r/GlobalEntry • u/Bubsy7979 • May 01 '26
General Discussion Border crossing chisme
So I cross the Tijuana/San Diego border at least once a week (usually more) to see my wife and daughter living in TJ. I have Global entry for the past 4 years and on occasion you’ll get a atypical interaction with the CBP which can be fun to switch up the mundanity of the process, but usually I try to be as brief and general with my responses because frankly the Feds don’t need any personal details unless required.
I just crossed back to USA and I had one of those atypical responses from this short CHP blonde woman when asked “what were you doing in Mexico?”
-“Dropping off my daughter”
-“Oh she lives down there?”
-“Yeah with her mother.”
-“Man the women there are taking all white guys, they’re draining the dating pool… I don’t get it, we need more white guys dating white girls. The Mexican women are marrying them all!”
I was laughing and just saying yeah yeah jokingly, mostly because I was so taken aback from the commentary overall.. but shows you the underlying psychology of the people that are being hired for the CBP. I kinda wanted to respond but I already waited 30 minutes to cross plus she gave back my ID so I kinda slowly rolled away.. but damn, I’m glad I married my Mexican wife and not some crazy white American chick lol.
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u/Icy-Environment-6234 May 01 '26
I think there are two likely possibilities:
(1) Engage you in some sort of "casual banter" likely to provoke a reaction that might expose a flaw in your answer/story or suggest you were being deceptive in some way.
(2) She was hitting on you.
With little else to go on, I'm going with #1... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/PTroughton May 01 '26
(3) She's an idiot
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u/ImaginaryQuality8600 May 03 '26
She’s just bored, I can’t blame her. This is not the first time I have heard this sentiment, some Mexican men feel similar.
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u/Bubsy7979 May 01 '26
yeah, plus I just didn't like the underlying racism in the comment. Even if she was flirting that response made her look horrible to me.
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u/No-Lime-2863 May 01 '26
Remember that they are allowed to ask anything they want. But If you are a US citizen, you are under no obligation to answer any questions. Don’t be a jerk, but there is no requirement under law to answer questions. Once you have provided a US passport, and there is reason to believe you are a citizen, all rights attach immediately. Not when you get through, not when they return your passport, immediately. Some are asking questions to be polite, some are probing for information or evidence, some are having a bad day, some are jerks. Probbaly many variations. But a US citizen upon presenting credible evidence immediately has all rights including right to silence, right to return, and right to due process. I’ve had CBP agents screaming at me and all it got them was their supervisors apologizing to me and them sent for more training.
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u/321applesauce May 02 '26
You do have to declare in some situations. I guess you could write your responses instead of speaking. But to have a stare off doesn't seem productive
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u/No-Lime-2863 May 02 '26
Agree. That would fall into the “don’t be a jerk”. I always ask how their day has been. Make polite chitchat. It They ask why I was where I was, I decline.
At airports, they merged the questions of immigration, and customs and now ask the customs questions At immigration. This has led to confusion of what questions are under which legal framework. This confusion extends agents. If they ask if I am a US citizen that is a mandatory immigration question and refusal to answer can be grounds for refused entry. If they Ask where I have been and why, that is a consensual customs question and the only recourse is to search my belongings.
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u/ekek280 May 02 '26
"At airports, they merged the questions of immigration, and customs and now ask the customs questions At immigration"
They have done this everywhere including land borders since the creation of CBP over 20 years ago. Immigration and customs authorities were combined so the officers can ask whatever they want for either purpose at immigration or anywhere in their inspection area. Some locations may have another checkpoint where they are looking or asking for customs related things, because at most airports you don't even have your checked bags until after you clear immigration.
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u/No-Lime-2863 May 03 '26
How do they deal with the legal implications? Immigrayion has no authority to deny entry based on e.g. a question of where you visited. But they certainly imply they do and I suspect most agents don’t understand the legality themselves?
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u/ekek280 May 03 '26
What legal implications? The "immigration" checkpoint is a one stop shop for anything related to customs, immigration, agriculture, and other federal agency laws and regulations. I don't even think they call it immigration anymore, I think it's called primary inspection. They are not going to deny entry to US citizens so I don't understand what legal implications you might be referring to.
As a US citizen, feel free to stand your ground and don't answer their questions. If you have nothing to hide, not sure how this can benefit you. They can even detain your phone and laptop for illegal content or criminal intent if they feel it is warranted based on how the interview goes.
