US Looses Canadians' Passports

From Yahoo Canada:
"U.S. customs admit passport mixup"

U.S. border officials admit they've made a mistake when two Winnipeg couples were given the wrong passports at a Canadian-U.S. border crossing. The passport mixup at the border crossing near Emerson, Man., was an isolated incident, Chris Misson, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told CBC News on Monday. On Nov. 15, 2010, Huguette and Gilles Remillard were crossing into the United States from Emerson, Man., on their way to Mesa, Ariz. After checking their van, an American border official handed them back two passports. "I said, 'Those are not mine,'" Huguette recalled. "And he said, 'Uh oh.'" Border officials had mistakenly given their passports to a couple in the car ahead of them, who had driven off unaware of the error. The Remillards said U.S. officials made no effort to get their passports back, but did allow the couple to continue on to Mesa without their passports. "If we have an accident and have to go into the hospital and fly back, how the heck are we going to do this?" Gilles wondered. After a week of calls to border officials, they were able to identify the couple with their passports: Winnipeggers Dennis Slack and Susan Heywood, who were on their way to Texas. The Remillards' son managed to track down Dennis Slack's son, also in Winnipeg. Slack's son told his father to check his passport. "I pulled them out and said, 'Ahhh, what the hell are these?'" said Dennis. Both couples eventually got their own passports back, but they said U.S officials should review their security at the border crossing. Misson said there has always been a policy to verify the identity of a passport holder, but one border officer made a mistake that day. Officials have reviewed the policy with staff and are reminding officers to always open each passport to verify the owner's identity before handing the document back, he said.

^ This shows both the lack of caring and basic intelligence that those in the US Government charged with keeping our country safe have. Usually it is only the TSA in the news, but there are many other agencies - like the US Customs and Border - that are at fault too. The fact that the US officials did nothing but shrug their shoulders when made aware of their mistakes shows the complete stupidity and lack of checks and balances at the borders. If I were the people given the wrong passports I would have demanded a supervisor and filed an official report and if that didn't work I would have reported it to the US police and said the US border guards were the ones who gave the passports to different people. I would not have taken it lightly. Canadians tend to be the only citizens that stand-up for themselves when they travel to the US (other than Americans.) Other citizens tend to take the US Immigration officers' arrogance and stupidity - at least until they leave the US. I don't understand why we treat legal tourists and immigrants in the US as criminals and we treat the illegal tourists and immigrants as saints. We need to show the world that the US is still a great place to come visit and stay (legally) and that we will keep the "innocent until proven guilty" motto rather than the recent fad of "guilty until you prove yourself innocent." ^

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/passport-mixup-leaves-winnipeggers-fuming-130935056.html