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Yeah, with you on this. I know in the past these arrangements have been very lenient but the recent political developments just show this isn't the case anymore. It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already.. Guess this is a thing of the past now.
The treatment however is definitely over the line.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already… Guess this is a thing of the past now.
Huh? You base "was always sketchy" on your personal feelings doing that yourself 15 years ago?
I really don't see what's sketchy about not booking four weeks ahead.
I'm more of a planner, but my grandparents get in their car and drive through and around Italy without a single stay pre-planned.
I don't see how that's suspicious or sketchy at all.
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Yeah, with you on this. I know in the past these arrangements have been very lenient but the recent political developments just show this isn't the case anymore. It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already.. Guess this is a thing of the past now.
The treatment however is definitely over the line.
It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
Where did they admit that?
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Also, it's not bulls. It's pigs, but the RPG kind of murder-pig with metal plating and steel-tipped tusks.
You mind doing me a favour? Please.
Stop calling cops pigs. It's idiotic, ridiculous and insultuous towards actual pigs.
If you feel the need to throw insults, do so; just make use of some imagination. Don't be afraid of being baroqe.
Call them door kickers, grave fillers, trigger jockeys, wall jumpers... Say they're as sharp as an army boot or that they're a waste of fresh air or unneeded space filling.
Just make it an actual insult, not a comparison to an animal that does not deserve it.
Or better yet, despise them to such a point that you make the word cop an insult by itself.
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I've been stuck in customs for "not having enough money on me", despite credit cards and ATMs existing. It depends HUGELY on which individual you get in the US.
It also depends on whether your particular border piggie hates your sort of person or not.
My wife was on a green card when we lived in the US. Whenever we traveled together, no problem. But when she'd enter the US on her own, odds were high that some CPB asshole would harass her. And it didn't help that she's not a person who will put up with shit. Once she was held for six hours because they asked her what she'd been doing outside the US.
"Travel. I visited three European cities with my sister."
"Why were you travelling?"
"It broadens the mind. I recommend it."
Now I'm on the UK green-card equivalent (ILR) and all I get from the border agents when I enter is some friendly chit-chat.
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It seems like themselves admitted that they intended to work?
In what capacity?
They're teenagers. Probably they're secretly doing a bit of brain surgery on the side to get walking-around money during their backpacking trip.
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About having no bookings yet, that part was always sketchy. I went 15 years ago to the US for a 4 week trip and had only lined up the first hostel for a few days, the rest I had not planned yet, luckily got no questions but worried about it back then already… Guess this is a thing of the past now.
Huh? You base "was always sketchy" on your personal feelings doing that yourself 15 years ago?
I really don't see what's sketchy about not booking four weeks ahead.
I'm more of a planner, but my grandparents get in their car and drive through and around Italy without a single stay pre-planned.
I don't see how that's suspicious or sketchy at all.
I am saying that from the view of border control. What I read back then as advice was very mixed and seemed to depend on you having luck that the person in front of you didn't care. Already back then without the political climate we have now.
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It is very silly right now to admit you wanted to work on a tourist visa.
Where did they admit that?
It's not in this article, there were plenty of others posted where it was mentioned.
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They found it suspicious that we hadn't fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii
Fuckin seriously? We all know what backpacking is. I've never pre-booked an entire stay when traveling internationally except when it's for work.
Yeah wtf... I even traveled to countries where I had no place for the night, but knew I would get one spontaneously. Not great in certain countries, and you gotta know that, but 5 weeks?
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So. Fucking. What? This world is retarded and you're definitely doing your part.
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You mind doing me a favour? Please.
Stop calling cops pigs. It's idiotic, ridiculous and insultuous towards actual pigs.
If you feel the need to throw insults, do so; just make use of some imagination. Don't be afraid of being baroqe.
Call them door kickers, grave fillers, trigger jockeys, wall jumpers... Say they're as sharp as an army boot or that they're a waste of fresh air or unneeded space filling.
Just make it an actual insult, not a comparison to an animal that does not deserve it.
Or better yet, despise them to such a point that you make the word cop an insult by itself.
You have a point. It was a joke to redirect the bull metaphor to a different animal, force of habit.
On the other hand, the term "pig" for Cops has become rather detached from the animal, just like Motherfucker doesn't actually imply incestuous sexual relations.
But you have a point all the same.
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You mind doing me a favour? Please.
Stop calling cops pigs. It's idiotic, ridiculous and insultuous towards actual pigs.
If you feel the need to throw insults, do so; just make use of some imagination. Don't be afraid of being baroqe.
Call them door kickers, grave fillers, trigger jockeys, wall jumpers... Say they're as sharp as an army boot or that they're a waste of fresh air or unneeded space filling.
Just make it an actual insult, not a comparison to an animal that does not deserve it.
Or better yet, despise them to such a point that you make the word cop an insult by itself.
It's a universally accepted term we've been using for over a century. Get over it.
