I used to teach a unique culinary technique, and had clients visit me from all around the world for training, including several Muslim countries. Only one client had a serious problem at the border, a young Muslim guy from India. His dad was a major Bollywood director, and was fairly wealthy.
He had gone to college in America, so he was using this trip to both visit me for a few days for his training, then going on to Miami to meet up with his American college friends.
His visa said he was here on a pleasure trip, but for some reason he was pulled aside for grilling. They demanded his phone, and looked through his texts, where they found messages between him and I, making arrangements for his training.
That lit them up, and they started claiming he was coming here for work, not pleasure. He explained that he wasnt being paid, he was paying me, and it wasn’t work. It was educational, if anything. It was really just an expensive experiential vacation adventure for a rich kid, which was something I’d experienced before. Some clients really wanted to learn this technique to expand their culinary portfolio, while others just wanted to try it out for fun, and had the time and money to do it. If you came to America to learn to scuba dive, or surf, would it be considered work, or even educational?
The fact that he was here for education or work wasn’t the point, the point was that the visa was for pleasure, so they were claiming it was a violation, even though most of the trip was with his friends (3 days with me, 2 weeks with his buddies).
Then they focused on his money. He was carrying about $2600, and they acted like that was an outrageous amount of cash for a rich young man to carry on an international trip. They demanded he tell them exactly how much cash was in his wallet, which they were holding, and had searched. He told them the exact amount, because he had counted his money on the plane, after they had landed. They told him he was lucky he knew the exact amount, or they would have kept his money and sent him home.
Eventually, they grudgingly allowed him to leave, and he got his training, and visited his friends, but he went home with a very negative view of the US government.
This all happened during the first MAGA administration.
I get it. Frankly, i was surprised that ALL my Muslim clients, who also came from India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa, and other countries, didn’t have problems of their own. I also had people from many other countries luke Vietnam, Phillipines, Russia, Serbia, England, etc. None got hassled at all. This one guy just won the Border Patrol Lottery. Yay!
The closest I saw was when one got pulled over by a local cop, who kept asking him over and over “Who else is in the car?”, when it was easy to see that the guy was all alone in the vehicle. The only thing i could think of was that in order to get from my shop to his hotel, he had to travel through a small zone that is known for prostitution, and a lone brown guy in a car tickled that cop’s lizard brain.
That area is also a MAJOR tourist/ convention zone, so its not the only reason to be there. 99.99% of the people going through are there for perfectly legitimate reasons, including just getting from here to there. My client didn’t even know about the prostitution angle, and was horrified when i told him.
I used to teach a unique culinary technique, and had clients visit me from all around the world for training, including several Muslim countries. Only one client had a serious problem at the border, a young Muslim guy from India. His dad was a major Bollywood director, and was fairly wealthy.
He had gone to college in America, so he was using this trip to both visit me for a few days for his training, then going on to Miami to meet up with his American college friends.
His visa said he was here on a pleasure trip, but for some reason he was pulled aside for grilling. They demanded his phone, and looked through his texts, where they found messages between him and I, making arrangements for his training.
That lit them up, and they started claiming he was coming here for work, not pleasure. He explained that he wasnt being paid, he was paying me, and it wasn’t work. It was educational, if anything. It was really just an expensive experiential vacation adventure for a rich kid, which was something I’d experienced before. Some clients really wanted to learn this technique to expand their culinary portfolio, while others just wanted to try it out for fun, and had the time and money to do it. If you came to America to learn to scuba dive, or surf, would it be considered work, or even educational?
The fact that he was here for education or work wasn’t the point, the point was that the visa was for pleasure, so they were claiming it was a violation, even though most of the trip was with his friends (3 days with me, 2 weeks with his buddies).
Then they focused on his money. He was carrying about $2600, and they acted like that was an outrageous amount of cash for a rich young man to carry on an international trip. They demanded he tell them exactly how much cash was in his wallet, which they were holding, and had searched. He told them the exact amount, because he had counted his money on the plane, after they had landed. They told him he was lucky he knew the exact amount, or they would have kept his money and sent him home.
Eventually, they grudgingly allowed him to leave, and he got his training, and visited his friends, but he went home with a very negative view of the US government.
This all happened during the first MAGA administration.
Well there’s your problem. The rest is just an excuse
I get it. Frankly, i was surprised that ALL my Muslim clients, who also came from India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa, and other countries, didn’t have problems of their own. I also had people from many other countries luke Vietnam, Phillipines, Russia, Serbia, England, etc. None got hassled at all. This one guy just won the Border Patrol Lottery. Yay!
The closest I saw was when one got pulled over by a local cop, who kept asking him over and over “Who else is in the car?”, when it was easy to see that the guy was all alone in the vehicle. The only thing i could think of was that in order to get from my shop to his hotel, he had to travel through a small zone that is known for prostitution, and a lone brown guy in a car tickled that cop’s lizard brain. That area is also a MAJOR tourist/ convention zone, so its not the only reason to be there. 99.99% of the people going through are there for perfectly legitimate reasons, including just getting from here to there. My client didn’t even know about the prostitution angle, and was horrified when i told him.