It is not clear why a US official was even at the gate of my flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Los Angeles on KLM, but her rude demeanor and shrill tone in questioning my wife over her green card was not appreciated.
US Official At Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hassles My Wife While Boarding Flight To LAX
I did not want to bog down my KLM flight review with this side story, but I’m really wondering why the United States places its worst agents in people-facing roles at major ports of entry. Why is it that US officials, whether oversees or at home, get away with being so rude compared to their counterparts in other developed countries around the world (with the exception, perhaps, of Canada)?
As I approached the jet bridge to board our flight, a KLM gate agent took our boarding passes and passports, scanning our boarding passes as she checked our passport photo pages. A woman in a gray pants suit was looking on and grabbed my wife’s German passport and leafed through it. She then typed something on her computer and barked out:
“I need to see your green card.”
I am not exaggerating when I say that her tone was that of a mother who catches her son with his hands in the cookie jar. She had a scowl on her face and barked out the order.
As Heidi was looking for it in her wallet, I stated, “This was just checked during check-in. Why is it needed again?”
The US official instantly snapped, “We can check it as often as we want. You are required to produce it when we ask for it. Is there going to be a problem?”
That made me wonder whether she was a former flight attendant…
Looking at the card, she asked my wife, “What are you doing in the United States?”
Rather incredulously, Heidi looked at her and said, “Living with my husband and two kids.”
We were all standing together.
She typed away for awhile on her computer and then without another word handed the passports back to us.
I couldn’t help myself, asking, “Was that really necessary?”
She responded, “Excuse me, I work for the US government.”
I responded, “What a surprise. That was an easy guess,” to which she responded, “Well you’re so clever.”
And with that, we boarded the flight.
CONCLUSION
Certainly, US officials are entitled to verify that my wife has legal authority to travel to the United Sates. But there is a right way and wrong way to do it. Checking documents like green cards is one thing, but barking orders and asking stupid questions is quite another. I desperately wish the United Sates took more seriously how inhospitable its agents treat visitors and permanent residents (and often citizens too). There is no excuse for such poor customer service.
I was born in Canada but after getting American citizenship through my career, I am not looked at very kindly by some US border agents when entering the USA. For some reason, you are always looked as a foreigner (an alien) if you were born in another country. And I was going to get Mexican residency stamped on my (US) passport, but forget that. I will definitely be given a hard time by the US. ( Or I can always get that stamped on my Canafian Passport).
Mexican residency isn’t stamped in a passport, it’s a card.
You are only half-right……..yes, the Mexican residency is a CARD after you have successfully acquired it……HOWEVER, during the initial application process the Mexican embassy where you apply will put a permanent sticker in your passport IF THEY ACCEPT YOUR APPLICATION that indicates that you have applied for residency, so there is IN FACT a sticker in your passport.
It can’t noted too many times that the people who work for “Homeland Security” are the bottom of the barrel and have been trained within an absolutely noxious culture of authoritariansm that breeds abuses and routine discourtesies like this. Like TSA, Homeland Security is an agency staffed with sub-mediocre people who couldn’t pass without objection into the private sector or better civil service positions – people who have been bullied all their lives and now get to flex their muscles and turn the table on the innocent traveling public. Americans are completely used to it and it takes foreigners who know better to point out the egregiousness of what Americans tolerate like fish do water.
Prove to us that you applied to work for TSA and were rejected with one comment.
Part of it may be resentment from being stationed overseas. This is what an agent in Nassau conveyed to me. I forgot that Nassau has pre-clearance. “Wow, you get to be stationed in the Bahamas!” Reply: “get to?? Ugh!”
The woman must be sad inside, have to be on a power trip, and may be deprived of male genitalia? She might have a psychiatric problem.
I would have not been snarky at her because she could retaliate.
They must have sign up for it. If they don’t like, they could ask for reassignment then. I agreed that the CBP officers normally are rude.
Maybe it was a seasonal backfill temp assignment, but most of the CBP pre clearance assignments are about as cozy a job as there is in the CBP. And that is part of the reason they often have young guys wanting the jobs abroad and aren’t all that happy that the maximum time is capped.
I would have thought some people would like to be stationed overseas, especially in some of the larger nicer European cities.
For sure, especially with the very generous housing allowances offered.
And allowances which allow them to send their children to fancy international private schools with tuition paid by taxpayers, rather than the crappy public schools their kids would ordinarily go to. These stations are absolute plums.
Yep. I’ve got a friend who is working in London right now at the US Embassy. Sending his three kids to the best private school in London fully paid for by Uncle Sam.
I’m not sure the benefits make up for the crazy low pay.
