Denied for Truth

Meet Polyana. Her story is one I’m sure many can relate to, including myself. She wanted to come from Brazil  to the US for just over two weeks to visit her family, attend her brother’s graduation, and be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. It sounds like her family are currently in the US trying to get their green cards approved and are doing everything above board, but she decided to live in Brazil. Why not?

She explains how she brought all her documents to the US consul showing why she would be returning to Brazil, what she was going to do in the US, and being up front about her ties to the US (parents, friends, etc.). As she states…

My plan was to be completely honest.  Honesty is the best policy, right?

And she’s right: honesty is the best policy. Where it breaks down is that US CBP doesn’t give you brownie points for being honest. While it would make sense that someone willing to offer information should be trusted more, that information is simply used to compare against the laws and make a decision. Polyana was denied. Not only was she denied but she was told she couldn’t re-apply for a visa until 2018, when her parents will be almost a decade older, her brother may be married and her friend will have children.

She sums up the most frustrating and infuriating aspect of her situation (and that of others who tried to be truthful):

What's not okay?  Knowing that if I had gone to the consulate with a bullshit excuse to go to the U.S., with some plane ticket to Disney World, a fake name and passport, pretending I'd never stepped foot in the country before... they probably would've approved my visa. 

I can honestly count on both hands how many people I know who have gotten visas to the U.S. or their permanent residencies (green cards)  being 100% honest.  And then Americans complain about the problems immigrants cause.  Wonder if it's because they only let the shady ones in the front door. 

And therein lies the biggest issue with the US border: every year it catches people who are trying to be up front with why they’re going down and yet thousands enter the country by presenting falsely without ever being second-guessed as long as their record is clean and they don’t do or say anything suspicious. The idea that the border is somehow being effective in stopping those that otherwise could be inadmissible, based on something as simple as getting an honorarium for speaking at a conference, is simply a mirage.

As we’ll see in my upcoming entries, dealing with the border isn’t about judgement calls. It’s about the black and white letter of the law, which always seems to be interpreted in the harshest of ways.