The Toronto Star, The Age, and other media are reporting that Ensight‘s Jeffrey Wright, a “25-year-old Toronto consultant on blogs — Web logs, or online journals — says he has been shut out of a lucrative job in New York City after he was denied entry to the United States.”
Pick your jaw up, and keep reading …
Wright, reports The Age, “has gained a measure of fame among bloggers for selling his blog for profit and auctioning his services on eBay.”
Jeffrey’s story, dug up by The Age, will make you feel safer from traveling terrorists, no doubt — and impressed with the vigilance and intellectual acumen of your security forces:
Wright had detailed his ordeal on his blog but has now removed these pages, explaining, “I’ve pulled my posts on the immigration issue, on the friendly (if stern) advice of friends that this kind of thing won’t help my case if someone does find it.”
In another post, Wright wrote: “I’m still not 100 percent sure what happened at Customs at the airport. Really, totally unsure. However at the very least I was denied entry and flagged for follow-up any other time I try to enter. As far as I can tell, I am not ‘banned’ from entering. I’m not sure why the border guard said I was, threatened to throw me and jail and seize my assets, etc.”
…..
He wrote that the immigration officer who interrogated him asked why he would visit someone in the US whom he (Wright) had never met. Wright had mentioned that apart from the meeting, he was meeting some people with whom he was acquainted.
When Wright answered that he had talked to these people online, the officer allegedly told him: “Don’t be a smartass. If you don’t have their phone number, and you’ve never met them, how can you have ever talked to them?”
Wright said that at this point he kept quiet and that the official allegedly replied: “So, you’re trying to tell me that you’re going to visit someone who you’ve never met, never talked to and who knows nothing about you? And I’m supposed to believe this?”
Wright said, despite this experience, he was looking forward to visiting the US again at some point. “I’m sure (almost, anyways) that next time won’t be as big of (sic) a hassle. It’ll probably be a hassle, but not a massive one. It’s not like I’m a terrorist or a hair dresser or anything.”
It’s too bad customs agents can’t Google people. In 10 seconds, they’d have found this from Blog Business World, January 2004:
Readers of the prestigious American newspaper The Washington Post, were treated to the words and opinions, of fellow blogger Jeremy Wright of Ensight.
In an article about the leading search engine Google’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its shares.
In the article, Jeremy is quoted as forecasting another internet and technology stock market bubble, where stock prices far exceed the true company value. …
You can drop Jeremy a line if you’d like: jeremy@ensight.org
Good to see the immigration officer is up on the latest technological advances such as “the computer.”
/snark
I’m interested in where he tried to gain entry. Certain border points are known to be staffed with some guards who are rednecks. Where I live there is a protocol that you must adhere to if you don’t want to be stopped. Don’t say “I’m on a business trip” without explaining the nature of your business because that will necessitate a further question from the guard. But don’t tell them too much either, they hate that. Generally the word is, they don’t like Canadians working in the USA or conducting business there.
It’s been getting worse since 9/11, with the Bush administration convincing people that Canada is a hotbed of terrorism. One terrorist tried to enter the US from Victoria to Port Angeles and he was caught.
It mentioned New York City so I assume he flew from Toronto.
From the Toronto Star
Pearson is the airport in Toronto.
not exactly a hick town. I was thinking that he drove across at some hick town border crossing.
My son crosses over quite often and he is always on pins and needles. Word is, be very careful and very respectful because the border guards are edgy.
I’m not implying that the blogger deserved this outrageous treatment. I’m just trying to understand it.
on his way to recruit young teens to sing “Peace Train.”
Please update your blog:)
or does it look like he’s getting a suntan from his Vaio?
As someone who used to consult regularly, I have to say it’s hard for me to believe he didn’t have a phone number of some kind. Or a letter regarding the project on letterhead.
I’m not sure it justified refusing him admittance, but if he copped any attitude and didn’t have a verifiable “business” destination, he weakened his own case unnecessarily.
Oh, and I see no justification for the strip search, just to be clear.
at the border, I can attest to the mean-spirited nature and anti-intellectual attitude of a lot of Immigration agents. It seems to me that the good ones take their job too seriously, and the bad ones are just dicks. You tend to get a little scared and conspiratorial in situations where some asshole with a badge and a gun can basically ban you from the country in which you have been living out of spite if they want. Canadian border guards have always seemed much more friendly to me, but maybe that’s just the passport I’m carrying.
