[Milsurplus] FW - Homeland Security & Whining Foreign Nationals

[sdaitch at ibb.gov]

I just got off the phone with an immigrations officer at Detroit who
had some questions regarding my wife's Filipino resident/citizen
nephew, during his arrival processing yesterday.

I would say this officer's concerns were totally professional, 
above board, and certainly someone whom I would want to deal
with in the future.  He had questions regarding the nephew,
and tried to contact us, but had to leave a voice mail message.

I returned his call and had a quite nice intelligent conversation
with him.

73
Sheldon
WA4MZZ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray, W2EC" <w2ec at attglobal.net>
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:27 pm
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] FW - Homeland Security & Whining Foreign Nationals

> Before this gets going too far, I suggest we consider that this is 
> really just the figment of someones imagination and their 
> (il)literary 
> skills.
> 
> Whenever I read stories like this on the internet, I first 
> consider that 
> it may just be an "urban legend", particularly when it is 
> published 
> anonymously "for fear of reprisal". I mean, just think, it's a 
> story a 
> guy posted from someone else on another message list, posted by 
> someone 
> who doesn't want to be named, which may have been carried over 
> from 
> somewhere else, which may have been..... you get the picture, 
> hardly a 
> first hand experience.
> 
> Second, I travel to Canada A LOT! And NEVER, even after 9/11, have 
> I 
> encountered a US Border checkpoint going INTO Canada. I have had 
> to put 
> up with considerable delay coming BACK to the US going thru a US 
> Checkpoint but NEVER been stopped by US Border Guards leaving the 
> US. 
> And my vehicle certainly attracts attention being an all black SUV 
> with 
> tinted windows and many antennas, including para-militray systems 
> like 
> an SCG QMS external mount tuner with SG-303 9 foot whip. On ENTRY 
> to the 
> US I am always stopped and the first question usually is "what's 
> with 
> the antennas". A quick "I'm a ham" usually results in a "OK, 
> thanks, 
> have a nice day" with no further questions. Actually I have only 
> been 
> held up for more than a minute, twice that I can recall. Once was 
> because the border guard was also a ham and wanted to know how the 
> SGC 
> worked mobile, so we had a short "ham" talk. The other was by a 
> female 
> border guard whose father had been a ham and SHE told ME about a 
> lot of 
> the gear her dad had.
> 
> So let's consider that, while I'm sure it is possible that an 
> incident 
> like this may happen somewhere, it is probably far more likely 
> just one 
> more of the internet "urban legends" that tend to spring up. If it 
> is 
> not, then the individual who started it should come up with 
> verifiable 
> date, time and location of where it occurred. Meanwhile, let's not 
> get 
> too worked up.
> 
> Ray W2EC
> 
> 
> 
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