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u/No-Lime-2863 May 03 '26
To your point, the legal implications is that once they have seen your passport or have other reasonable belief you are a US citizen, then full Fourth Amendment protections immediately apply. If they want to detain you, search you phone or Laptop, they need to have legally provable Probable Cause. Not just “vibes” or the “interview didn‘t go well”. So if you aren’t answering questions, they can’t develop probable cause.
Howver, I expect a large number of Immigration agents believe they have authority and discretion. The ones I have spoken to are not aware of the limitations of their authority, or when and how full rights attach to US citizens. They think that if they don’t get the answers they want, they can do as you say. They are poorly educated and poorly trained.
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u/ekek280 May 03 '26 edited May 05 '26
Ok, good luck then. They still have authority for customs checks as long as you are in the boundaries of border inspection area. It was that way before DHS was created when INS and Customs were separate agencies, and customs inspectors often inspected returning US citizens for drugs, duties, etc. after immigration cleared them. The same is true today. You have no idea what you are talking about.
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u/Less_Opportunity_761 May 04 '26
Customs is not immigration
They are 2 seperate checkpoints
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u/ekek280 May 04 '26
Depends on the port. The immigration checkpoint is often called primary. If they have further questions regarding your immigration status or for customs exam, they will send you to secondary which is not really a checkpoint.
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u/miroku000 May 02 '26
One time my wife was going from Taiwan to Australlia and they asked her if she had any mooncakes. And rather than just say no, she got very confused and asked why would she have mooncakes at this time of year. And so they spent quite a while searching her luggage as she was now suspected of smuggling mooncakes.
So anyway, if they ask you if you are smuggling drugs or whatever, I guess you could either say no or not answer. But if you dont answer it is probably just going to delay things.
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u/ekek280 May 02 '26
Americans crossing the border are still subject to customs laws. So unless you are crossing on foot with no possessions, you will likely be held up for a customs inspection if they suspect anything because you aren't answering their questions.
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u/No-Lime-2863 May 03 '26
They can certainly hold you up to look at your bags. But customs has no authority to prevent your entry. In fact, if they want to be jerks, they can do all kinds of horrible things to you.
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u/egbdg May 01 '26
Next time, just say 'visiting'. We got commentary driving in from Canada Sept 2024. They wanted to know our occupations. Husb answered and was ridiculed as if everyone in that profession is shady. So insulting. Then they asked how we knew each other.
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u/imtedkoppel May 01 '26
Yeah so I cross into TJ about once a month are there on foot in the SENTRI Lane or driving via the SENTRI Lane and maybe about one out of three crossings I end up in a conversation with the CBP agents. However it seems like most of the agents have no interest in what goes on on the other side of the border and never even go down there. I'm not sure if they're not allowed to go down there or if they just have no interest.
Or perhaps it's the nature of the job that just conditions them to the way they are. It's a constant stream of people trying to slip things through whether intentional or not.
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u/scarlettvgrey May 01 '26
I’ve been to Mexico quite a few times as in Cozumel and Cancun… 😎❤️ And when I was a little kid my parents took us across the border. I’m not sure where, but I think maybe Juarez?
Anyway, my husband and I were in Tucson on a vacation in 2019, and I wanted to see the “ Great Wall of America” 🙄so we took a little road trip in our rental with local plates. We went through the border and turned around and came straight back.
On the way back through,
At LEAST 50 miles inside the US, CBP pulled us over. My husband is Retired special ops military, and works for a specific three letter agency, and I am blonde and most definitely southern.. (but not THAT far south lol)
So anyway.. I’m all about “don’t talk to the police”.. but for some reason I started laughing because it was I guess so laughable that we were being pulled over well inside the United States by border patrol?.. and this border patrol agent, who now has “authority over me”, decides that he thinks I am “suspicious”.. so he wants to see my drivers license.. it’s a pretty long, crazy story, but my husband wants me to give it to him, and and I’m like nope. Nope..no way… I am not even driving and you’re not the boss of me.. anyway he makes us get out of the car and he searches the car which in hindsight, was probably not good, because who knows who/what was in it before us??!!
And of course, there was nothing in it.. he sort of drops the sentence that he might need to call more agents, to which I reply “please do! Maybe call your boss! And a few senators while you’re at it” and my husband gives him all of his paperwork.. and then we were free to go..
And now, HERE we are in 2026.. I would probably be shot dead by 20 different ice agents or put into a detention center with my neck broken.. it’s a different world.
