Anti Muslim discrimination at US Airports and Border? (Merged)

[legbreakgoogly]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@Fraudz

btw the only country were I was threatened to be deported from was Pakistan

How’d you manage that?

[Mr_Fraudia]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

In 1987 UK changed its visa laws. It meant that Pakistani citizens would have to get their visas before coming to UK, otherwise as common wealth citizens the visa restrictons were very lax. People would come in on visit visas and then not go back.

Well, Pakistan decided that it was time that it subjected British Citizens to the same and that they should get their visas before coming to Pakistan.

The British citizens of Pakistani background complained about it and the Govt of Pakistan came up with a facility for them, where if they can prove that their parents are Pakistani, then they get a visa exemption stamp on their passport.

I was in US in 88, and in 1989 summer when I went to Pakistan, they asked for my visa. I showed them the exemption stamp, and was told that the program was cancelled earlier in the year and that I had no excuse as it was publicized in UK in Pakistani papers etc local news. I guess they did not expect a UK citizen to be living in US :D

To cut a long story short, the officer at immigration desk sent me with someone to go talk to their boss. This other dude had some plans of his own and he put me in a room where illegals were being processed for deportation. They were mostly afghans and one or two bengladeshis. He took my passport and took off noting that that is what the “chalaan” would be noted on. The first gy hapned to walk by, saw me there, asked why I was there, claimed that the other guy had some scam to steal my passport and sent security to find this guy. I was taken to the big boss who asked me to prove that I was Pakistani. All I had was documents i.e. HSC certificate and documents from my college where I did my 11th and 12th grade in Karachi. I was sent out with security to bring my dad who was there to pink me up. They copied his nat’l id card, and then gave me a 72 hour visa asking me to to go to dept of interior or something and get the visa, which I did.

So, its true, I was almost deported from Pakistan.

[PakistaniAbroad]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@Fraudz

The experience at JFK was bad

strange.. as I got the quickest of clearances ever at JFK just last month... When I land in Houston they always want to have a chat with me and it takes at least a couple of hours.. in JFK this time.. at the counter and out the door in less than a minute..

[legbreakgoogly]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

^^^

That's great.

Is it more a problem at certain airports then others?

[cat-woman]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

I once never made it out of Karachi airport ... I was using two different passports, and my Dubai visa (my destination) was stamped on my non-Pakistani passport, which I could not use in Pakistan as they didnt recognise the dual nationality. I was alone, and did not know what to do ... for some very very strange reason, the guy ended up not asking to see the visa and just waved me through.

[Mr_Fraudia]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@PakistaniAbroad

strange.. as I got the quickest of clearances ever at JFK just last month… When I land in Houston they always want to have a chat with me and it takes at least a couple of hours.. in JFK this time.. at the counter and out the door in less than a minute..

yeah houston..figures

I have flown out of JFK many times and in general my experiences have been okay, but I have always found Chicago to be friendlier. and my experience was tainted not because of immigration at large but two idiots who should not have any role where they have to talk to people.

I suppose I could run into some jacque-arse at ORD also but it has not happened yet. same for eathrow, I have heard horror stories but my experience there has always been fantastic, and am always greeted with welcome back, welcome home, from the ppl at passport control.

[desidudecool]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

thats more of a problem for Pakistanis travelling with Pakistani passports.I have been to america once after 9/11 as a pakistani ..did'nt have any problems at all.The guy at the counter did'nt ask me anything and i was out of the airport within minutes.But things have now changed a bit, the registration process is in palce and they are interrogating most young men with Pakistani nationality.

[system]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@Fraudz

at chicago, I am always greeted by the immigration people as “welcome home”
I generally dont like JFK and the assclowns working there because of their attitude.

while I agree that one does not need to be offended, or be a smart ass, but the immigration people need to be professional and not punks.