Without a doubt. The most pleasant experience I have had with a USCIS officer was the one with whom we dealt when doing pre-clearance in Ireland. He was SUPER friendly and polite. We chatted briefly about Ireland and he was visibly happy about his assignment and time there.
All of us can’t shill for credit card companies, Matty. Alot of those folks in London served in places you would be too scared to even visit.
I visit everywhere and don’t shill credit cards, so I have no idea what you are talking about.
It’s hard to take you seriously when you can’t spell the name of the country you’re criticizing.
Kanada is bad, too, as Matthew noted. Even worse.
Well Brutus, I think we can make the argument that the US is Untied rather than United…
dude no one in America wants you here. writing a whole blog about a negative interaction with a border patrol agent and attributing her interaction with you to everyone else from the United States? Seriously stay out of our country. People here don’t like people like you
Oh, you speak for the country? I’ve been in and out of the USA hundreds of times…this was not an isolated incident. This is a culture problem within DHS that cries out for reformation.
As an American, I don’t pay these people to be rude to our guests. Living in Australia, I have never had any public service person be even remotely rude; medical staff are another story – talk about Nurse Ratchet!
I vote for Newark, the rudest government workers on the planet. I avoid entry there always.
You have never gone through MIA, by far the CBP staff at MIA are the worst in the system by a mile.
I’ve been through MIA when I flew LATAM. Thankfully, I avoided any drama.
I travel through MIA regularly on flights back from Barbados. We’ve had some long, unexpected waits, but never any nastiness.
+1 on that. When I went through MIA back in 2010, the agents did not even know that they had installed Global Entry kiosks and was confused when I handed them a slip.
Absolutely the worst! Except I had it on an outbound flight from EWR to Istanbul. Rude, insulting. Her behavior was totally inappropriate.
The great irony here is, the last four CBP agents I’ve dealt with haven’t just been not rude, but genuinely nice. I should go buy a pack of lottery tickets…
As Mak noted, my guess is this agent worked for DHS. If you’ve watched To Catch a Smuggler, they’ll periodically station agents at the gate to “randomly” interrogate passengers. They truly are the worst of the worst. And why wouldn’t they be? Since 9/11, they’ve been told, by the agency they work for, by Congress, and by the courts, that they have the absolute right to do whatever they want, and you have zero recourse to do anything about it. The Patriot Act and FISA truly are the greatest violations of civil rights in our lifetimes, but no Congress or administration will ever have the guts to do anything about it.
P.S. while I understand your reaction to get mouthy with the agent, ask yourself this question – is the satisfaction of telling her off worth risking a full cavity search every time you re-enter the USA? Because those DHS types are absolutely vindictive enough to put a note in your file to make it happen.
Mak and Derek, you’re so right. It seems like employees in these, and some other Federal agencies, are cut from the same mold.
Their lives outside of their work is likely devoid of love, respect, and meaningful relationships. No wonder they are so bitter and try to take it out on the general traveling public.
“May I see your Green Card please?”
“We already showed it a check-in.”
“I know, but sometimes we also do an additional check right before boarding. This will just take a minute.”
Pause for document check?
“Can you confirm the basis for your Green Card?”
“I am married to an American and live in the US with hm and my children. We’re flying together today.”
“Thank you. Enjoy your flight.”
See how easy a civilized person could have conducted a gate check?
Well, I got held up in SEA back in October 2015 because an immigration officer thought it was suspicious that a black man in a suit was coming back from ICN of all places. Direct quote, no joke. I ended up being held up for four hours and called my superiors at JP Morgan at the time and the clients I met in Korea to confirm I was an actual employee there and travelled to Korea for work. Probably up there with being detained at PVG for one of the most dehumanizing experiences I faced. Point is, I’d say that’s not too bad and it could go worse.
Not to minimize what happened to you (horrible), but a worse situation does not excuse or even minimize a bad situation.
Didn’t mean to have a knock on your situation here, but was just trying to convey that these people can be get worse.
I would say you are minimizing it. Your sitiation is not even bad.
Are you calling it pleasant?
your wife was getting bullied because she’s probably massively overweight. no attractive person would get married to such an unintelligent, complaining man. stay in third-world Europe
Now this is funny. My wife is a former model who is still gorgeous and I’m an American, so maybe you try reading comprehension first. And if you’re an ugly American immigration official who takes joy in hassling decent folks for no good reason, I hope you enjoy sitting alone and miserable each evening.
Meh. This happens in Singapore all thr time. If you say you’re there to visit to visit a specific person, for business or pleasure, who is a permanent resident or citizen of singapore, and not for tourism, they will ask for contact details of that person and detain you until they can verify details. It is smartest as a visitor to say you are there for tourism and nobody ask any further questions.
Papers please. Just wait till they decide to include a social credit score to travel internationally.
We already have that in the US. Look up ATS scoring.
