Monday, October 06, 2014

Dumb questions and marbles ownership




Now that I'm back in Switzerland, I keep thinking about the stupid yes/no questions I was asked on the form I had to fill out at the US/Canadian border before I was allowed into the US.  

I did check no to each, truthfully, I might add, but other thoughts did run through my mind. However, those who own the marbles make up the rules.

I've no problems with security at any border.
 
I did know when I renounced I might never be allowed back in the US (thanks to Chuck Schurmers Ex-patriot Act which died in committee, but does get reinserted from time to time in other legislation) but the idiocy of these questions is remarkable. It makes me wonder if the inmates are running the asylum.

Would any terrorist or war criminal really admit to being such a thing knowing that the border guards probably won't check a no answer? They also would know that a yes would disqualify them from entry.

HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS 

A. Do you have a communicable disease; physical or mental disorder, or are you a drug abuser or addict?
Does a cold count? Blood pressure pills are they a drug, although I only take the prescribed amount?
 

B. Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or been arrested or convicted for two or more offenses for which the aggregate sentence to confinement was five years or more; or been a controlled substance trafficker, or are you seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities?
At 20 my mother had me arrested as a stubborn child, because I was trying to elope. Is that moral turpitude?

C. Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?

At nine I touched a Nazi knife my uncle brought back from the war. Does that count? I was 3 when WWII ended. I have never been tempted to commit genocide.
 
D. Are you seeking to work in the U.S.; or have ever been excluded and deported; or been previously removed from the United States; or procured or attempted to procure a visa or entry into the U.S. by fraud or misrepresentation?

I definitely do not want to work in the US. This is my first visa request so I couldn't have committed fraud.

E. Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a U.S. citizen granted custody of the child?

My daughter always had access to her father. I did withhold visitation from my mother when she had social services investigate me as an unfit mother (she was the only one who thought so, while my daughter's babysitter, her teachers, her father and the investigating social worker all thought I was a good to great mother)

F. Have you ever been denied a U.S. visa or entry into the U.S. or had a U.S. visa cancelled? If yes, when? ______________________ where? _________________________

No, but I did renounce my nationality so I could bank like an ordinary person in my new country, but you aren't asking that.
 
G. Have you ever asserted immunity from prosecution?

So, when I was a US citizen and used my constitutionally granted right not to testify against myself, I was also waiving the right to reenter the US if I renounced my citizenship? Got it.

I don't know if I'll ever go back to the US. There would have to be an outstanding reason. I probably won't become a terrorist, a drug addict or keep my grown daughter from any US person between now and then. I doubt that I will have to claim immunity in any US court. 

If the questions would truly protect terrorists, war criminals, kidnappers, etc. out of the US that would make sense...but they don't and won't.

  

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