Okay, just came back from the US Consulate. Before I say what happened, I want to say a few other things related to this.
I’m shocked by the blogosphere’s, and the press’s, response. It blows my mind. This is once again a case of me simply having no idea that people would care. I was blogging because I had to tell somebody, and telling “Ensight” was as easy as telling anyone else.
Second, the company in question is not McGraw-Hill. It’s a major media company, well respected, etc. McGraw-Hill owns several major media companies, but is really a publisher.
I’m still not 100% sure what happened at Customs at the airport. Really, totally unsure. However at the very least I was denied entry and flagged for followup any other time I try to enter. As far as I can tell, I am not “banned” from entering. I’m not sure why the border guard said I was, threatened to throw me and jail and sieze my assets, etc.
I don’t know if any of what I experienced is even allowed by DHS (Department of Homeland Security). And I don’t even hold anything against DHS, Americans, etc. At the end of the day it’s this guy’s job to protect the border from, as he said, “ingrates and other seedy characters”.
There are quotes that stick out in my mind, like the “blogging ain’t a job” qoute that everyone’s bandying about. And there were threats. And there was lots of talk and many humiliating moments. There were also jaw-dropping ones like:
Him: Why would you visit someone in the states you’d never met (I mentioned I was planning to visit several people whilst down there)
Me: Well, I have met most of them, but I’ve talked to them dozens or hundreds of times online.
Him: Do you have any of their phone numbers?
Me: No, but I talk
Him:
Me: No, really, I can talk from my computer to theirs
Him:
Me: … (at this point I’ve learned that sarcasm doesn’t help, nor does answering questions he doesn’t want to hear the answer to)
Him: So, you’re trying to tell me that you’re going to visit someone who you’ve never met, never talked to and who knows nothing about you? And I’m supposed to believe this?
Me: … (This was two hours in, and minutes before I demanded to be released)
Anyways, I’m not going to New York. The company basically needed someone there this week, and the only way to get a Visa is through a fairly standard 2 week process. Which I understand, and I’m not mad about, it just means I’m not going.
At the end of the day, I realize the US has to protect their borders. To me, in doing so, there are reasonable limits. If you suspect someone is smuggling drugs, a strip and cavity search is probably appropriate. After all, you can verify whether they are or aren’t. But if you suspect someone of lying to you about their occupation, are you really going to find the answer anywhere on their person? I mean, REALLY?
I guess I just feel that, given the circumstances, he knew immediately he wasn’t going to let me into the country in time for my flight. So, what was the other 2 hours about? If I’d been simply denied entry without all the other fluff and threats I would have turned around and gone home…
Garh, I’m rambling.
Anyways, I really appreciate everyone’s support. I’m doing much better today. Still a bit bent out of shape. But, as everyone who saw me yesterday will attest, I’m basically using humour to gloss that over. It’s been a big week. On Sunday I was living in Winnipeg. Today I’m vaguely stranded 4000 miles away. I’ll be heading up to my folks’ place tonight to spend a few days working on my book, and then I’ll be joining my family in the Toronto area.
I’m looking forward to visiting the US again at some point. I’m sure (almost, anyways) that next time won’t be as big of a hassle. It’ll probably be a hassle, but not a massive one. It’s not like I’m a terrorist or a hair dresser or anything.
March 21st, 2005 at 4:00 am
[...] ndreds of times online. Him: Do you have any of their phone numbers? Me: No, but I talk Him: You can’t talk to someone without a phone number. Stop lying to me. Me: [...]
March 19th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
[...] el Abra
beta
Parece que en USA en vez de pedir “la balsa” en todos los conciertos de [...]
March 19th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
[...] due to the questioning arising from his stated job being “blogger”. If you go and read the end of the story, and the excerpts from his interview at the border, you’ll win [...]
March 17th, 2005 at 10:24 am
Man, that guard sounds like an A-1 jayhole who’s got serious issues with denial of the reality of technology. I mean, heck, you don’t even NEED a phone to actually talk verbally to someone. All you need is a microphone and speakers.
I can’t even begin to describe how infuriating this is to hear about… This should have never happened to you. test
March 17th, 2005 at 10:29 am
Well, like everyone else, I was brought here by a link…that’s ridiculous that they doubted your occupation…seems like customs can be pretty damn stupid sometimes…Hopefully the next time you try, you’ll be able to get in
March 17th, 2005 at 10:31 am
Gotta agree with Nikkiana on this one. I am a red-white-and-blue, flag-waving American, and I am glad the Homeland Security Dept. is protecting us, but PLEASE! Protecting us from BLOGGERS! If Canadian bloggers had flown the planes into the Towers, I might understand. But this seems to be quite unreasonable.
