Border Agents rude and difficult at Nogales

qtla9111 wrote:
Okay, I respect these guys and their jobs (somewhat) and I am not a smarty pants and never refuse anything. It's their turf and their day so I answer what they ask me. But how do I respond to these frequently asked questions:

How is it you were born in the U.S.? (and I have my U.S. passport in hand or better, they do)

Both my children, who are both U.S. citizens from birth, were born in Germany.

qtla9111 wrote:
Why do you live in Mexico and not the U.S.?

I don't know, the Mexican food is better?

qtla9111 wrote:
Aren't you afraid? (here is a guy who is Hispanic and most likely has relatives in Mexico and speaks Spanish all day at home and at work)

Of what? The boogyman?

qtla9111 wrote:
Now, don't they sound a bit smarty pants? Then, it's some vague order to pull over into "X" lane and circle around and then wait in line. Make one false move and they are on you like white on rice and say, "now what did I just tell you?"

Treat me nice, I'll be nice. Treat me like sewage, and you'll get the same in return, and I don't care what uniforn you are wearing. As for being detained, assert your rights as an American citizen. If you have a smart phone, turn on the recorder.

qtla9111 wrote:
It's their job, they know it better than I do. I don't live there, I try not to cross too often and so I have no earthly idea sometimes about what they are talking about.

No one put a gun to their head to force them into that job.

qtla9111 wrote:
Then you go through all that, then the routine X-ray machine and they send you on your way only to have to go through a mandatory secondary checkpoint before leaving the bridge where they want to check you for drugs. WTH!

So you get on the road, and now you are supposedly in the U.S. when all of a sudden there is a checkpoint (location depends on each state, I believe it is supposed to be 21 miles north of the border but now they are much further than that) and you again have to prove your nationality. Why? Didn't we just do that 20 miles back?

Doesn't make sense.

Again, assert your rights as an American citizen against unreasonable search and seizure. It can be and has been done. It drives them crazy, but ICE cannot legally detain you indefinitely because you refuse inspection. There are several YouTube videos where people who have politely, but insistently, exercised their rights and were eventually waved on.