Coming to America, latest remake [View all]

Last Friday, I came for my somewhat annual April trip to the USA. After all the horror stories, I was ready for almost anything. There are no nonstops from Düsseldorf to Washington, so I changed planes in Amsterdam. The line for passport control to leave the EU was huge, a half hour wait, but I endured it. I was expecting all sorts of interrogations before boarding the flight to Dulles, but nothing. Zip. Een prettige vlucht, mijnherr. Have a nice flight sir. The food was great, entertainment blah, but the KLM crew was pleasant and professional. Their English was fluent, although they appreciated an American who spoke Dutch.

At Dulles, there was another half hour line at immigration. Since my wife was not with me this trip, I went to the US citizens line. It moved rather slowly, and I had the misfortune to be just behind a trio of foreigners. Presumably one was a US citizen, as they weren’t taken to the “Visitors” line. But the one was interpreting for the other two, and the immigration officer was getting frustrated by not getting his questions answered, or valid US passports presented. He called for backup, looked at me and held up a hand in a “wait” gesture. I nodded, and held up my hand in what I hoped was a “no problem” gesture.

Soon, another CBP guy appeared and took the three people away. It didn’t necessarily mean they were trying to gain entry illegally, but it did mean something was off, and the guy wasn’t going to hold up fifty other passengers on their account. When he came back, he gave a “thanks for your patience” nod, and only asked one of the usual questions. They are: how long were you gone, where did you visit, do you have $10,000 or more in cash or negotiables, and are you bringing any food. He only asked, “are you bringing any food?” I said I did this often enough to know not to bring anything that would raise Agriculture’s eyebrows.” He smiled, said, “welcome home,” and that was it.

The line had taken enough time that my luggage was already there. My brother had already been circling outside in his car for half an hour, and huge limos for VIPs or with DIPL plates that abused their untouchable status were clogging the curbs, so that normal mortals like us couldn’t easily find our rides.

But all in all, it was a fairly routine trip over. The plane from Amsterdam to Washington was jammed, not a free seat in the entire plane. My initial impression was that the passengers were half Americans, half not, although I wasn’t about to conduct a poll. But if there is any boycotting of the USA going on, it wasn’t apparent at the international arrivals area of Dulles Airport last Friday. Full planes and long lines.

Maybe the summer will tell a different story. Incidents of individual Europeans or Australians being mistreated by US authorities may only get minor mention in our media, but in the countries where these people originate, they are front page headlines, and there will be a perceptible ripple effect sooner or later.