Comment by UnoriginalGuy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by UnoriginalGuy | Hacker News Reader

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> I think you have fallen victim to the news.

I've experienced these problems first hand. US immigration being incredibly rude to visitors for no reason at all, and know someone from London who was sent to secondary because they were the wrong skin color (their electronic devices searched, books read, and seemingly no clear answer as to why, it was a business trip with a return ticket to a conference they had a ticket for and hotel room booked for).

I genuinely wish Americans could experience US immigration as a foreigner; rather than get their special lines where they just get waved through. Then things would change, things would change rapidly.

How many times, online, do Americans need to read that US immigration is some of the worst in the world before you'll believe it? That your border feels like entering a police state? Seriously, what will it take? The fact that you guys are now attributing it to "fake news" says a lot.

News stories are fake, anecdotes are fake, it is all fake because you don't like to hear it...

PS - US immigration has been horrible since at least 9/11 (arguably it was bad before). This has nothing to do with Trump, it was horrible under Obama and W. Bush too.

Yeah idk. Every country I've been to, customs has not been great. I'm. not saying the US immigration isn't bad, but people actively avoiding the entire country for anything bad? Not hardly.

> Every country I've been to, customs has not been great.

I've been to over thirty countries, including Russia.

The US was the worst and UK was the second worst out of all of them. Immigration always sucks just due to the nature of it, but there's a difference between the process sucking and the employees/policy going out of its way to make a bad situation much worse.

Sure, you have a great anecdote.

Well I have some anecdata for you. I personally know three people who have cancelled subsequent trips to the USA after their treatment on entry, and I personally will not be coming back after the way I was treated. I've travelled on business to over 30 countries, and thus is the first time I've decided that a particular one is just not worth the hassle.

So you keep believing everything is ok, I'm sure it makes you feel better, rather than actually listening to other people's stories.

And yet, many people I know who have immigrated here, whether on work or student visas, have had no issues at the border.

So.... I'm not sure what to tell you. What exact treatment happened? Somebody being rude to you at the border doesn't count, who cares about that? If you were detained, or interrogated, or something along those lines, then yeah you have a legitimate gripe. But I don't want to hear anything about "the security officer was rude".

You claim that people are not avoiding the country because of treatment received at immigration. I'm telling you that I know people who are avoiding the country, and I'm one of them.

Don't tell me what I am and am not allowed to feel based on my experience.

Nobody says you can't feel anything. And nobody says that some people aren't avoiding the US because of how they were treated at immigration. What I am saying is that the vast majority of people have no problem.

What was your poor experience?

I know a bunch of people who are no longer are interested in travelling to the USA due to bad experiences with the TSA.

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