Reply #109: well if you've never been questioned you've just been lucky

[amazona]

Every time I go through the Netherlands I am questioned (interrogated if you must put it so negatively) about what I was doing there, etc. I am fairly confident they're in the "borderless" EU. I was secondary'd in France as well and everything opened and searched, blah de blah. If you can't tolerate some checking of who you are and what you're doing there, you shouldn't be crossing international borders.

I agree that in the U.S. as well as in Jordan if you fail to return a rental car, it is considered to be a very serious crime, auto theft. We take that seriously here. Hell, we've advanced considerably, in times gone by we used to shoot horse thieves. I still don't believe the individual in question was secured in the manner you describe unless he acted violently toward the immigration officials who examined him. Like I said, I've had a look into the "hard" area, and while some of the detained looked scary indeed, no one was detaining them in the manner you describe.

If you want to deprive yourself of visiting the United States because of preconceived notions, in the end, it is a choice you made. And it is my choice to think you're being silly. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. But your fear of the United States cheats you of seeing the truth with your eyes. It is not the Wild West out here, but an imperfect country like all others. For someone who travels to Russia to say, I will not put myself in the hands of U.S. immigration, well you have to expect :eyesroll:

And the fact remains that MOST tourists don't agree with you, since foreign visitors to the U.S. is UP 12 percent in a year. Seems unrealistic to expect more.

I notice on your list of places visited that you don't list ANYWHERE in the Americas, north, Central, or south, and I have to wonder if two decades worth of scare stories about our region have played their part. I find it hard to believe that the Americas are more hazardous to the tourists than Russia or Africa, sorry. I think it is all perception and a matter of getting out of your comfort zone.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72