Will BIPOC travelers face increased scrutiny / hurdles / roadblocks when returning to the US after the inauguration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe it will change. Student visa holders face scrutiny now depending on what country they’re traveling from. I know we’re not supposed to say that because Biden but it’s already a concern. I work at a public university and we see this. It’s also not a surprise to us when they get stopped and we advise them accordingly.

Why is that a problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe it will change. Student visa holders face scrutiny now depending on what country they’re traveling from. I know we’re not supposed to say that because Biden but it’s already a concern. I work at a public university and we see this. It’s also not a surprise to us when they get stopped and we advise them accordingly.

Why is that a problem?

It’s not a problem. The point is that people are already stopped and sometimes temporarily detained or denied re-entry under the current administration. It happens every semester or break. It is unlikely that this pattern will change or worsen under the next administration. I think people are largely unaware of how often it happens now and will think that any reports of this next year are novel occurrences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are French but not white. The worst treatment we ever received by a border officer was at Niagara Falls 12 years ago. The officer yelled at my husband, spit flying off his face, and called him a liar, and that he was trying to enter the US illegally. The entire office was staring at us. My 2 year old was crying. It wasn't until the manager came out of his office with our papers and told him we were allowed to enter that he stopped.

It all happened right under the sign every border office has that says they will always treat everyone with respect. I wanted to point to it, but in the mood he was in, he might have kicked us out. Border officers have ultimate power of decision in the moment, and if you're kicked out it stays on your record and makes future visas or green cards harder to get. If you get an aggressive one, you have absolutely no power, you cannot respond in kind, you cannot do anything except try to stay calm and explain yourself. And they know it. You cannot complain to their supervisor, there is no system to send anything up the chain.

I believe many people who want border control jobs in the first place are people who enjoy dominating others. The cruelty is the point, sometimes, and that's regardless of which administration is in the White House.

Every time we land at Dulles, we wait in line for 1-2 hours (no chairs - our kids have slept on the floor), and the officers are grumpy 99% of the time. There was only one who was nice, in all the 20 years I've lived in the US on a visa.
But none of them came close to that horror at Niagara Falls.

I'm so sorry - that's horrible. How did the manager get a hold of your documents?

The CBP folks are an embarassment in many instances. I just cringe at how they yell at folks who do not speak English as a first language. It's just terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe it will change. Student visa holders face scrutiny now depending on what country they’re traveling from. I know we’re not supposed to say that because Biden but it’s already a concern. I work at a public university and we see this. It’s also not a surprise to us when they get stopped and we advise them accordingly.

Why is that a problem?

It’s not a problem. The point is that people are already stopped and sometimes temporarily detained or denied re-entry under the current administration. It happens every semester or break. It is unlikely that this pattern will change or worsen under the next administration. I think people are largely unaware of how often it happens now and will think that any reports of this next year are novel occurrences.

But a LOT of people were barred/delayed entry starting in late January 2017. More so than before. And I used to work in a offshoot of this for a living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe it will change. Student visa holders face scrutiny now depending on what country they’re traveling from. I know we’re not supposed to say that because Biden but it’s already a concern. I work at a public university and we see this. It’s also not a surprise to us when they get stopped and we advise them accordingly.

Why is that a problem?

It’s not a problem. The point is that people are already stopped and sometimes temporarily detained or denied re-entry under the current administration. It happens every semester or break. It is unlikely that this pattern will change or worsen under the next administration. I think people are largely unaware of how often it happens now and will think that any reports of this next year are novel occurrences.

But a LOT of people were barred/delayed entry starting in late January 2017. More so than before. And I used to work in a offshoot of this for a living.

Right. I’m not defending that action but it initially impacted the citizens of seven countries that had been identified as countries of concern. Even now, we can barely clear citizens of those countries to study anything but the most fluffy liberal arts curriculum. If we can clear them at all.