Yep. It’s all relative, different countries, different rules. And many times, different local ‘interpretation’ of rules (real or imagined) depending on what particular time period it was or the personnel on duty. Before retiring I lived and worked internationally for many years (26 different countries), the only practical way to live/work was ‘when in Rome do as the Romans do’, whether or not it jibed with what I thought was reasonable, go with the flow. In most places, I found ‘papers please’ was generally non-intrusive – usually just when entering/leaving the country or maybe visiting an industrial site. In a few places (Russia, Kazakhstan in particular) it could get weird sometimes but not in every instance. Early ‘90s in Yeltsin Russia, getting from Sheremetyevo to our field location involved a lot of papers checks. Would arrive Sheremetyevo international side, have go to the domestic side for charter flight to regional airport (Talagi in Arkhangelsk), always had airport personnel escorting the group of us from international arrival side to domestic side departure. Even so, my personal record was 5 separate passport/visa checks running the ~1 mile gauntlet from Sheremetyevo international arrival to Sheremetyevo domestic departure side – some within 3 minutes and couple hundred yards of the previous check. And of course, a couple more checks after Arkhangelsk arrival. But on some trips it was only the one check on international arrival or departure. The protocols (and personnel) always changed. In 2000’s Putin Russia it was hard just getting into your office, whether in Moscow or podunk regional towns like Naryan-Mar; paramilitary security types required multiple ‘papers please’ checks to get into the building, your office, going to the toilet, etc. In Aktau Kazakhstan we were supposed to carry our passports/visas/work permits with us at all times but in practice usually carried just photocopies of same, when stopped on the street by the police (happened fairly frequently as visually we were obviously non-Kazahk’s) the copies would suffice, but god help you if you didn’t have at least a copy. A group of us were stopped going to lunch one day, one of my Amerikanski co-workers forgot to bring his copy, he briefly ended up in jail until our office manager managed to spring him. Late ‘80’s in Angola (tail end of the civil war) our compound was just to the north of Luanda, we had a VHF repeater on the top of the Banco de Angola building on the Marginal, of course it had the habit of frequently going down (seemed always to happen between midnight and 5 am). There was an armed checkpoint on the road between us and Luanda, all we (me and our telecoms guy) needed to pass was a laminated Livro Transito card issued by the government (and usually some packs of Marlboros or a 6-pack of Heineken as an unofficial checkpoint ‘fee’), never asked for my passport/visa/work permit/alien registration certificate/etc during most of my road travels in the country (airport travel was obviously different). In the Congo (ROC, not the DRC) in the Denis Sassou Nguesso Marxist-Leninist ‘80’s they took ‘papers please’ to a new level for me, upon arrival in Pointe Noire, before even getting off the plane, had to show my yellow W.H.O. International Certificates of Vaccination card proving I had all the ‘correct’ shots – and in case I didn’t, a guy with one of those old-fashioned cigarette trays with neck-strap had an assortment of syringes ready to give me shots on the spot if I was lacking the correct protection. My yellow card was in order but I’d made up my mind that if it was judged not to be, no way was I going to get off that plane.
I have that same privilege, only it's being an actual legal American. I also have first gen non white immigrants from two different continents. LEGAL immigrants, and they passionately disagree with my long standing wish that all immigration quotas should be abolished and that all comers should be given ax expedited process to a Form I-485/551 (application and so-called Green Card.) To my certain knowledge no-one in my 3-state clan has been approached by a Federal Agent, even though only one has been naturalized and is now a for-real, fully legal US citizen. I suppose it's like the real-estate biz..... Location. Location. Location...... I can't explain what's going on up in Minneapolis. Well....actually I CAN - but only because in the military I was exposed to and warned against the now-famous 'no-go' zones - and I know how paid agitation works. I also know what happens when people conflate citizenship with residency and when vast amounts of data are combined with a paucity of facts. It's sort of like.....IDs and voting. I've been working the polls for years now and I know what I know.
That brown Minnesota woman, standing on the sidewalk with Border Patrol agents demanding her ID and threatening to force her into their vehicle until she was IDed, is also an actual legal American. According to a press conference held by local police chiefs, these many ID-stop complaints were coming not only from regular local citizens, but even from their own off-duty officers. The common thread: these legal Americans were all 'people of color'. Does your 3-state clan include any Blue states? Pan Bondi's ransom letter to Minnesota, including demands wholly unrelated to immigration, helped explain it. These 'enhanced enforcement' surge operations are very deliberately targeted to select Blue states that have refused to bend their knees to Dear Leader.
