USA Border Security - A frustrating chapter for general public

From Toronto, yesterday July 14th Thursday, I was taking my family for a trip to Michigan. This Security Official at the Michigan border, a caucasion male with mustouche in his late 50's, has been taking extended amount of time of about 40 min per vehicle. By the time he passes 1 vehicle, the other lines had 3 cars passed through. Finally, it was our turn. He asks, "What is the purpose of your trip to Michigan?" I answered, "Just a tour". He didn't like my English. Mockingly said to me, "TOUR!". Then asked "What did you bring today?". Very open ended question unlike other security officials I have faced in our previous trips. I started from clothes, then food, couldn't remember all, my wife started helping me out. This man also had hard time hearing. I had to repeat one word multiple times. Not sure if he was pretending. My wife had to finally get out of car to show what we brought - some cooked food and vegetable salad.

He was about to make false charges against us probably to make commissions in the name of protecting the border. I asked him why is he throwing out some of our food, he replies, "I asked you what are you bringing and you failed to disclose all items and stopped at cooked food. I can place charge against you with penalty starting at $300." This was outrageous. I said, "Your question was very open ended, I brought underwear with me, do you want to know that too? I cannot remember all and we did not stop. My wife started describing the items where I stopped. So technically we did not fail to declare but it was taking time . You need to be more specific."

This man was apparently very rude from the biginning. Probably it is his style of living or dealing with people. We travel to USA often, either site seeing or visiting relatives. While going to US by road, the first impression of USA is that, this country has hard time recruiting right people or train them the right way to deal with humans as a human and not an animal. US border security should learn from Canadian officers how you can do your job effectively and still be courteous.

Another time, we were crossing the border through Buffallo late night we had to deal with this female US Border Security officer in her 30s. The first question she asked is "Are you drunk?". I forgot for a moment, should I laugh or ask the same question to her? Finally I managed to laugh (you really don't know what a dishonest/hatefull officer can put in thier computer that can cause trouble to you) and corrected her, "You mean, if I had any alcohol tonight.... then the answer is 'no'.

While US is trying to secure their country, they also need to make sure they are not making enemies through poor behaviour and inhuman, harassing approach through their frontline force that deals with foreign citizens. It is as important as secured machineries.