Did she identify which agency she was with or have any US Government ID? I am not doubting your story, just find it strange that they would not identify themselves if they are in civilian clothing.
Personally, I don’t mind if the U.S. border agents are business like in their tone. I have had many of the border agents question me that are direct and professional. That is not the same as being rude, which I believe this person was. Maybe not at first, but her responses after you asked it this was necessary. The “Your so clever” comment was unprofessional. And simply saying she worked for the government was not an answer to your question. She could have easily said something like…… The airlines employees at check in do not have access to government computer systems, therefore, they are not able to verify if documents are fraudulent. With today’s computers and printers, counterfeit documents are a growing problem, sometimes counterfeiters illegally obtain valid information. Our government systems have access to the file and the actual photo of the person the card was issued to. I work for XYZ agency and we are required to do random checks or if an airline employee suspects a document is being used by an imposter or fraudulent, they ask us to verify before the flight departs.
I just find it strange she never identified the agency. I wonder if she was someone who works for the airline in their security department and just says that in hopes of influencing people?
Either way, government employee or airline security employee on who misrepresents themselves for a power trip, they were wrong not to explain anything to you.
Curious, you travel more than I, in your travels, have you seen this happen to others?
She had a badge on that looked like she was a federal employee – she certainly wasn’t Securitas or a contractor.
Some of the badge wearers at AMS doing this aren’t US citizens. I made sure to find out following seeing one of them try to demand non-existent fake ID from an American.
It tends to be easy to tell contractors, 99% of the time they will be local whereas agents working for a foreign government will normally be temporarily stationed somewhere. The difference should show in both language/accent and overall demeanour.
A lot of the airline security contractors in Europe are immigrants to the country where they are working at the airport. Which sometimes makes for some interesting games for me to play.
@Don – US Government personnel operate in the transit area at Schiphol and have done so for a long time. I was personally detained and questioned there briefly by an unnamed USG agency (under Koninklijke Marechaussee supervision) in 2002 while in transit between Canada and India – they knew my flight and were waiting for me as I came off the aircraft. There have also been other reports of rendition of passengers in transit there.
Parsi name? Probably thought you were a dangerous brown Muslim back after 9/11 or associated with people who could be considered to be of such ethnic and religious background whether true or not.
@GUWonder – You know my full name and also some of my background in that era (ie. booked on UA93 but didn’t fly that day). So it was understandable given the circumstances. They handled themselves professionally, in contrast to their counterparts elsewhere. My point was simply to say that there are numerous alphabet agencies operating in the transit area at Schiphol with full support of the Dutch authorities.
Even if a contractor she is representing the US, she should be professional and ask nicely.
Interesting…when I’m inbound to the United States I always present my green card along with passport at the checkpoints…usually they just toss it aside…however once at Amsterdam airport the baggage security person took me to task for having it clipped to my passport…said they could take it away??????? Never figured out why a paperclip was so offensive☺ the best immigration guys? Surprisingly Boston…always make a joke and are a little flirty..i know then that I’m home!
It really surprises me that the Dutch government allows them to operate at AMS. What is their real purpose? We’re spending a lot of money to have that person stationed there. Doesn’t seem worth it.
CBP IAP, mainly.
I’ve encountered these”angry friends of Ellen Degeneres”types on several occasions going into Canada( not the US side).Canada seems to like that.
What a stupid comment.
Me too. Canadian border agents are the rudest I’ve encountered in visiting over 80 countries.
I think sometimes they are just jealous. Your wife was on vacation, going back home and she has the s..tty job of checking passports at a foreign airport. That is my same impression of agents at customs and immigration when you arrived in the US. You are coming back from a nice trip and they are there doing a s..tty job. Canada wins the cake for the rudest in the world but the US comes in a close second. I landed last Saturday from Europe and a nasty customs agents had a dog sniffing around and making people open their bags while waiting for their luggage. Totally unnecessary as he could just ask them to go to the X-ray. While the dog was sniffing he was rude and asking out loud “what do you have there that wasn’t supposed to be there? Do you have meat? Do you have something illegal? You will get fined”. WTF!! Stupid dog found nothing but he had to harass the person in front of everyone.
I know I am generalizing, but I find the agents with the dogs to be the absolute worst: rude and bitter. I know better than to smuggle anything in, but when I see them I walk the other way.
Matt,
Given your previous comments regarding your dislike of dogs – maybe they (like some of these agents) are just reflecting on how you come across.
While I dont travel nearly as much as you do – my experiences, for example, are just the opposite, as a dog-lover, I tend to provide positive feedback (like: what a majestic creature, beautiful dog, etc) and always get a nice, pleasant, and friendly (and professional) response back – even if the dogs pick up a sent in my bags that prompts a search.
