Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
View Post
Because you can potentially find yourself stuck at an airport in the U.S., being told, "No, we're not letting you into the country", and figuring out how to get back home and avoid possible detention pending removal proceedings.
I don't understand how this is possible if there is no criminal record. Why would someone be refused entry if there is no criminal history??

We've ordered his APCO and if it comes back clear, we will do VWP.

We are unclear whether his interactions with police were actually arrests that resulted in official police cautions or whether they were just "questioning" that resulted in some king of unofficial warning. He went voluntarily both times, was not booked in and was not given any kind of paperwork when he left. I asked him if they actually told him he was under arrest, if the took his photo and/or took his finger prints. The answers were no.

To me, that means he was NOT arrested, and not given any kind of official caution, it means he voluntarily went for questioning. It doesn't make it any more of an arrest just because he might have feared the police or "felt" that it was not his choice that he go with them. It also doesn't turn a verbal warning/reprimand into a police caution.

Some laypeople, who have never had interactions with the police so have no reason to understand the intricacies in the differences between arrest and voluntary questioning, may not understand that they don't have to go with the police when "asked" and also may not understand that they didn't actually "get in trouble" just because police asked them some questions and gave them some kind of verbal warning/reprimand.

Ultimately, not everyone is completely schooled on these differences, and will perceive any kind of interaction with the police where they are "asked" to come to the police station and answer some questions as an arrest. On top of that, when police use ambiguous language when dealing with parties brought in for questioning (ie: "Now you be careful" "watch yourself" or "we're gonna let you go with a warning") then you run into people wondering exactly what the heck just happened and whether, "letting you go with a warning" means you were just arrested and cautioned, or were just questioned and let go. Especially absent any official "booking" procedures like fingerprinting, photos, etc.