Past trips up some Canada border-crossers previously cleared for the fast lane

[Newsjock]

Source: Seattle Times

If you travel to Canada this weekend you'll see them, perhaps even eye them with envy: motorists who get to pull into the near-empty lane for express check-in, blowing past the backup at the border.

This privilege comes courtesy of Nexus, a popular "trusted traveler" program run by Canadian and U.S. immigration agencies to expedite crossings for residents on both sides of the northern border who've been prescreened and deemed low-risk.

But for some of these travelers — Canadians and Americans alike — it appears the trust is gone.

Waves of inaugural Nexus users seeking to renew their cards have found their status unexpectedly changed. Many are coming face to face with the program's zero-tolerance policy, in which long-forgotten infractions or even the actions of relatives and friends can exact a toll.

Take the Canadian who owns a home in Birch Bay, Whatcom County, but lost her Nexus privilege because her husband had been busted for marijuana in the 1980s — 10 years before the two knew one another.

Or the Blaine couple whose adult son from Canada had been on his way to visit them when border authorities found marijuana in his car. The couple's Nexus membership was rejected when they tried to renew it.

And then there's the 16-year-old son of a University of British Columbia professor denied renewal because, when asked if he had ever been arrested by police, the boy mentioned the time an officer simply asked him and his friends what they were doing.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004437253_nexus25m.html

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. So, who is doing the rejecting? the U.S. side or Canadian side? n/t

[Zorra]

4. Doh. Responded to the wrong post. See post #3.

:blush:

[Bragi]

6. In those examples, it was US Customs /nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. I have Nexus

I love it - but I am paranoid that it is one bullshit terra alert from being withdrawn for everybody.

[Zorra]

3. Generally, US Customs does not check people crossing into Canada or

Mexico from what I've seen, and I've crossed both borders quite a few times.

[DLnyc]

5. Seems like it wasn't that long ago when a driver's license was all you needed

to go back and forth between USA and Canada. Thanks a lot, Neocon assholes.