Turning around at Pembina border crossing before entering Canada

[sacreole]

The OP's border crossing account reminds me of my experience crossing between the USA and Canada nine years ago. I was en route to visit a friend, who was living in Thunder Bay ONT at the time. I was coming from California, so I flew into Minneapolis and rented a car for the drive across the border. The rental car had Arizona plates.

My entry into Canada wasn't too bad. The lady immigration officer was a little brusque, wanting to know who I was visiting in Thunder Bay. I presented both my passport and passport card. After examining my documents, I was on my way into Thunder Bay. On the return into the US, I was subjected to secondary inspection even as I scanned by passport card. I was held for about 15-20 minutes while the CBP officers inspected my rental car and belongings. They were probably disappointed that they didn't find anything and I was on my way back to the Minneapolis airport.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Regardless even if you don't cross the border, once you are past the US check point, you are in the secured facility, and you are subject to searches. Hell, you don't even need to get that far. Once you are within 100 miles of the border, you can be subject to searches by the border patrol.

And 50 miles from an international airport. Not just the typical passenger airport, but the small private airports with customs facilities. It's been that way since 1953.

Welcome to the Police State! During the Cold War, the capitalists told the big lie that communists were the totalitarians.

Originally Posted by bus man

I had no choice but to continue straight to the Canada border guard station. I told the man my story about wanting to drive the entire interstate system, and while he was quite skeptical about the veracity of what I was telling him, he looked me in the eye and asked, quite somberly, "If I let you go through, you'll turn right around, right?" I assured him that I would, and he let me through. I drove on ahead to where he had showed me I could turn around, and thus ended my 30-second tour of Canada.

But then I had to repeat my story to the American guard, and he was not as accommodating. He and his companions interrogated me, searched my car and my luggage, and had me sit there in their building for awhile, without any explanation for the delay. To further enhance my mood, I was driving a rental car, so I had no way of knowing if a previous user had left anything hidden in the vehicle that, if discovered, could have landed me in some serious doo-doo. I figured I'd pass the time by looking at my phone, but nope; one of the agents rudely admonished me that this was not permitted. It certainly seemed like they wanted to arrest me for something, but they couldn't think of anything, so they finally let me go.

The Canadian officers are definitely nicer than their American counterparts.

I'm still waiting for a Simón Bolívar figure to tear down this Berlin Wall and bury the divisive aftermath of the American Revolution into the dustbin of history. The decrepit U.K. has already done enough damage to this continent--why put up with it much longer?