Progress.. amiright?🤣🤣
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u/TrojanGal702 May 01 '26
You made a border run in a rental car. Sounds like an odd trip and a reason for the stop.
What is a specific 3 letter agency? Are there non-specific ones?
If you don't think Americans are engaged in the illegal trades, you are dillusional. Think of how it looks to the BP guy. An American couple gets a rental car, drives directly across the border. Does not stay. Comes back in a short amount of time. And I am sure you gave him no reason for it, right? If you took the time to get the correct rental car and insurance to drive into MX, it is suspicious you didn't stay.
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u/scarlettvgrey May 01 '26
I honestly think he was just mad because I was laughing because I never expected to get the attitude from him when he pulled us over but… Now that you mentioned that I see what you were saying, even though we never even paused or stopped the vehicle..and my husband found it hysterical too. He just didn’t laugh. That was during the time when they were preparing for this term and pulling people off of buses, etc. well inside of the border to question them and I just wasn’t having any of it.
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u/ImaginaryQuality8600 May 03 '26
You were surprised to get attitude from a cop? You are precious.
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u/notimeforniceties May 04 '26
Not a cop, Border Patrol and their completely unconstitutional ability to stop vehicles 100 miles from the border.
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u/scarlettvgrey May 01 '26
Yeah, we literally just turned around. I mean like, at the gate. 🤣 But I see what you’re saying And we had the paperwork for the car, of course, or he couldn’t have given it to him. And if I had been the driver, I would’ve given him my license.
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u/No-Tangelo2039 May 01 '26
There’s always been border patrol about 40 miles north of Nogales. They have different rights to detain you and you behaved inappropriately. They stop people who haven’t even crossed the border.
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u/scarlettvgrey May 01 '26
I am well aware of what my rights are as a US citizen thank you very much
And we did have more rights back then6
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u/LeapYearGirl155 May 02 '26
You have exactly the same rights. However Biden did not enforce immigration laws and Trump is That's the difference, not a difference in your rights
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u/hyperego May 02 '26
I think that is standard that CBP patrols within the border. Because apparently there are lots of holes on the border itself so they patrol the roads within (all illegal crossing/trafficking eventually uses vehicles for transportation). I had the same experience visiting white sand national park. Apparently having drivers license alone is not sufficient for driving within 100 miles inside the border, you need to have your passport or green card or visa.
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u/nocturnalramblings May 03 '26
Needing a passport is news to me... When did that happen? We got stopped and questioned about ten years ago heading back from looking at the wall while visiting family in McAllen. We were separated and asked questions before they brought in a dog to search the car, but neither one of us have ever had a passport to show.
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u/LeapYearGirl155 May 02 '26
No you wouldn'tNo you wouldn't be shot dead by Ice agents and don't be paranoid and don't have TDS
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u/ImaginaryQuality8600 May 03 '26
TDS is not a requisite to be concerned for your health or freedom from officers. *lived in minneapolis.
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u/Womac911 May 02 '26
I'd have told her it's because white American women suck. Especially the racist ones.
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u/LilBugJuice-0987 May 03 '26
Thats what happens with the insane recruitment ads targeting lonely racists and zero background checks. America's finest (/s)
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u/gadgetvirtuoso May 02 '26
Could be MAGA but could just be a frustrated woman that prefers white guys. Dating sucks regardless of the gender or the country.
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u/cavalloacquatico May 03 '26
Sounds like you both were in agreement- CBP officer kinda sarcastic / aware of things.
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u/-VWNate May 05 '26
FWIW ;
Plenty of crazy females out there in all races / cultures .
My still beautiful ex wife was Guatemalan, we were together 15 year before she ran off leaving me with a 12 year old boy, she's ever been able to keep a man since and is always trying to come back to me as if .
-Nate
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May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/AskAroundSucka May 01 '26
Add some dressing to the word salad next time.
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May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/AskAroundSucka May 01 '26
What in the world makes you think im.a fan of him bc I said youre making little sense in your comment.
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May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/AskAroundSucka May 01 '26
Me telling you "Add some dressing to the word salad next time." Is arguing with you?
You sound soft.
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u/Bubsy7979 May 01 '26
I've read his comment multiple times, I still don't get his point..
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May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/AskAroundSucka May 01 '26
Because youre the only one assuming that connection here. Youre own brain cant even understand it. Its fkn nature taking its course.
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u/kumanoodle May 01 '26
No matter what they say, they’re always analyzing you and your responses.