They also should probably screen their people a little better–at least get some guys that are up on the latest technology!
March 17th, 2005 at 10:35 am
> “If Canadian bloggers had flown the planes into the Towers, I might understand.”
Haha, classic. This made me laugh out loud (note: I was drinking Vanilla Coke at the time)
Thanks!
March 17th, 2005 at 12:33 pm
It Would Have Redefined Blogging: Wright’s On a Roll
Jeremy Wright is having one hell of a year…. Last year, he was hired for blogging, but this year got fired for it. Then he apparently was hired again for blogging, then prevented from entering the US to take up
March 17th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
I’m Torontonian, living in San Francisco. I have been knocked back at that very border point – if I understand the situation – airport in Winnipeg, when I had an H1-B visa (valid but the stamp had expired in my passport). My girlfriend (now wife) started getting mad and they totally knocked me back. Took a call to my lawyer in the US to get it sorted out and on a plane the next day. They are DINKS there, worse than other points for some reason. Maybe the cold.
Having said all that, we did make a simple mistake: my wife, a US citizen was so shocked at the level of assholeyness that she got indignant. My unsolicited advice: expose your jugular every time at the border, it always works. These are small minded people and they have to have their power trip. Seriously, it’s the only thing that will get you through.
March 17th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
Yeah, I’m with Andrew. You got an ignorant jerk.
But, the way that you are handling it is commendable. Only a temporary setback.
March 17th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Geez.. Glad my mother didn’t run into that kind of jerk when she emigrated from Canda, I might never have been born. Hang in there man, the real Americans are waiting with open arms.
March 17th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Jeremy, what a dang-blasted experience! I must say, I’ve been through my share of frustration here and there, but…this would have me over the edge. You did handle it well…you continue to handle it well…and it speaks well for bloggers. Thank you.
March 17th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
It was my understanding that the U.S. Border Security personnel had been put on notice by their top brass to stop acting like Gestapo and to treat everyone with courtesy and respect. What happened to THAT initiative?
March 17th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
What were the two hours about? It’s the “give me a reason” technique. I used to be one of them. I know. We used to twist the expression “just cause” to “just because”.
Basically, intimidate the poor victim until they lose it and grab for the throat of one of the bastards.
Since you didn’t do that, and demanded that you either be charged with a crime or released, there was little else they could do. Except in this dark day in our old US of A anything’s possible.
I think the best policy is to realise what the game is, then don’t play it, and hope that sanity wins out.
Why the hell would you ever want to come back here? Except that, in some places, it’s at least warmer.
March 17th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
Hey Jer. I’m glad that your ok………love ya
March 17th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
We live in an age of derision and hate. You can choose to turn the other cheek and let the shit fly by, or you do battle with it by shoving it back down people’s throats. Either shit or get off the toilet people! Half-way measures will not work in a war for minds and hearts.
We are up against some real ugly neo-nazi racist fasco-religious homophobic arrogant hateful ignorant moronic jack-assed slime-balled queerish people in this. Don’t count on them ever giving a shit about your life!
March 17th, 2005 at 11:42 pm
….? Was that a sort of all-purpose rant?
March 18th, 2005 at 5:40 am
USA Protection from Bloggers!
No, not an Arab, not a Muslim. This is Jeremy C. Wright, a Canadian blogger who was interrogated & banned from USA.
Him: Why would you visit someone in the states you’d never met (I mentioned I was planning to visit several people whilst down there…
March 18th, 2005 at 7:26 am
>…not an Arab, not a Muslim…
As if you need protection from them. Hell, they are even releasing prisoners from Gitmo after years of illegal and unfair imprisonment, with no charge. I hope you can make a connection.
March 18th, 2005 at 7:32 am
and on top of this you were treated this way in your own country, since for what ever reason the US Customs are actually located in the Canadian Airports…jeez what a rip
March 18th, 2005 at 8:36 am
There are still some folks – if given a toy badge -will drive 120mph from Florida to California with red light and siren blaring.
March 18th, 2005 at 9:27 am
Terrorists don’t have a “look.” They are potentially anyone. Even well-meaning people still say, “I don’t look like a terrorists.” That’s really code for “my skin isn’t brown.” It’s a very racist thing to think.
March 18th, 2005 at 9:58 am
It sounds like you’re just relieved that it’s over. Are you going to try to bring this up with the authorities (whichever ones are appropriate)? At the very least, I think the Canadian government should file an expression of displeasure at such shameful treatment by US agents.
