Dealing With DHS, Border Patrol & Customs When Travelling (Gabriel Cross)

[DMICS]

So unintentionally in a 411 for JJ Knight, the thread got hijacked. Gabriel Cross' name and his well-known 10-year ban from the U.S. came up which lead to a few stories. I decided to make its own thread and hopefully the good moderators can move those posts in here.

 

This happened to me 5 years ago. Was heading to Miami for a week of R&R and to attend a big music festival. Didn't even make it because I got flagged and stopped by a U.S. Customs agent. Photo taken, fingerprinted, taken into an interrogation room. My suitcase was searched, some clothes ripped, and my iPhone was confiscated. The agent went through my phone and created his own story that based on my texts with friends, my photo album, and stylish clothes that I was heading to Miami for a gig to make money and not come back. I then realized that the ticket agent at the airport printed a one-way ticket instead of what I originally booked, a round-trip ticket. It was a humiliating and emotional experience, finally being escorted out to the main terminal.

 

No criminal record, no tickets, nothing. To this day I'm still not sure why this happened. I'm guessing when I was answering questions to the initial agent checking passengers passports that maybe I answered a question wrong? or simply when I presented my ticket and passport he saw it was a one-way which was a huge alert?

 

Anyways now if I'm flying I drive to Buffalo or Vermont first then fly from there. Since that incident I use an alternate phone and laptop whenever I travel with pretty much nothing on either.

 

 

 

I'm thinking it was CBP. But man thats another level of evil and hate to do that to someone.

 

I'm interested if any members have had similar situations when travelling internationally. I now how a burner phone and extra laptop I use when travelling to protect myself from a random search of my devices.