Not only are your border guards nicer, but so are your hotel staff, your restaurant staffs, your cab drivers, your people on the streets. Hell, you’re ALL nicer than we are. I mean it from the bottom of my heart… I’m about to jump in the Strait and start swimmin’ north (missed the last ferry). Actually, if you have any brains at all, you’d keep all of U.S. out … we’ll just taint you.
you’re pretty nice, for example. 🙂 I just think that America is a more authoritarian place than Canada, and much moreso in the 6 years since I first came down here. Strict father vs nurturing mother, conservatism vs liberalism, and all that jazz. But then that’s why we’re all here isn’t it – to make America nicer, more nurturing, more liberal?
Though if we just got rid of all the former Confederate states, we’d give them a run for their money in that regard.
But I don’t agree that they are less authoriarian. Our First Amendment seems to be more sweeping than anything they have. In Canada, a judge can bar the media from covering a trial (there was a famous case of a couple accused of being serial killers where this happened a few years back, and Canadians drove to Detroit to buy newspapers and find out what was happening in the case); and they pay for religious education with tax dollars.
Alan
Maverick Leftist
My Canadian friends complain about the US Customs officials, but I am always ready to fire back. I’ve crossed the border many times (my mom lives in northern MN but her “life partner” lives in Canada; and my sister lives in Vancouver BC and has now become a naturalised Canadian citisen), and I get much more hassle from the Canadian side.
Basically, they tend to treat me as almost a “wetback” or something. I don’t have a credit card? Don’t have tons of money with me? (Of course, too much cash probably wouldn’t be good either.) What must I be up to? I’m obviously a criminal, or at least trying to sneak into their country to steal all their social services.
One time my wife and I (before we were married) had to spend over an hour with immigration authorities at the Peace Arch crossing. They quizzed us about all kinds of personal and irrelevant things. The fact that each of us had been arrested (but neither of us convicted, or even tried) was a big frickin’ deal to them. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Another time, they searched our car (tell me that’s not humiliating, having your car’s belongings spread out on the asphalt as thousands of people drive by and gawk). I had bought a large number of cans of tuna on sale, and this was cause for some clucking.
I think the bottom line is that if you aren’t affluent and “normal” in every way, you’re going to get hassled, period. Which sucks, because I love Canada generally…but boy do I hate crossing the border. At least when you come back, even if they grill you about stuff, you know they’re basically going to have to let you in your own country. But when you’re going to a country that’s not yours, they can totally dick you over regardless of what plans you may have had.
Amazingly, though, I do have to admit that they never actually turned us away in the end. There was a time, though, that my friends didn’t make it across to rendezvous with us in Vancouver because one of them admitted to having had a DWI some years previous. I guess we can debate whether this is a valid reason to ban someone from an entire country.
Alan
Maverick Leftist
Unbelievable! Well, not so much, anymore. I’m personally terrified of this nation’s developing police state. (Coupled with the incompetence of our border “security”.)
Please forgive me, but. . .”or a hairdresser” Hee!
see how effective these message boards can be!
Since 9/11 I have traveled from Minneapolis to Toronto about ten times. I usually fly Northwest. I fly to Pearson. Immigration on both sides has been fine on both sides for me. The only incident I had was about two years ago. To this day it baffles me. Northwest went to E-tickets only quite some time ago. I tried to cross into American Immigration and they refused to take the E-ticket. They went through two supervisors before they decided they could accept my E-ticket. It was the stupidest thing I ever saw. I asked if I should go back out and ask a representative of Northwest to verify the ticket and I thought at this point they were going to arrest me. Then they hit upon the novel idea of contacting Northwest themselves.
Like I said…this is the only incident I have ever had, but then again I am female, white, fair skinned, blue eyed, with light brown hair, I may not fit the profile. As I wrote the last sentence I just got really angry for some reason…
It’s a well known fact here in this country, if you want instant-asshole, just give some guy, who was never liked in school, even pre-k, a gun, a badge, and POOF…you got it.
all that’s required for the mental exam, is an attitude, hell, then you can be a ReThug. ; )
it’s sad, because my father wore a badge for 46yrs, “but the times, they are a chang’n.” (Dylan)
Wonder if this guard had to keep his bullet in his pocket…
I’m suddenly not looking very much forward to our vacation to Germany and Africa next month… I may not get back in thanks to my web activities! My passport renewal went through OK last month, so we’ll see…
well, if he did’nt know much about the net, he probably had one in his pocket,,true..LOL
well, I hope your trip goes well, should’nt be a prob with Germany I would think, but Africa, well now, I guess that depends on where your going. Some places probably no prob, but others….
You know, it doesn’t surprise me. There are still many who are surprised at the connections one can make thru a computer. And still find it odd that people would even meet when they have never met.
Isn’t there anyone he can plead his case to so that he can enter with no more issues? (yeah yeah, like anyone would listen)