I think you forget that these people – like it or not – have very important and serious jobs to do and need to be extremely professional about it. They have strict protocols they have to follow and given some of the issues with things like human trafficking (have you been thru Vegas lately?), for example, even minor errors on official papers can be a sign of a major red flag or problem. Everyone is very quick to jump over them when they miss something, but also attack them when they appear to take their jobs more seriously than a FA offering you a choice of wine in F.
Maybe try thanking them for doing their jobs?
… even if it means a minor inconvenience to your daily life as a travel blogger flying on a US passport?
-m
I don’t appreciate or find value in the work they do, full stop. But if you think I’m simply biased or anti-DHS, see this post:
https://liveandletsfly.com/secondary-screening-dhs-dulles/
Coming home from Europe on one occasion, I almost stepped on the sniffer dog!!!!
He got right under my feet, and FIDO would have been minus a tail bone if I had not hopped on one foot for a moment or two. The handler was not amused!
Agree 100% Jealousy
I have found US CBP officers to be great. I always get a “welcome home”, exchange a few pleasantries and go on my way. Vibes are a two-way street.
We are so glad you are an anomaly.
The vast majority of comments here tell a very different story.
I think it depends on the airport and people working there. Chicago I have never had any issues. JFK, on the other hand, not as nice.
I’m a dual national, born in the U.S. of Canadian parents, living in Canada now after having grown up here, lived most of my adult life in Europe and the U.S.. I have interacted with border agents in some 59 countries around the world. Most are friendly and welcoming (they are after all, the first face you meet when you visit a country). Some however stand out for their consistently dour and officious dispositions. While the worst are the Saudi border agents (I arrived by land from Bahrain in a chauffeur driven car on my way to a meeting in Al Khobar) treating you like you’re a cockroach they seem to wish they could step on….many U.S. border agents are not far behind. What I don’t get is that a friendly, smiling, a bit chatty approach is far more likely to reveal a smuggler (you encourage people to talk!) these guys seems intent on putting everyone on guard. Let’s just say that returning to Canada is always a far more pleasant experience.
You are quite fortunate because the worst passport control experiences I have ever had in the West have been in Canada.
My experience also. Canadian agents are the very worst. I got Nexus for my entire family just so I could avoid encounters with them.
Basketball American?
Another typo I made?
We encountered very difficult immigration agents entering SJU from the BVIs. My son was 4yo at the time and the agent badgered him about his middle name (German yet we are all USA born citizens). Sometimes you get a jerk with an abuse of power chip on their shoulder.
Unless this was a US preclearance airport I doubt this person had any authority if someone had the time to challenge them (and willing to miss the flight and get rebooked on a new one)
They’re just abusing authority here because they know passengers don’t want to miss the flight.
Someone with more time and money should challenge this
The official does sound unnecessarily rude and unpleasant, but your responses unnecessarily escalated the situation. Did you expect asking “Why is it needed again?” or “Was that really necessary?” to trigger a conciliatory response given her initial tone?
Yes, there are times to push back when there’s some chance of payoff, but you had zero upside here
I won’t be talked down to by an arrogant jerk my tax dollars sustain.
And that response says it all friend. You are the one with the chip on your shoulder, looking for trouble around every turn. US citizen, lived in Europe for a number of years, 4th or 5th passport at this point. I have encountered 1, count them 1, immigration agent that was rude. Plenty that were not effusively friendly, but always polite and efficient. After a career of dealing with unpleasant people like you, who could blame them?
Sorry, she was rude from the start. I’ve been to 140 countries and dealt with hundreds and hundreds of agents. Few have been this bad.
Again, your tone says it all. “…Few have been this bad…” As a writer you ought to realize your choice of words convey your true self/ intent. With that statement, you imply (at least to me) that you feel that most are bad and this agent leads the group with her “badness”. You also could have said “most are professional / polite/ efficient, etc, but she was inappropriate”. You didn’t though, You chose a negative leaning statement. Perhaps your experiences have led you to a place where you expect bad things to happen and it clouds the way you interact with these agents. I had an approximate 2 year period that had me being separated at Immigration from my wife each time. I was always polite, treated professionally, and soon sent on my way. Though I asked why, I was never given a reason. I remained polite, and so did all of those agents. Total delay? Maybe 5 minutes….I suspect had I become argumentative or had been a smart ass, it would have ended differently. Perhaps a look in the mirror and a priority check are in order for you. And if an agent is truly egregious, then ask to actually see their identification and file an actual complaint.
We will have to agree to disagree. I thank you for taking the time to write, but she began the conversation by barking and no one should have to endure that poor treatment. I don’t grin and bear it, even if it gets me on my way quicker.
Is that a challenge? Accepted.
