Is there a culture of anti-Canadian, anti-immigrant attitudes among some U.S. Customs and Border Protection members?
According to Bellingham immigration lawyer Greg Boos, there is – and, he says, it’s a factor in border inspections, including questioning about marijuana use.
In late August, Boos filed a U.S. lawsuit on behalf of business leaders on both sides of the border, seeking to curb an ‘expedited removal’ process that allows CBP members to arbitrarily bar Canadians from entering the U.S. for at least five years.
And he cites a job-forum website, on which apparent current CBP members post under pseudonyms, as indicative of the mindset of some. A comment thread about his case on the website, 'US Customs & Border Protection Job Forum', is posted under the message category 'CBP & DHS in the News' ("Overzealous U.S. border guards…").
“You can see people who are clearly CBP officers using pseudonyms… and they are definitely anti-immigrant,” Boos told Peace Arch News. “They shouldn’t be on the job. The one thing I regret is that you can’t figure out who these people are on chat forums.”
Among postings is one from ‘Btacr’ referring to one expedited removal: “No problem at all… looks like OFO (CBP Office of Field Operations) is kicking ass.”
‘Rob S Pierre’ posts: “Canadians that assert their right to come to the US amuse me.”
‘INSI’ says: “Nothing worse than a whiny Canadian who thinks they have every right in the world to live here because they are Canadian. In the meantime any US citizen who had a DUI 20 years ago isn’t allowed into Canada, but they don’t talk about that...
“Oh and I just love the Canadian TN (the NAFTA visa for professionals) applicants while in secondary getting processed just babble on and on about how great Canada is. If Canada is so great why are you moving to the US to work?”
Another posting, by ‘hamboy’, says: “Our lobbies are full of TN applicants, it makes me sick!”
‘Golfquip’ posts: “All of this can be solved if we just annex Canada and make it the 51st state…”
A disclaimer on the site’s home page notes it has “no official affiliation with any element of the United States Government… take any opinions and statements with a grain of salt.”
The forum host, listed as Former CBP Guy (MichCI), says in the disclaimer that the site is principally an exchange of information for those seeking work as CBP officers, and that it welcomes posts from CBP members and others.
Contacted by PAN, the host said it would not be prudent for him to comment, as he still works in law enforcement. He did not identify himself.
CBP representatives have repeatedly declined to be interviewed on how individual members apply policy, particularly pertaining to narcotics enforcement – instead offering a statement that “the United States has been and continues to be a welcoming nation” and that regulations are there to protect U.S. citizens, residents and visitors.
But Boos said the website postings indicate attitudes that are far from appropriate for CBP members in charge of handling visa applications – adding the antipathy of some of these officers evidently extends to border checks seeking admissions of past use of controlled substances.
He agrees last month’s case of a White Rock woman deemed inadmissible to the U.S. because of admitted previous marijuana use illustrates that the treatment received by Canadians at the border is luck of the draw. Boos said that although some CBP members appear in favour of facilitating international trade, others appear to consider it their job to turn people away.
And while Washington State residents recently approved an initiative legalizing marijuana on a state level, Canadian visitors shouldn’t be lulled into the belief that such liberalization of laws applies to them, Boos said.
“It’s still illegal at the federal level,” he noted.
Although U.S. federal authorities have indicated they will take a passive approach to state-legalized marijuana use by Washington residents, he said, any admission by a Canadian that he or she has smoked marijuana constitutes an admission of being a lawbreaker in Canada; sufficient grounds for CBP members to declare a visitor “inadmissible.”
Boos said Canadians should also be aware that, outside of a conviction or their own admission, the burden of proof that someone has committed a crime under Canadian law falls upon the authorities.
“I’m not telling anyone to lie,” he said. “But if I were asked at the border if I had smoked something in the past, my answer would be no.
“I’m not a botanist. I haven’t run chemical tests. I wouldn’t know that anything I smoked was marijuana. Do you know for a fact that what you smoked was marijuana or oregano, or what it was?”
Brent De Young, a Canadian who works as an immigration lawyer in Washington State, is another who believes that CBP members are not administering the rules consistently.
“Laws that aren’t uniformly administered tend to be used offensively whenever they do happen to be applied,” he said.
华盛顿州贝灵罕市(Bellingham)一位移民律师Greg Boos，8月底代表加美边界两边的商会向法院提告，希望遏制美联邦海关与边境保护局(CBP)对加拿大人得发出禁止入境五年的禁令。律师并引据网站讯息，指控边境关员时常上网嘲笑加拿大人，疑有反移民、反加国民众的偏见心态。
布斯表示，在名为「delphiforums」的网站，可发现专门让美国边境关员留言的论坛，大家讨论遇加人过边界的心得，有留言说「加拿大人自以为理所当然地有进入美国的权利，让我想笑」；也有留言说「整个大厅都是签证申请人，让我受不了」，还有人说「只要把加拿大变成我们的第51个州，便解决所有问题」。
另有留言说：「没有什么比爱怨声载道的加拿大人还糟糕，他们以为是加拿大人就可来这里(美国)，还总是满口称讚加拿大有多么美好」。
布斯说，论坛内明显充斥反移民的偏见，然而很多人谈论或嘲讽加拿大国民的时候，言语中不仅是反移民，也是反加拿大人。他续称，身为联邦海关与边境保护局的一员，如果真的具有这种态度，实在让人担忧。
不过，由于论坛的留言均是以假名进行，并无法直接证明留言人士就是边境关员。网站也注明与美国政府毫无关系，只是让想进入联邦海关与边境保护局工作的人来交换资讯。
对此，布斯说，留言的人对边境事务十分熟悉，若不是美方边境人员，会是谁?
If comments on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) job forum are to be believed, there’s nothing border guards detest more than “whiny Canadians.”
The comments were discovered by Bellingham-based immigration lawyer Greg Boos, who said they’re indicative of an “anti-immigrant, anti-Canadian bias” amongst some custom officials.
An Aug. 30 discussion thread on the forum features users purporting to be border guards complaining about Canadian visitors.
“Nothing worse than a whiny Canadian who thinks they have every right in the world to live here because they are Canadian,” wrote one user. “If Canada is so great why are you moving to the US to work?”
“Our lobbies are full of TN (the NAFTA visa for professionals) applicants, it makes me sick!” wrote another user, identified only as hamboy.
The forum is not affiliated with U.S. Customs, and all the users post under pseudonyms. However, Boos is confident those making the remarks are involved in border security.
“It couldn’t be a layperson,” he said. “They just know a little bit too much about the way the border works or the lingo the border guards use.”
Boos said the comments confirm what his clients have been telling him for years.
“There’s nothing new here, except that they’re visible,” he said. “Border guards have been making those kinds of comments privately for as long as I’ve been practicing.”
In August, Boos filed a lawsuit on behalf of business leaders on both sides of the border, seeking to curtail the “expedited removal” process that allows CBP members to bar Canadians from the U.S. for at least five years — even for something as minor as admitting to past marijuana use.
“Only a handful of people at the border will use the expedited removal process,” Boos said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the same group of people posting these grossly unprofessional comments.”
Boos advised anyone on the receiving end of anti-Canadian comments at the border to “hold their tongue,” but lodge a complaint with CBP afterwards.