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Comment by zawaideh | Hacker News Reader

They can detain you and have done that since the preclearance area is considered US soil.

It is not US soil, it is not an embassy. Actions there are governed by the Preclearance Act (which is reciprocal, btw, Canada has the right to open precleance facilities in the US - it just hasn't made sense due to the relative volume of flights).

They can only detain you until they hand you over to the Canadian police. [1]

Section (2) clearly states...

> (2) A preclearance officer is not permitted to exercise any powers of questioning or interrogation, examination, search, seizure, forfeiture, detention or arrest that are conferred under the laws of the United States.

[1] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-19.32/FullText.ht...

You're some rando on the internet, while the current American government is making a big show about ignoring the rule of law when it comes to deporting people. Nothing you say is going to reassure anybody. Hell, nothing anybody says is going to reassure anyone, from past presidents to the Speaker of the House to SCOTUS justices.

I'm not trying to reassure anyone. I'm explaining that US pre clearance is not US soil, it's Canadian soil, and what they can do there is very limited relative to what they can do in the US at actual US ports of entry. The "preclearance is US soil thing" is a common misunderstanding.

Why would you think the Trump regime would respect Canadian sovereignty in this case when he has literally threatened to annex the country?

Well, we don't. it's just nice that the American agents in the pre-clearance area are outnumbered and surrounded by Canadians.

Because it's only words. There have been no actions outside of punitive tariffs, which are legal. There's no indication that the "threats" are any thing more than words, given the lack of actual action.

Much like Trump's last term. He certainly said he would do a lot of things.

The punitive tariffs were a unilateral violation of an existing trade agreement.

... one which Trump himself negotiated and signed during his first term.

Indeed, and since it was approved by Congress I'm not sure how Trump has the legal authority to unilaterally violate it without congressional approval. (Not that such legal niceties actually matter, as we've all learned by now.)

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