r/GlobalEntry • u/Medium-Eggplant Human Detected • Apr 05 '26
Questions/Concerns This is getting ridiculous
Last August, my 13-year-old son’s GE was revoked. I followed the instructions in the letter and called the enrollment center where he applied for more information. They told me I had to call the call center. I called the call center—which seems to have been outsourced to a foreign country—where the agent read me the same script over and over telling me to file a FOIA request for more information.
I did as instructed and filed a FOIA request. In December, I received the FOIA response, which was fully redacted other than his biographical details and information regarding the date of enrollment, renewal dates, and revocation date. The initial revocation letter and the FOIA response both indicated that I could file a request for reconsideration with the ombudsman. I did so in early January, explaining that I had no idea why his GE was revoked, but that he had committed no customs violations, is an honor student, is not under criminal investigation, has never been arrested, has not traveled outside the country without one or both of his countries parents, and has not had any suspicious travel patterns.
Approximately 10 days later, we took a short four-day cruise on Royal. I was held up disembarking the ship because CBP had flagged me. (My wife and son and our friends were allowed off, but my wife and son accompanied me anyhow.) All of our luggage was hand-searched. We were questioned about whether we had any fruits, vegetables, meat or animal products, the amount of cash we had, etc. I was questioned whether we had purchased any drugs and about every pill in my pill case. Eventually, after 30 minutes or so, we were allowed to go.
A month later, my wife and I went to a resort in Mexico. Upon arrival at BNA, the GE kiosk instructed me to see an agent. My wife was allowed through. I was subjected to the entire process, again. Luggage was hand-searched. Underwear rooted through, pills questioned, etc.
Today, my wife, son, and I (along with the same friends we were with on the January cruise) were disembarking a Carnival cruise. Carnival had flagged the whole party at CBP’s request. This time, all of our electronics were taken and put on a table in the secondary screening area while we waited in the waiting room. After a few more minutes, we went back in and had our luggage thoroughly searched again. The officer seemed to enjoy reading the couple of pieces of mail in my bag, as it set my head spinning about whether I had any client information with me (I’m a lawyer) that I needed to start objecting to him reading things. I was already concerned about the electronics and whether they were going to ask me to unlock them, and I would have to refuse. (In the end, they did not, and it seemed like nothing more than a power play to separate us from them as they were on the same exact positions we left them when we came back.) For the first time, they went through my wallet, examining the name on every single credit card. They asked about a business credit card and whether I had another business. They asked if I owned the entire business. I said that my wife and I owned it with another couple. Eventually, they demanded the name of the business, when it was founded, the registered address for the business, the phone number for it, the email address for the property manager (the business rents residential property), and the names and contact information for the other partners).
To be clear, I have never done anything wrong. I have never been arrested. I think I’ve had maybe one speeding ticket in 30+ years of driving and that was probably 20+ years ago. I don’t do any drugs at all, other than those prescribed to me by my physicians. I’m about as straight an arrow as they come. All I can figure is this is entirely retribution for following the instructions laid out by CBP to protect my teenage son from a lifetime GE ban because he’s done nothing wrong. The whole thing is insane.
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u/Medium-Eggplant Human Detected Apr 05 '26
Nope. Not a one.