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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Every time an article like this pops up I am validated in my decision to no longer travel to the United States.

This is the part I don't get. Surely they realize there are a large portion of people that will avoid that county just on principle that they may be hassled at the border. I can imagine that these policies have cost them millions of dollars. Imagine going to a county and being turned around all because you had an employers laptop you promised not to unlock for anyone. Or how about a personal laptop with naked pictures of your wife and kids bathing. Especially when we know it is all security theater. So I am with you. I will avoid the USA for now until the climate changes.

Pretty much all Europeans I know working in Latin America that travel home 1-2 a year, avoid flights that go trough US airports even tough it would often be the cheapest options by quite some margin. For me not having to deal with US borders is worth the up to 300 USD difference in flight price.

I did it once back in 2008 for a flight from Costa Rica to Switzerland via Miami and was caught completely by surprise that, unlike every other airport in the world I have been prior, Miami (US in general?) did not have a separate transit area, and that I had to go trough the whole customs and migration circus for a 3 hour layover.

I just went through this circus for a 1.5-hour layover. Salt in the wound was CBP having just 1 agent serving Non-US travellers for a 737 that just came from Japan…

My partner wants to do more travelling and I said sure, anywhere you want in the world except the US.

Which is a shame there parts of the US I'd love to see but not at the price of entry.

These power-tripping thugs don't think that far ahead. They only care about exercising authority in their tiny little hundred-foot-long kingdom.

Thugs will be thugs but the problem is with those who put them there

>you had an employers laptop you promised not to unlock for anyone

Government laws always will overturn any agreement you had with an employers or some other person or organization.

Security theater or not, if a country is being an asshole in foreign affairs, or at least is at war with someone, be sure your rights most probably will be violated if you decide to have an interaction with such government employees.

Me too. We've considered holidays that would take us close to the states (Canada and the Caribbean) but there are very few flights direct from New Zealand and they're crazy expensive.

Touche

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