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Comment by kazinator | Hacker News Reader

> "The Americans, the FBI, the CIA and everything else, they were brilliant. I mean, I fell in love with America, because I've never been treated so well," he said. "Everybody there really looked after me. And they just thought, oh, it's this silly kid getting himself into trouble."

Haha, try that today.

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My own anecdote as an immigrant is that I've always felt welcome here and have always been well treated, respected, and valued.

Totally different route of course, but same deal in terms of falling in love with the country. This is really home for me. America has given me much more than my birth country ever did, and my birth country was on multiple occasions a lot of more hostile to me, a citizen, than America has ever been to me as a non-citizen.

I'm currently seeking citizenship and have no qualms about swearing to uphold the Constitution and to defend the country if called to it.

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

What is your country of origin? Seems relevant.

Brazil.

If you find US border guards welcoming to foreigners then that doesn't speak highly about the standards of friendliness in your country of origin.

> If you find US border guards welcoming to foreigners

The parent comment said absolutely nothing about border guards.

Ah, yeah, I guess, But the story involved a man being found in an airport (probably in a zone of unclear immigration status) and being surrounded by police and FBI/CIA etc. So it makes one think of men with guns in American airports being unfriendly.

Different times for sure. My mother’s family immigrated from Mexico during the 1970s. There was an article in a local Louisiana newspaper welcoming and introducing the family to town. How times change.

—edit

Searching for orig. article but quote from mom re:

“Yes, the Ruston Daily Leader came to the house and interviewed mom and took our picture for the paper, we were famous.”

In the mid 80s when my dad married a Pakistani bride and brought her home to Ohio the local newspaper did a write up on it.

Probably would be similar, aside from more regulations to follow. It's hard to remember sometimes that the assholes make the news, but most regular people are pretty friendly. Even police.

Yeah, it's just post-9/11, the attitude towards these sort of escapades has been dramatically different. Everyone in an airport today is treated as a terrorist first and a normal human second.

I was about to post just that. That bearded guy must be celebrating in whatever goes for their afterlife place.

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