The TSA, security theatre, and customs are a total waste of time for everybody and provide a fraction of the security they purport while miring thousands of people in a costly and time consuming bureaucratic nightmare that benefits almost no one.
Ah yes, the old taxpayer argument. Bro, the USG will be just find without your measly tax dollars.
It’s not about the amount, but the principle. Are you one of the sadist beasts who works for DHS?
“I won’t be talked down to by an arrogant jerk my tax dollars sustain.”
You’re better educated than me and an attorney and I find it interesting you would say this.
For good or ill, they’ve got a badge and as Cartman on South Park would put it , “You have to respect their author-it-eee!” In the case of this one, I think they didn’t like being asked to explain why they were doing their job. After all, in theory, we don’t need them there to begin with if the papers are checked during check-in. It’s like arguing with a meter maid or worse, a traffic cop with a gun and taser. I’m always polite with traffic cops, I get a warning sometimes but when I got cited, I at least got a lawyer who got the charges pled down to something that was off-the-record and the cop didn’t seem to care.
My old Irish attorney in the 1990’s (RIP) certainly came across jerk judges and handled them. One classic story I’ll share with you is through questioning he ascertained a cop used a lame justification to search a vehicle that it was “leaning” in the front suggesting a significant weight and found a loaded gun in the glove compartment. Larry asked in open court “What was that heavy in the glove compartment? Kryptonite?” The judge refused to toss the case out so he began the same line of questioning in front the jury. He said “You can either allow this now or in appeals” and the judge had to allow it. The jury came back with “Not guilty.”
You come across a jerk FA, telephone agent, or gate agent? Smile, disengage, go to someone else in 5 minutes. Write your congressperson about it. I don’t let psychos get away anymore, nor do I engage them. I circumvent them.
Honestly, I don’t answer the questions either. It’s none of their business what I was doing, who I was with, and where I went. If they think I am trafficking people, weapons, drugs, or money then search me. They don’t, so they won’t, and as a US citizen are they going to deny me entrance to my own country? Not a chance.
That said, Global Entry has limited my interactions with customs and I am always very kind to agents of foreign governments- I am, after all, a guest.
I’m American, at SFO, a TSA agent asked who I was traveling with since I brought three laptops through pre check. I said, my wife, who’s already through security. The lady asked who, I pointed, and there was a dog standing nearby. This ahole said, you’re married to a dog? I asked to file a complaint. The bigger ahole supervisor started with, you know, I can send you to jail anytime I want? Can’t stand the US government.
That’s horrible. This was at a security checkpoint? I totally would have filed a complaint.
SFO does not use TSA but I find their Covenant Aviation Security (CAS) Agents even worse.
At sfo TSA are contractors, not federal employees.
In my many countries visited of which quite a few I have visited more than once, the consistently worst are the cbp officers of the USA. The only ones who may be worse are the federal officers of Australia. But I have only n=2 for the latter and only from Sydney.
I have had a similar experience at MAD a number of years ago while checking in for a flight to the US. I was not only challenged on my travel plans (because nobody who lives in England would ever choose to fly via a foreign airport to connect to an intercontinental flight as opposed to changing three trains to catch one from LHR), but also interrogated about why I am fluent in Spanish! The highly obnoxious person didn’t even have a badge on display. Still less bad than the customs officers at AKL who were uniformly hostile and even took my anti-diarrhea pills through a chemical analysis in order to ensure that I am not a drug trafficker.
MAD has CBP IAP too.
Wish more countries were opposed to hosting CBP IAP, but the trend is not headed in that direction.
Well, this is unfortunate, and who knows what set this agent off.
White Americans and especially American women are so self-entitled (or can come across that way – usually not the case for Germans, but still, the era we live in). Sometimes conversations are overhead at different places in the airport. Sometimes you are singled out. Perhaps retrace your conversations or even past blog posts. Could be plain jealousy.
Yes, white people are not used to this type of treatment, which has generally been reserved for people of color. Well, now you have experienced it! Not saying it’s deserved, but it’s something to think about.
Discrimination comes in all forms.
When I was an airline pilot (now retired) I was often (in uniform) checked, my flight bag and personals gone through all courtesy of bad mannered and rude government officials. This was before 9/11! Never a pleasant experience especially with passengers looking on!
God forbid YOU were subject to inspection. Did you scream: “Do you know who I am?”
Pilots and flight attendants are inspected because you guys/girls/thems often like to smuggle drugs or other dutiable goods that far exceed your personal exemption.
This is what you get with liberals and by supporting liberals: normal Citizens, tourists, and Residents are treated like garbage by agents of the government. We are abused. Just think of all we went through with Christians being arrested for going to church during Covid yet Illegals are welcomed in and given $10,000 a year in school funding for each kid, housing, medical, phones, internet, and food. Violent criminals who rioted across the country and burned businesses and neighborhoods get a Holiday.
