Legit gripes only, please
Regarding Letters, March 6: First, kudos to [ letter writer] Joe McGrath for his comments on “Global Entry Denial Brings Up Old Charge” [ by Catharine Hamm, Feb. 28]. He has it entirely correct. The applicant did not apologize for his crimes or for lying about them. Frankly, the government should not have granted redress.
Re: “Family Seating,” the letter writer talks about booking and making a “family reservation.” When I book airline tickets, I first select my travel dates, then my choice of f lights, then proceed to seat selection. I pick the seats I want. If there are not enough seats together for my party, I change f lights, airlines or dates until I can find what I want.
No airline has ever not seated my group together, mainly because I always pick my seats myself.
Are there any Travel Letters readers who are not terminal whiners? GEORGE CARNEY San Gabriel
:: I also was denied Global Entry approval after forgetting an arrest 40 years earlier when I was 17. The interviewing agent repeated the question three times before I remembered an arrest resulting in a dismissal and the records being sealed under a youthful offender program in New York.
It took two months to track down and obtain a copy of the disposition of the arrest, which had been contracted to an archival service in Illinois.
Attempts to appeal were denied. I can only assume that a charge of trespassing and possession of a hash pipe ( a. k. a. “narcotic instrument”) makes me a national security risk as a parent, homeowner and law- abiding citizen 40 years later.
As a footnote, even without Global Entry, U. S. Customs and Border Protection continues to confuse me with someone on a watchlist. Application of a special “redress” number intended to differentiate me from my doppelgänger has proved ineffective, as I’ve been relegated to secondary screening ( a room filled with anxious and uncertain immigrants) four times in the last five years.
It annoys and angers me that I am more welcomed as a visitor elsewhere in the world than as a U. S. citizen returning home to my own country. KEITH THOMPSON
Foothill Ranch