The experience at JFK was bad .. I needed to be cleared and my daughter needed to be cleared, the guy who took us to secondary screening put all our passpors together at the top of the queue, the rather large and power crazed black woman asked him why he was putting me in front, and he said, I just want to keep the family together and have them processed quickly as this is a prcedural issue only. She said 'what about all these other people waiting" he responded " the girl is 9 months old, the mother is a US citizen, father is a permanent resident, teh system has flagged the baby’s name, in my view they get priority"
he leaves, she picks up our file and sets it to the side, wont work on it and will not let anyone else work on it, then sergeant redneck comes by and tells us t be ready to get her finger printed, we went to teh finger print place and the gusy are like, what? this is insane, who wanted you to come here and have her finger printed, they get in the sergeant redneck’s face, kaloo bhaloo gets up and goes to talk to some of her superior, meanwhile systems go down and stay down for 2 hours..systems come back on line..we are still stuck, this other dude shows up and asks her for our folder, she says she is going to work on it, he says, have you started on this yet, she says yes, he asks, what have you done so far, she is quiet, he grabs the file, goes to a different workstation, and clars us in 20 seconds, apologizes for the delay, as we leave we see sergeant redneck yell at a long line of people who are stuck due to the systems shutdown and are asking how long it would take. He threatens some guy “do you want me to take you to a place where you can complain huh?” .. as we leave we see the guy who had brought us in from the immigration desk and he just waved at us, I waved back.

so..good and bad both at one place, the people like sergant redneck and kaloo bhaloo need to be working somewhere where they do not have to deal with human beings

JFK is a horrible airport with horrible staff… Impatient, rude, and stupid.
I came back from Pakistan and this old lady that was on the same flight asked me to translate for her at immigration…
The lady was hard of hearing, and I think she didnt really speak Urdu very well either. So when we got to the immigration officer, he would bark a question at her and then I would translate and she would stand their dumbfounded. Then the immigration jerk would get angry, bark another question and yell at me trying to make his bark more clear and understandable, which offcourse it wasnt.
Eventually I got the poor woman through but they decided to hold me back with all the rest of the Pakistanis and let her go.. I found a nice Indian lady and asked her to help the old woman find her family which she was kind enough to do…
So, all in all, only makes the point that JFK staff are horrible human beings.. Although I have had some good experiences aswell, but the negatives ones are unfortunately the ones you remember.

[TofiBaba]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

Overall I've been ok with JFK crowds. I did have problems with the staff at the Miami harbor when we were coming back from a cruise a few years back. They held me back for a good hour while they "processed my case". In the end though the Homeland security officer actually cleared an age old item on my record. So the wait was worth it.

[underthedome]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@Fraudz

the assholes at JFK wanted to finger print my 9 month old daughter because her name matched with or was similar to some damn terrorist.

How ridiculous! How are they going to get good prints off a 9 month old? Clearly an Iris Scan was the way to go.

[underthecross]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

Chalo!!! Hhahah Answer that fraudiay…

[Mr_Fraudia]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@underthedome

How ridiculous! How are they going to get good prints off a 9 month old? Clearly an Iris Scan was the way to go.

I think there mental capacity did not go beyond “brown person?..take finger…put ink…make pretty drawing on paper”

[Mr_Fraudia]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@underthecross

Chalo!!! Hhahah Answer that fraudiay…

done

[hot_chocolate]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

Im going to new york from the uk on a J1 visa. I hope being a med student sponsored by mount sinai wont cause me any problems at JFK airport

[Spock]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

I havent had any problems so far, just this one time I was asked to power up a laptop I was carrying, no biggie, and later realized they were asking everyone to do so.

[Munni]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

Let's see. Twice last year I had to go to another room to get my hair/scalp checked for possible explosives or whatever.

A few years ago I used to fly a lot and often used to find the seat next to me empty during flights, even if the entire plane was packed (sans the one seat next to me). Happens rarely now.

Just a few days ago some airline person came on the plane and asked my bhai if he is Mr. ______. Dont know what that was about but otherwise we didnt have any issues.

Oh, and family just had a bizarre experience at the border. If you are going to cross the border be prepared to answer several bizarre questions and dont believe anyone who tells you that you dont need a passport at the border. Laws may not go into effect till late January, but some of the border patrol insists its already a requirement.

[LuxuryItem]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

I don't know why no one has mention Newark's Liberarty airport. They gave me the 'sand n****r' treatment three times: Once in a domestic flight and twice returning from overseas.

[LuxuryItem]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

@Munni

Just a few days ago some airline person came on the plane and asked my bhai if he is Mr. ______. Dont know what that was about but otherwise we didnt have any issues.

Moooo-nee,

Was this Continental Airlines? They gave me a good 'sand n****r' treatment once.

[koolkomal]

Re: Anti Muslim discrimination at US airports?

I think they drive us crazy cuz there are some people who call themselves muslims doing whatever the Quran tells them NOT to do:naraz:

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And then WE gotta pay the price:naraz:

[PyariCgudia]

Border Patrol and Immigration stories

I have been hearing some weird things about how people are being treated at the airport and by immigration and border patrol. Seems that interrogations are getting way more rough.

Anyone have any stories to share about recent personal experiences?