My trip to Seattle to Jail and back...
» renascent 23-02-2004, 01:20
i arrived at Seattle airport saturday around 12 noon, at immigration they stopped us (me and my wife) for questioning as we didnt have our return tickets with us (as i can just pick those up on the day of return, they said if youre traveling under a visa waiver you need to have your return tickets on you, which i didnt know)
so i had to explain my reasons for entry in the US, and did my story that is was primiraly for business, a job interview etc, checking out Seattle...
as the officer didnt trust it he took us in the back were all our bags got checked, and more questions were asked, as they checked my passport they noticed entries to the US before so i had to explain the purpose of those entries as well, all business, for freelance work... "so, you worked in the US and got paid for it he said, and entered the country with only your Visa Waiver form?" yup, two times i answered... then he responded "do you understand you are not admissable today, because you have worked in the US without a VISA?
I had no idea what he was talking about as i assumed the Visa Waiver was my visa... as he explained a visa waiver is only ok for business meetings, when you do actual work in the US you need working VISA...
I explained him i didnt know about these laws, and that the companies that got me over never mentioned anything about this to me, also on entry with the other two times i had to explain my business and purpose and was granted access without any troubles.... "Ignorance is of no excuse to the law" he replied... " we will be holding you in detention and you will be send back to the netherlands on the first availbale flight"... so im being judged here for things i didnt know about and things that happened in the past....? "Time is of no excuse to the law" he said... youre wife can enter the US without any issues as she never worked here, etc, etc... allot of talk followed but he wouldnt give me a break... finger prints were taken, mugshots, info, etc...
My wife was let go and they said you can see eachother again tomorrow morning (as they arranged a return flight), and so i asked why cant she stay with me? "because you are being escorted to a detention facilaty in the city" he said...
both me and me wife were in distress, we talked it over and she went to the hotel that was booked for us, so she could make phonecalls to the people i was supposed to meet....
I was held at the airport till about 8 in the evening when somebody came to pick me up, i was escorted to a van and had to sit in back in a steel cage that he locked up, after a drive of about 20 minutes we arrived at the detention facilaty (which i quickly understood was just a fancy name for a prison) going thru a ton of security doors, again i was questioned, pictures were taken, finger prints made... they explained to me that i was arrested under a level 1 (which would not give me a criminal record) there were also level 2 and 3 in this "facility"... i had to strip down naked and was given clothes to wear, had to pick up a pillow and a mattress to sleep on and was then escorted to a cell with about 16 other people, varying from a few kids that got over the border from canada, to ex-cons awaiting their departure out of the US, some of them had been in that cell for over 3 years...
so their i was in my cell, playing cards and domino with ex convics. later tried to sleep... next morning we had breakfast were all the levels were sitting together, at around 11 in the morning i got picked up, had to sign a few papers and was again escorted in that van to the airport... they checked in for me, i met up with my wife again.... they escorted us to inside of the airplain.... and here i am ,home again typing all this.
what a trip.
http://www.renascentfused.nl/refusedboard/topic.php?id=2262