March 18th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Department of Homeland Stupidity
As you’ve probably heard, blogger Jeremy Wright was strip-searched, threatened with jail time, and ultimately prevented from entering the US (and flagged should he ever try to enter again) because DHS didn’t believe he could write a weblog for a livi…
March 18th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
Yup, more of the same abuse we get for having allowed the setting up and overfunding of something called “DHS” – we get protection from Canadians. (!) It would be more amusing if it weren’t patently clear that while fine, innocent citizens are being stripped, poked, prodded and kept from being able to make a living, the real security risks are flying, creeping, sliming about the world freely having a hayday. In a better ordered universe heads would roll.
March 18th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
It’s sad what that country has become. It’s a good place to leave, my friend. They are just hell bent on losing whatever few friends they have left in the world, aren’t they? Worry not, it’s better to be off the Titanic before it sucks you into the murky depths of the water with it.
Sorry to hear of your traumatizing experience. I’m sure you’ll get over it in no time. Canada has everything one could possibly need or want. And, ofcourse there is The Rest of The World, too. BTW, I followed a link on whatreallyhappened.com to find your site. Couple of quotes for ya:
“Every time we allow the government to grow in power at the expense of the people, we put ourselves in jeopardy of losing the ability to free ourselves of them if it goes too far.” – Thomas Jefferson”
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell
Best of luck.
March 18th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
TSA strikes again: you can’t make a call without a phone number
(this one comes via Neville Hobson , via Declan McCullagh ) The flap over the TSA screener who denied Canadian blogger Jeremy Wright entrance into the US
March 18th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
I decided 2 years ago that I wasn’t prepare to enter the US again for the foreseeable future. http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/NotesCFP03.html explains why not – part principle, part practicality.
Nothing’s changed, apart from the requirement to yield up multiple biometrics into their collection, without protections, for use as they see fit.
Like you, I agree that some kinds of security measure are entirely appropriate. (I earn some of my living in security-related work). But the people responsible for security as US border-points have lost the plot completely.
March 18th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
It happens! Going to NYC area last June, then 78 yrs. of age, with wife and son, was detained approx. 2.5hrs., questioned, after presenting photo ID,luggage and car examined minutely, interrogated by several different members of their border force and finally released without explanation or apology. we then continued our journey and enjoyed a very pleasant visit, last month my wife and I went to Florida and passed the same border after answering 2 or 3 questions, why the difference? I’ve no idea but border authorities should know that rough inappropriate behaviour on their part does great damage to the normal favourable feeling to-ward the US that almost all US bound travelers hold.
March 18th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
This kind of behaviour is nothing new for undereducated brainwashed nationalists who have a need to justify their (superior) gov’nt induced employment. The soviet bloc countries of old had the exact same type of people employed at similar positions, spouting the same b.s. .History repeats yet again.
March 18th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Brain Donors Of US Immigration
Canadian blogger Jeremy Wright was detained and interrogated by US Immigration when he arrived in New York last week for a meeting with a media company to discuss a business opportunity in the area of blogging. It appears that the…
March 18th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
“The soviet bloc countries of old had the exact same type of people employed at similar positions, spouting the same b.s. .History repeats yet again.”
And we all know what happened to the Soviet Bloc!
Sometimes you just gotta sit back and enjoy the spectacular fall of yet another empire.
March 18th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
I was born and lived many years in the USSR. I know how it looked like from inside.
Now I live in US (I’m a US citizen) and it is painfully obvious that US is slowly but inexorably becoming a replica of the good ol’ USSR. Blame Republicans for playing the scare and morals cards, blame Democrats for playing the equality and compassion cards. Blame American people for buying in to the collectivist bullshit pushed by the politicans on all sides of the “mainstream” political spectrum and forgetting what this nation was supposed to be about.
DHS is, by and large, a bullshit organization, based on bullshit premises (that “US citizens” need protection from the terrorists… well, it is US _government_ which needs the protection, the chances for an average citizen to become a victim of a terrorist act are quite small: about 200 times less than chances of being killed by an automobile). It exists for the sole purpose of beating people into submission to the whims of the State, getting used that the “need” of the collectivist State trumps any individual rights. So why do we act surprised when its agents behave like they own us? Oh, well, they do, don’t they?
March 18th, 2005 at 7:00 pm
Another Triumphant Victory by Homeland Security
More evidence for the hypothesis that they have lost sight of reality over at Homeland Security (or never had sight of it): Ensight – Jeremy C. Wright » The End of the Story. Homeland Security: Keeping America Safe from Canadian Bloggers….
