How Disgusted I am with American Immigration

I've been living in the US for over 2 months now. I've been married to an American since Feb 21 of this year. This past weekend we decided to return to Canada for the weekend to visit my parents. Well when we decided to return to the US on Sunday, the border guards at immigration wouldn't let me cross. They proceeded to tell me I had gotten married illegally, I was in the US illegally, and if they wanted they could have me arrested.

Why do you ask?

Because I was caught with a joint 9 years ago in Canada and had to pay a 125 dollar fine. Okay, fine, I contacted US immigration, followed their instructions, filled out the neccasary paperwork, and the next day returned to the border thinking everything would be fine. Wouldn't ya know it, I went thru the same shit. got fingerprinted, questioned, treated like a damn criminal and sent packing back to Canada.

My wife has called immigration and they said the border is wrong, the border says immigration is wrong. I've filled out every damn piece of paperwork I can and the border guards are just pricks to me.

At any rate, I have been acused of things, lied to and been threatened by the border guards and my wife and I are launching a formal complaint and hiring a lawyer, but who the hell knows when I'll be able to go back home to my wife and kids

ya, so do I. It just sucks only being able to see my family on weekends and they have to come here. My wife and I are both hopeful we can have things resolved in a few weeks. Well my wife is anyway. I'm kind of a pesimist myself......

You know what really disgusts me tho, RH? If I had a gun, no problem, if I was a terrorist no problem. But to fuck with somebodies life becuase of something as miniscule as this that happened 10 years ago? That is truly disgusting. I think the US government really needs to think about thier priorites.
I bet if I painted myself black or had a towel wrapped around my head I would have had no problem returning to the US.

Pack up the wife and kids and move them north, gangrenous. Move back to the US after the American government has sorted things out.

I swear the people who work at the border crossings into the US are all on freakin' power trips.

Not much I can say guy , just hang in there and hopefully things will work out .

well, I wish I could move my family to Canada for a while, but thats a hell of alot easier said than done. Especially owning a house there and having 2 kids in the middle of a school year.

As for the border guards, they are worse than the frickin police. I have never in my entire life seen a group of people who place themselves so much higher in life than the rest of the world. Who the hell do they honestly think they are.

On a more humourous note. Once I was turned back and the Canadian border guard was asking me questions, he burst out laughing. His exact words were "One fucking joint? Are you serious?" Then he burst out laughing. He filled out a little yellow form for me to take to Canadian immigration, then asked me "Do you have any alcohol, tobacco, or firearms in the car? Do you have one fucking joint in the car?" Then started laughing again and sent me on my way.
I think that shows the difference between our 2 countries right there.

...Of course I'm banned from the US for making fun of George Bush on the Internet. It doesn't affect me much, since I don't go there much. I do miss Marlboros though...the finest cigarette ever invented.

I got banned for being an "Unfriendly Activist." Oddly enough, at that time about the most active thing I did was getting up to grab a beer. Now I rarely miss a protest.

My crime? I'm not sure. It might have been e-mail I sent to a friend suggesting ways to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan to Montana so we could buy guns and explosives...kind of a parody of the Iran/Contra thing and, at least I thought, an obvious joke. It might have been something I posted on Michael Moore's web-site too, though I have no idea what. I've heard of one other Canadian who posted there who had similar problems.

Oddly enough the only criminal conviction I've suffered is one I share with Georgie...drunk driving. Of course I was 19, not 30, and I've never lied about it.

Also oddly enough...I've been sending weird e-mails and posting strange things since the 486 was state of the art. My last trip to the states was for the Millenium. We crossed over south of Vancouver on the way to Seattle. The Millenium Bomber had just been captured not far away, but we received no undo attention...just a couple of freaks in a rented car full of brightly wrapped gifts.

That was under the rule of Clinton though, a kinder, gentler president. Now I'm banned. I shouldn't be surprised, I had trouble at the border when George I was in control and under Reagan things were always dicey. I think there might be a pattern emerging...could it be that Republicans don't like long-hairs? :lol:

Thanks for the votes of confidence tanner and vr (my parents).

Are you shittin me Blair. You're making that shit up right?

No Gangrenous, I'm not. A little over a year ago I was looking into getting a 1A ticket and doing long distance trucking in the winter. I was doing home renos at the time and that left me out of work in the winter.

Anyway, I needed a pardon for the drunk driving thing so I started looking into it. That's how I found out I was an "Unfriendly Activist." The woman from Reimer's, where I going to get my license, called me up and said there was no problem getting the pardon and permission to drive truck in the US, but that border guards could turn me away at their disgression anyway because of this unfriendly activist thing.

I contacted the US immigration guys and they denied that such a list existed. Then I talked to a few Canadian activists (real ones who have been showing up at protests for years) I have had occaisional contact with and they basically said that such a list was rumoured to exist, but was so arbitrary that they didn't really pay attention to it.

I was saved arthritis though...when I found out I had that I shut down the reno business and went and got a job at a photographer's. I don't need to go to work in the States and don't worry too much about it, but it gives you an idea of the mindset of those in control in the US right now.

Thats an interesting story Rev. I guess it should kind of make the rest of us wonder if we'd be added to some kind of list like that for some of the things we post here. Hmmmm.........

The way your being treated sucks Gangrenous. Same goes for the Rev. Anything the rest of us can do for you Gangrenous, like start a petition or something?

I'll sign that petition.

It doesn't really suck that bad for me, except for the Marlboro thing. I have little doubt that the US will come to its senses eventually if we all keep pushing them.

I worry about people like Gangrenous though. I have friends in the US...Canadian ex-pats who moved there for love mostly. I also know of a couple of journalists who've been banned for arbitrary reasons, generally covering stories that associated them with causes the present administration doesn't agree with. Those are things less likely to disappear when a more reasonable man takes power.