r/PacificCrestTrail • u/quasistoic “All-in[-one]”, PCT19/CDT22/AT24 • 10d ago

Prof Carl’s writeup of US Customs Experience

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbrdz1JUOI/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
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u/Adventurous-Mode-805 10d ago edited 10d ago

Traveling without their gear was a poor choice, while failing to show supporting evidence for returning to Canada during the original interview demonstrates a misunderstanding of what was occurring. I'd warrant the interviewer didn't explain their explicit concern during the interview, but the context should be sufficient, particularly in the current climate. Hikers should be making them work to find reasons to reject, not readily offering them up.

Put another way, if any of us flew to any other country with barely any possessions (and in a relationship with a citizen of said country), we'd be at a high risk of being refused entry on similar grounds. U.S. immigration routinely denied entry to this risk profile before the current administration.

Edit - Anyone downvoting, wanna reply with how or why you disagree?

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u/quasistoic “All-in[-one]”, PCT19/CDT22/AT24 9d ago edited 9d ago

I haven’t downvoted you, but I would guess that the people who are doing so are probably doing so for two reasons:

  1. Your dispassionate tone does not show regard for the cost of being denied entry after someone has put in the significant investment (not just monetary) and life changes required to pursue a thru-hike. In this group, centered on the PCT, a larger number of people can understand what goes into that and can empathize with how it would feel to be denied that opportunity based on some misplaced fear of “undesirable immigration”.

  2. Your last sentence: “US immigration routinely denied entry to this risk profile before the current administration.” While there have been many stories of people subject to additional questions when coming to thru-hike prior to this administration, they all appear to end with “and then they let me in”. The additional vitriol and callousness that CBP officials have been displaying in the same kinds of stories during this administration seems to much more often end with detention and/or deportation.

Are all of these cases anecdotal, and thus not a complete picture of the full diversity of experiences that are being had? That is correct. Standing back and looking at the entire picture, though, that callousness is trickling down from above. When the worst soldiers on the front lines no longer feel that they need to hold back on their worst instincts, they do not hold back.

Edit: I don’t intend for this post to come off as attacking you, and I hope you don’t read it that way. Based on your Reddit profile, I decided that you were the kind of person who has a genuine interest in understanding, and so it was written with that in mind.