March 18th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
Jeremy, is the job really out of the question now.
I got my first job in the US with a TN1 visa (i.e., a NAFTA work Visa) which they process *instantly* at the border. I’d guess there is a reasonable chance the company in question could hire you on a TN1.
Please contact me directly if I can help you with this. (I’m not an immigration lawyer trolling for clients; just a Canadian on this side of the line who has jumped through all kinds of immigration hoops already.)
March 18th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
6 Degrees of Culturally Diverse Separation
The more I wander blogland (sorry, I refuse to refer to it as the blogosphere unless I’m mocking someone), the more homogenized the place looks. Which is weird, since there are millions of blogs out there. So last week I took a Six Degrees of Separati…
March 18th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
Another Triumphant Victory by Homeland Security
More evidence for the hypothesis that they have lost sight of reality over at Homeland Security (or never had sight of it): Ensight – Jeremy C. Wright » The End of the Story. Homeland Security: Keeping America Safe from Canadian Bloggers. Update:…
March 19th, 2005 at 12:13 am
And on the southern boarder today… thousands of illegals walk across unhindered trashing farms, back yards, stealing cars and raping nuns… (I read this in the Canuck version of TIME magazine a few months back) Why? – so there is more excuse to increase control of the real citizens…
March 19th, 2005 at 1:43 am
Immigration Keeps Close Eye on the Border
US Immigration prevents a blogger (Jeremy Wright) from entering the US….
March 19th, 2005 at 2:13 am
Why are you being so nice? This is evil. There’s really no other way to look at it. Anyone who thinks it’s okay to be a Nazi border guard is just deserving of jail.
March 19th, 2005 at 4:06 am
The only way that crap like this is going to get fixed is if real US voters complain en masse. Call or write your Congressperson.
March 19th, 2005 at 6:08 am
Probably the best bet would be to fly into Mexico and then come across the border that way. Doesn’t seem to be a problem there anymore.
March 19th, 2005 at 6:15 am
Blogger Tales from Hell
Wow – hard to imagine but this kind of thing really does happen.
March 19th, 2005 at 8:03 am
“Bloguer n’est pas un travail” ou comment l’immigration américaine accueille les blogueurs étrangers
Le Canadien Jeremy Wright est un blogueur qui s’est présenté aux frontières américaines. Voici comment il a été reçu par les agents – supérieurement intelligents – du Department of Homeland Security (DHS)…
March 19th, 2005 at 9:35 am
“Bloguer n’est pas un travail†ou comment l’immigration américaine accueille les blogueurs étrangers
C’est sur une autre planète ça, non ? Ou alors dans une (mauvaise) série télé US… Non, malheureusement c’est la triste réalité. Effrayant ! “Bloguer n’est pas un travail†ou comment l’immigration américaine accueille les blogueurs é…
March 19th, 2005 at 9:50 am
It’s anyway, not anyways. Otherwise, sorry to hear about all that ridiculous trouble.
March 19th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Oh really?
How simplistic can you be in your explanation??
I’m not here to doubt you. But come on, did you ever think of just saying this is a business trip and frequently in business you go to meet someone you have never met because that is what business is about, making connections?
Did you just leave it at I’m visiting some friends I’ve never met?? If so that’s bad.
I hope I’m never in that situation but I’d warrant that if so things may go differently.
Without the posts though I’ll never know if you are really a jerk or just being tagged as one.
March 19th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
A couple years ago my sister and I were up in Sweetgrass, Montana, which is a border crossing and has a population of maybe 100 people — it’s pretty tiny. The crossing was being enlarged and new people were coming to work as border guards.
We were told by a local woman that there had been serious problems between the U.S. and Canadian guards. The Americans wanted their guns, of course, and the Canadians (who don’t carry guns) were concerned they were going to be shot by these new, over-zealous American hot-shots.
The woman described the new guards as “being intoxicated with power” — a polite way to say, they are acting like thugs.
She said locals were upset because they were used to coming and going across the border (they’d just wave to the guard as they crossed); now they, too, are being hassled and delayed.
March 19th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Don’t say ‘blogger’ to US Immigration
Via Declan McCullagh’s politech list, William Knowles writes: This sounds like an unbelievable story, but it happened to Canadian blogger Jeremy Wright last week. As already reported on quite a few blogs, Jeremy was detained and interrogated by US Imm…
March 19th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
It’s a good thing that you did not explain to the guard that if you never met anyone that you had not met before, then you would never meet anyone, ever. He might have overheated his neurons and turned to dust and pile of smoking clothes.
Kudos on taking the high road!