Conservatives desecrate and storm the US capital. Unfortunately only ashley Babbit received justice. Conservatives hate everything the US stands for. Conservatives rally with nazi flags and spit in the face of WW2 vets and Ron Desantis thanks them for their support. Sad
Can I have some of whatever it is you are smoking?
I was questioned by an US embassy employee from The Hague (clearly US born and raised) in 2016 for a solid 45 minutes in AMS at the gate while waiting to board. I’m American born in US without any other claimed nationalities. When I landed in Dulles from AMS, I was given the ‘black X’ on my declaration receipt, and waited for over an hour in secondary screening. Only thing that was asked there was to give my mother’s email account username ( the same question that was asked by the embassy employee in AMS). Very bizarre, but I’ve been an expat since 2013, and chalk it up to this.
Pro tip: when someone in a position of power has a bee in her bonnet just smile and say thank you. You were lucky you didn’t get Turkished.
I’ve had these agents come up to me quite often in recent years, and it’s never been a good experience. From the way they approach you (no introduction, they just start asking questions), to the oddly specific and personal questions they ask, to their suspecting/accusatory tone, it feels like you’re in an authoritarian dystopia.
Was this someone working for US CBP under the IAP? Or was this an airline security contractor claiming to work for the USG even when they are not on USG payroll?
When someone tells me they work for the USG and try to use that as a blunt instrument to justify their behavior and actions, I want to know which part of the USG employs them and to which government agency and office they are assigned.
This was a woman or trans man with a clear American accent who looked to be in the prime of her career and wearing a gray pants suit with a badge that looked like a CAC card with the US seal on it. However, I did not read it closely and ended up holding my tongue more than I wanted because I wanted to get onboard and take pictures before others boarded (sadly, this incident meant I was already too late).
Sometimes you do see Americans, especially in Frankfurt (FRA), doing Securitas work, but this was certainly not it. I find those people far less confrontational and much easier to deal with it. And it’s not like she put any stickers on our passports or boarding pass.
Trans woman, not trans man.
Like thats what matters,idiot.
Aaron, for a biological woman who has a transitioned to man?
Mislabeling trans women is textual violence. I am literally shaking. It is a sad fact that because of conservatives like Matthew, millions of children will grow up without even thinking to question their gender.
You might consider raising the issue with your congress person and both senators. I’m sure that it won’t be the first complaint they’ve received about rude federal employees! Mentioning your blog post will remind them that you gave them some free publicity.
I suspect that the person works for CBP, as they are responsible for examining the documents of arriving international travelers. They are probably on the lookout for fraudulent and stolen documents. It is a lot easier to deal with them before the bearer gets on the plane.
Europe is seeing a lot of irregular migration these days. A few weeks ago I took 2 trains from Salzburg to Munich. Both were subject to passport checks by German border police. On a regional train packed with people taking advantage of the EUR 49/month Deutschland Ticket, they checked every passport, delaying us by 25 minutes. I was talking to one of the officers and he said that the checks were due to migration issues. The second train didn’t accept the Deutschland Ticket and wasn’t packed so the police just walked through the train and we were on our way in 5 minutes.
You might consider raising the issue with your congress person and both senators. Mentioning your blog post might help them see that you are serious.
I suspect that the person works for CBP, as they are responsible for checking the documents of arriving international travelers. They are probably on the lookout for stolen and fraudulent documents. It’s easier to deal with people using them before they get on the plane.
Europe is experiencing a lot of irregular migration these days. A few weeks ago I took two trains from Salzburg to Munich. Both were stopped by German border police for passport checks. The first train was a regional train packed with people taking advantage of the EUR 49/month Deutschland Ticket. The police checked every passport, delaying us by 25 minutes. I was talking to one of the officers and he told me that the checks were due to irregular migration issues. The second train didn’t accept the Deutschland Ticket and wasn’t crowded so the police just walked through the train and we were on our way in 5 minutes.
Try being a naturalized middle eastern! Lol this is nothing. I can fly to ANY country and have ZERO issues except here in the US.
Will the US ever implement E-gates like many European and Asian countries? But then how would these officers intimidate us??
I have interacted with many CBP employees, and they are a massive agency with a wide range of personalities.
For many, a career with CBP is a step up form the TSA. For many more, it is their only reasonable choice. So many are ex-military, not college educated, and CBP provides a decent salary, good health insurance, retirement, and a union.
DHS is a mess. They have constantly changing priorities and rules, disrepute among the public, and a frighteningly high suicide rate.
The “badge heavy” types introduce themselves as “federal agents” or “law enforcement.” They let their aren’t coached on how to control their anger, or how their behaviour represents the United States. One can exercise confidence and humility at the same time.
