Your customs experiences re-entering the US from Canada?

DrewE wrote:

NMDriver2 wrote:

obgraham wrote:

sgip2000 wrote:
If you are a US citizen, you don't have to answer any questions or consent to any searches. Sure, they'll detain you, but eventually they have to let you go. Don't unlock your phones for them either.

Good luck with that approach. How many baloney sandwiches in a row can you eat?

Failing to stand up for your rights is how you loose them.

You cannot be legally detained for more than 20 minutes without cause if you are a US Citizen. Failure to answer their questions is not a legal cause. You do not loose your rights being near the border. You have the right to remain silent and are protected from unreasonable search. The Border Patrol would like you to believe they can strip search you without cause but they cannot. They will try to intimidate you if you let them. Know your rights. Read the ACLU web site on this subject.link

Your link specifically says that these standards do not apply when actually crossing the border at a customs and immigration post. They (customs and immigrations officers) do have a right to search you and your belongings, and I think detain you more or less indefinitely if you don't cooperate.

I've never had any real trouble going either way across the Canadian border. I have had my vehicle searched (fairly quickly) and have once or twice had to hand over the forbidden vegetable of the week. Being forthright and courteous goes a long way towards a smooth crossing. Being belligerent and demanding all the rights you have (and maybe actually don't have) tends to have the opposite effect, I would imagine.

DrewE, your information is accurate and of good counsel.

I remember just such a belligerent and un-cooperative individual who attempted a speedy re-entry into the USA from Canada. Unlike 99.9% of the travelers who answer standard questions without an 'attitude' and continue on their journey within a reasonable time, the subject I remember brought all kinds of unnecessary attention to himself by demanding' his rights' and demanding to be 'released' without giving answers to standard questions.

By bringing 'attention' to himself, he generated a more intrusive search of his person and his belongings. That more intrusive search located a hidden magnetic box containing white pills.

Unknown to him, there had been several incidents of travelers stopping at the duty free on the Canadian side of the border, and while shopping inside 'someone' attached a magnetic box to their rear bumper containing methamphetamine pills. This activity was happening and allowed unsuspecting travelers to take the risk of crossing the border with illegal narcotics, and later being relieved of those narcotics at their first stop once in the USA.

Because the belligerent individual would NOT answer standard questions like a 'reasonable' person would have done, it was ultimately decided by a CPB supervisor that this individual was attempting to hide something. He was arrested and taken to jail, his vehicle and belongings were seized, and he eventually was found guilty in a federal court of crossing the border with a controlled substance. This was a felony conviction.

In hindsight, had this person co-operated with authorities and answered standard questions without the 'attitude' filled with belligerence, he would most likely have not generated the intrusive search at the border and caused himself life changing difficulty.

It was this person's choice to act the way he did at the border. It was, by far, not the normal reaction from traveling public. Continuing with this type of non-cooperative attitude at the border is just asking for problems.

Lakeside