The teens claimed CBP targeted them because they hadn’t booked hotels for their entire stay in Hawaii.
“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”
Having not fully booked your accommodation for the entire trip could get you denied entry to the US before Trump. Just saying. Especially if you aren’t white. Same with not having an outbound ticket.
I’m sure it happens occasionally but I’ve never actually heard of CPB asking for hotel bookings, just outbound flight number. This is stuff you’d submit on a visa application. If the US wants to make Europeans get visa to travel then they should just do that.
They have asked for both and in one case they have asked for bank statement. This happens very often to citizens of third world country. We just knew what to carry with us all the time and no issue.
I met a good chunk of Europeans and Aussies while thru hiking on the AT a few years ago.
All of those folks did not have full accommodations booked in advance, that would have been impossible. They seemed to find that pretty normal and were not turned away.
Where you intend to stay is part of the questioning when you enter and they can get quite suspicious if you don’t have a plan. Source: An Austrian, white friend of mine who went to the US. He also just wanted to travel around but was warned in advance (by other, mostly white europeans) that he shouldn’t state that when asked. It’s just not worth the risk.
While that’s not the same as having to show hotel bookings for the whole stay, it is a thing travelers have had to worry about for quite some time now. I’m sure it’s worse and more complicated for anyone of color.
Not allowed to go camping unless you’re a citizen I guess
Likely they did not have enough fund to stay in Hawaii that long. It becomes a liability.
So we just making shit up to make it make sense now?
Well do u know the tourist and their finance to support themselves? U know they can probably go to places like Goa, Sri Lanka. Cheaper imo
With this administration, the most likely thing is another fuckup.
You just call daddy and get another thousand on your account. This is not hard.
This. It also gets you denied in Australia and other countries. This is non-news.
Source: Previously my guilty pleasure was watching Border Security Australia Not so much anymore.
Denied entry is far different than being strip searched and locked up in a jail with serious criminals.
I was responding to the original comment above : “Having not fully booked your accommodation for the entire trip could get you denied entry to the US before Trump. Just saying. Especially if you aren’t white. Same with not having an outbound ticket.”
Not to the strip searching, abuse, etc.
I agree it is absolutely heinous what is happening in the US and I wouldnt travel here either but the process of denying entry for a combination of limited/no accommodations, limited funds, varying answers, etc does lead to denial of entry in some countries.
yeah, it is not newsworthy when CBP does their normal, admittedly rather annoying job
of locking teens in detention centers