Above all, the “badge heavies” seem not to choose their battles. Their ability to identify contraband, illegal immigration, etc. would be far greater if they were friendly. It would also make for an easier shift.
The blue uniform jobs at the airport and pre-clearance stations usually are a prize for good work and seniority. They are given extraordinarily generous benefits, and one would hope that they would act with greater courtesy. (Then again, I would want to set myself on fire if I had to work in the pre-clearance zone at Pearson Airport.)
I do wish that this woman would have said, “Hello. I’m [First Name] [Last Name] or Officer [Last Name.] I work for US Customs and Border Protection. Could I just see your passport for a moment? And what is the purpose of your trip? Are you carrying more than US$10,000 with you? Okay. Thank you. Have a pleasant flight. See you next time.”
We should be fair. I’ve come across some hostile and snippy border agents elsewhere around the world.
All of these agents and agencies, whether CBP or others, need to be completely reformed. It seems they scrape the bottom with personnel and then empower them with the ability to basically do anything they want and not be questioned. It’s like giving Valet parking guys at a hotel the right to seize your car at will. These agencies are full of racists, misogynists, and xenophobes. And that’s before we even get to their uneducated rudeness. Even scarier is that you have no fundamental legal rights during a detention and can’t even make a phone call. For foreigners arriving in the US they can detain you at will, look through all of your devices without any due cause, and deport you without any reason…just because they want to. Even worse, the effectiveness ranks right up there with Flight attendants policing human trafficking.
Sorry you had to deal with that. Imagine getting that attitude coupled with questions about your personal life and faith as soon as you return home to the US because you are part of a discriminatory watchlist that is 98% Muslim. We can do much better.
Matt,
Never seen any US officials at a gate going to the US from AMS. Truly a weird situation for you and your family. Is this a new occurrence in schipol?
I’ve had silly run ins with securitas asking me ridiculous question to get that little sticker on my passport there. Why were you in de wallen? Idk man f*cking prostitutes, why do you need to know?
You were able to let your consternation show and talk to her in a sarcastic manner given your European heritage. Imagine being from a non European or non white heritage, we can never imagine talking in your tone, lest we get denied any entry or face 3rd degree treatment for being a “combative” alien. We did rather pick up our “soup” quietly from the “soup Nazi” and go our way!
I understand that privilege that comes from my US citizenship – it is a shame that any person, American or not, is talked down to.
Not to disregard the fact that people from developing countries tend to have a more difficult time travelling (particularly when it comes to visa requirements), but there is no shortage of places where one can encounter hostile and racist behaviour being dished out to white people, whether it’s taxi drivers in India charging higher fares or police officers in Mozambique trying to extort a bribe by getting a local to give a false statement against them.
I think Matthew was able to use sarcasm etc without consequences principally because of the limited power of that agent. If he had been visiting a country where he didn’t have an automatic right of entry, things may have been a lot more complicated.
Indeed, like when I was in Algeria and held my tongue. Or Doha. Or Kazakhstan. Or Belarus.
I do know when to shut up.
Every time I have entered the country through SFO, I have encountered the nicest friendliest professional agents. Last trip I entered elsewhere and came to the realization that SFO is an anomaly.
While she was rude (as most of them are), you’re lucky that you & Heidi got away without trouble. They can be quite vindictive.
Doesn’t that bother you?
I’ve given some of these people at AMS my own forms of pushback, and my rate of haraSSSSment flagging on US-bound trips from AMS and other foreign airports is much lower now with my having more of a “stand my ground” attitude willing to question their nonsense under color of “just following orders to keep you safe” idiocy.
I find CBP personnel have widely varying attitudes. Most say “welcome back to the US Mr Boraxo” but occasionally find one who is hostile.
The correct response to this agent was “See you next Tuesday” but unfortunately not worth the risk as you don’t want to have your ticket cancelled with your family in tow. So you just suck it up.
While your approach makes sense in some regards, it also just promotes continued harassment as they feel even more emboldened. Heidi and Matthew challenged this in just the right way. They were not disrespectful but still made it clear with biting sarcasm the absurdity of the questions and the way they were presented. Anything less just allows them to go unchecked and harass others for fun. Which is exactly what they are doing.
Matthew challenged this in exactly the wrong way. Talking back to the agent with that level of snark only invites downside. Zero upside. He’s lucky the whole family wasn’t Turkished with his immature behavior.
I see only an upside. These agents need to be reformed, retrained, and educated properly. And if we don’t challenge them back this will never happen and will only continue and get worse.
Imperialism is good unless it affects me directly.
Oh stop. What a one trick pony.
