Your customs experiences re-entering the US from Canada?

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

I have never answered their questions and have twice been kept for 20 minutes in the last 10 years of crossing the border. They simply take you into a sitting area and ask you to empty your pockets while continuing to attempt intimidation. Just continue to provide your passport information and state you are a US citizen with nothing to declare and you want to leave now. I cross the border into Mexico almost monthly. I put up with this harassment every time I leave town. You cannot leave my home town in any direction without going through a check point.

TenOC 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.

The US courts have ruled that been near a border is grounds for a search -- which can be VERY invasive. Protection of the border outweighs your right to not be searched.

And the aggravation and hours of detention is simply just not worth it.

We never had problems either way although we once had a tomato confiscated. Hope she enjoyed it with her lunch.:R Just answer the questions truthfully, don't volunteer any information and don't speak unless directly spoken to. Always had to remind DW about the last one.

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.

The US courts have ruled that been near a border is grounds for a search -- which can be VERY invasive. Protection of the border outweighs your right to not be searched.

LOL, a sea-lawyer as we called them in the Navy. Nothing like encouraging the police to do their earnest best to find something to charge you with. Or maybe taking your car/truck to pieces since they 'suspected contraband'.

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?

Only going into Canada.

Got asked my purpose for visiting Canada via Vancouver. I said I want to try their Chinese food and the immigration officer held her pistol but did not unholster it, luckily, whew, lol.

ReneeG wrote:
No, but we were extensively questioned, our truck walked around and looked into. They don't fool around, coming or going.

First time was just a drive thru with brief questioning, the second they searched the fiver. Just looked around inside for a few minutes actually. They must have thought we might have Red Green in there.

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.

Wait until October 17, 2018, and see if anything changes.
Canada becomes a "pot friendly" country on that date, and I would imagine CBP will be ramping up the border crossing scrutiny even higher.
As a matter of fact, we crossed from Ontario to Michigan about 3 weeks ago, in the Nexus lane, and every car going through was run by a sniffer dog, for reasons unknown. They even opened the tailgate and let the dog jump in. I decided not to ask, and we had no problems, nor did anyone else ahead of us that we saw. My best guess was, they're getting the anti-cannabis technology in place, or at least trying it out in practice, before that date.
We were concerned that CBSA might start to enforce our silly "Countermeasures in Response to Unjustified Tariffs on Canadian Steel and Aluminum Products" (seriously, that's what our Liberal government calls it:R) when we returned to Canada, but it was business as usual.
Time will tell, on that one, I suppose.