An overzealous American border guard has barred a Canadian telecommunications specialist from entering the U.S., even thought he has been working in the U.S. for over a decade with a NAFTA visa. He and his wife even owned a home in Utah and lived there. Their daughter married an American serviceman and so they also have grandchildren in the U.S. But they went back to Canada to visit relatives and are now barred from going back home. They’ve lost an estimated $100,000 in lost wages and home equity already. You can read more about the story here.
The really depressing thing is that there are hundreds of similar cases all the time. The only thing special about this one is that the person barred was a highly-qualified specialist and managed to get a bit of media attention. I find it astonishing that border guards at their discretion can permanently ban people from entering the U.S., with no appeal mechanism in place. Especially given the number of obviously incompetent border guards I’ve encountered in the past, i.e., ones who clearly did not understand the relevant entry conditions. Not to mention the one I met at one of the Buffalo crossings who had psychological issues.
Anyway, if needlessly aggravating everyone else helps keep a country secure, then the U.S. is on its way to becoming the paradigm of secure.
Sydney
Alan Schmierer
Was he permanently barred without appeal because he was border-shopping, or because the 1st/2nd guards said his visa wasn’t good? Either way, if there is no appeal, that’s a sad lack of due process. B/USCIS is a fickle department. If more Americans had run-ins with this department and the way it treats people, there would be many more calls about changing the way it serves us. However, most Americans can’t see Immigration as anything other than “Mexicans stealing jobs” and won’t accept the important role this department plays in many peoples lives and how much it impacts many American families every day.
I feel bad for this guy… I think we’ve also now reached the point in our society where we think people can offer no specialized service and no knowledge unless they have a piece of paper saying they graduated from college, when that is clearly not the case. Even more tragic, many students are graduating from college who are not able to offer any knowledge or specialized service and are taking their jobs simply because they DO have a piece of paper, which they paid a lot of money to get.