I had this happen to me. I once was barked at by an immigration officer “HOW did you get that????(referring to my green card). To which I replied calmly “In the mail”. The guy was so speechless, he just waved me through.
Hilarious.
@joe chivas – join the circus.
I have been a resident alien for 12 years now, stuck in the green card queue doing to legally. anyway, it varies a lot, some officers are genuinely nice, some are assholes. I actually met an asshole during my Schipol leg as well. Just gotta shake it off. Atleast with a green card they cannot deny you entry, with a visa they can deny you entry so thats the only time they get to exhibit their power over you.
The fact that a European country allows a US official on Dutch soil to do this is something of a worry. Can a Dutch official do the same in the US? Don’t think so
I had a similarly unpleasant experience at Bermuda for a return flight to Philadelphia. The US CBP agent on duty at BDA was truly an unhappy person… she was assigned to a lovely place, all expenses paid (I know, because I used to work for the government overseas) and was less than 90 minutes from the US mainland if she got “cabin fever”. And yet, she was truly the epitome of the disgruntled, bitter federal employee of comedic fame. She pushed her “I can do this because of who I am and where I work” attitude until I trumped her with my official credentials and told her she was going to be reported to the Homeland Security Office of Professional Responsibility for abuse of power and lack of courtesy to the taxpayer/traveler (AKA her bosses). Boy did her tune change on that. Stunningly, she apologized, said she was having a bad day and sent me to my gate. Awful experience.
I have only once had a truly bad experience going through immigration. I have traveled to many countries, some stoic to the point of making me nervous, some absolutely humorous (yes, I’m talking about you Sweden, I shouldn’t have to hunt down immigration in an empty airport and wake him up. He was very nice however), but only once actually negative. And… worst experience goes to… Canada. That lady was hell bent on creating difficulty where none should have existed. I’ve been to Russia multiple times, all over the middle east, all of Scandinavia, and pretty much all of eastern Europe, some of western Europe, and have never been treated as poorly as entering Canada. That’s pretty sad for a neighboring country.
We encountered a US security person while boarding recently in Frankfurt. He asked what cities we visited in Europe, why we visited them and a couple other things. It was OK but I was pleased my memory cells were firing that day. Then we faced the TSA a—–e in Houston. I’d forgotten to remove my iPad and paid for that mistake with a butt-chewing and lengthy examination of the iPad. (Reason, not an excuse, we always do TSA pre-check but no PC lanes were open. I merely forgot it had to be removed. I explained and apologized.) I then discovered my backpack, which held the nasty iPad, was placed on a table behind another agent who was operating the scanner. The backpack already had been cleared, btw. I repeatedly asked for my bag and was ignored. I told them I had only a few minutes to get to my gate and still was ignored. Finally, the guy who commandeered the iPad picked up the backpack and said, “I think we’ll run this bag through the scanner again.” It was the only time he’d smiled. Spite? Power trip? Oh yeah. The iPad? Couldn’t find it. Turns out the TSA guy had taken it to a supervisor’s desk about 50 feet away while I was retrieving my bag. I got it back, ran to the gate and made the flight. Lots of delays at IAH that night. Awful experience. I’ve heard these things but never had a truly bad, spiteful situation. Trust me, it happens.
Sad story. These little people need to be put in their place.
That’s unfortunate. It takes one bad apple to form a negative impression. Let me give an opposite
I’m an American living in London (with a British other half). During the pandemic we didn’t really slow our travel…. We went back and forth to The States every month or so. Because Europeans were banned unless married – our marriage certificate was always under evaluation by these officers at check in, the gate, or both. Had a total of 9 run ins with them at LHR // AMS // CDG.
It could have been because airports were empty and having a chat was a nice distraction…. but completely opposite experience all 9 times.
For example: Had the same official at AMS twice – he was hyper-professional. He struck me like a guy out of central casting for a Secret Service role.
The official at CDG was from my state (PA). Passing thru CDG for the third time in as many months…. At the gate there was a queue of people for the docs to be checked by him….. He spotted me in the line:
“Hey Scranton! You’re sure thru here often… no need to wait”
Then shouted to the completely bewildered gate agent – “they’re good go!”. Her face as she scanned our boarding cards was “wtf just happened’ lol.
Airports were deserted then and are mobbed shit shows now…. so who knows which our interactions is more the norm.
@ Matthew — Reminds me of the last time we flew ORD-MEX-TIJ. The rude customs agent at the boarding door in ORD asked where I was going. When I told her “Tijuana,” she replied “Isn’t that dangerous? How much cash are you carrying?” My response was “Well, I have no idea if it is dangerous. I am going to San Diego using the CBX, and I have no idea how much cash I have. Maybe $60.” After she returned my passport with a scowl on her face, I was left wondering, was this questioning really necessary for a US citizen traveling TO Mexico?