You Can Keep Your Shoes On

A bad border experience yesterday, after several months of good ones, so I guess the border people haven’t entirely internalized their new polite professionalism. In this case, the Nexus agent didn’t like how the Nexus card was being held to the card reader: ‘ Up!’ he ordered,’Get it up here!’ He sounded like a guy who was having a very bad day and didn’t want to be further irritated by the mortals passing by. I can imagine feeling that way myself, but of course I’m not in his line of work. He continued to be irritated by the fact that the car’s driver had nothing to report in the way of goods being brought into the U.S. He was not impressed with the news that we were coming from Point Roberts to the rest of the U.S. A little more surliness and he deigned to let us through. Then, he called out, still in full surly: ‘You got a problem with anything I just said to you?'

Well, what are you going to say to that? ‘No, sir,’ seemed about right. He’s got all the power here and the traveler has none, so it’s unwise, at that point, to be discussing one’s assessment of his professionalism. Especially when, only the day before, a friend told me she had just been turned down for a Nexus card for no reason. This is her second go round. She had a Nexus card for five years and when it came time to renew it, the terrorist chasers said, ‘No.’ When she asked, ‘Why?’, they answered, “Not going to say, but you can reapply if you’d like and, by the way, send us another $50.’ (It sounds a little like a shake-down, no?) She thought about it for awhile—over the summer when the lines are their worst--and decided to try again since it really is inconvenient, to say the least, to live here without being able to avoid the border line-ups. They just refused her again, on the grounds that she is, according to their letter, “not eligible for the Nexus Program.’

What could that mean? The legal requirements are that you must be a U.S. or Canadian citizen/legal resident and have lived in the country for the last three years; not have a criminal conviction; and not have a previous border violation. She’s okay on all those things. The last eligibility ”requirement” is that one not have given false information on one’s application. So, if they think your name is Sam and you are pretty sure your name is Robert, then you are giving them false information if you say your name is Robert. Catch 22 is what that is called, I believe. And they won’t tell you any more than that they refused you because they refused you.

(Actually, there is one more eligibility requirement that is right beyond Catch 22--maybe 22 through 1,000: you are not eligible for Nexus if you "fail to meet other requirements of NEXUS." It does not specify what these other requirements might be, so it is certainly possible that my friend failed to meet them, as it is possible that any of us might fail to meet them, since they are not specified and I suppose they can just make them up on the spur of the moment.)

So, it’s no good to go arguing with them too much right there at the border if you don’t have a lawyer on retainer and in your car, is my view. Thinking back about their position on plants that might have dirt on them coming into the Point without special certification: well, I suppose we should be grateful that they don’t also make us take our shoes off and leave them at the border.