[heyimfromreddit]

Of course I am. But there is still some truth in there. Some CBP officers are friendly... many are not.

Upon entering the U.S. you effectively have no rights whatsoever. Whether or not you're allowed to enter the country is entirely at the discretion of the CBP officer you happen to get, and you have no right to appeal their decision. Run into one who's having a bad day and doesn't like the look of you and you're screwed.

[colinplamondon]

That's the awesome thing about sovereignty- we get to run background checks and see if someone's been hanging out in Pakistan Frontier Provinces or Yemen lately. If someone looks sketchy, we boot them out.

Coming to an expensive first world country with $600 for 2 weeks is pretty clearly sketchy.

CBPs make wrong decisions sometimes. This wasn't one of those times.

[owenmarshall]

>Coming to an expensive first world country with $600 for 2 weeks is pretty clearly sketchy.

Bingo.

Entering the US with $5000 in Bitcoin would be equivalent to crossing the border with $5000 in Somaliland Shillings. They are both currencies that are bought and sold every day, but you can't take either to your neighborhood bank and convert them to USD. They have a very limited -- hell, even zero -- utility outside of circles that deal directly with them.

As such, CBP was rightly suspicious.

[jules]

The reply of groby_b was wrongly killed.

[bigwally]

> we get to run background checks and see if someone's been hanging out in Pakistan Frontier Provinces or Yemen lately.

You are overestimating the competence of the US government.

> If someone looks sketchy, we boot them out.

So dress nice and talk a lot of crap and they let you in.

>CBPs make wrong decisions sometimes. This wasn't one of those times.

Yay for security theater. I am glad someone feels safer.