Canadian Boater Arrested in US

[michaelsd]

I just read on this forum that a Candian Boater was arrested near Sandusky Ohio this past summer. The fact of the matter is that this individual was and still is INADMISSIBLE to the US for a number of reasons to include his criminal record. He was told that he would need a criminal waiver for any future trips to the US. I know for a fact that this person was told approximatley 10 days prior to the incident not to return until he obtained the waiver, and disregarded that little bit of advice. Funny how that never made it into any of the news stories.

As for his drinking and boating, he could have gone to the local airport and bought a ticket to return to Canada. How did he get so drunk that he could not pilot his vessel back to where he came from in such a short period of time? Was he drinking and boating prior to his arrival? How long did he wait before he decided to check in with US Customs and Border Protection authorities? The law states that upon arrival all persons seeking admission to the US must report their arrival to the nearest immigration officer and also report their arrival to the nearest customs house, failure to do so is punishable by a civil pentalty of $5000 on the first offense and $10,000 on any subsequent offense, not to mention potential criminal penalties. Immigration law and customs law have no provisions regarding being too drunk to opearte a boat, car, airplane, etc. The maritime agreements or laws or provisions do not apply to this case. Sorry but that is fact. He is inadmissible to the US, he has to leave. End of story.

[Pblais]

I'm not sure what your point to the post is?

A drunk boater arrested last summer is sort of old news and if there was a discussion about it it may have been better to post it on the thread that started the discussion. The arrest of a drunk boater seems pretty clear cut to me.

If the issue is one of politics more than boating then it's considered off topic here even this off topic section is reserved for boating topics. The debate of immigration policy is left for other forums on other Internet sites. We don't try to do all things.

[michaelsd]

Sir

The original thread is closed. I read through the posts and and not one person had the complete story and facts surrounding this particular boater. It is not meant to discuss immigration policy or any other issue than to shed a little light on what happened in that particular instance.

[Pblais]

When a thread is closed it is meant to stop the discussion for any number of reasons.

[michaelsd]

Sorry about that. Just wanted to shed a little more light on that situation. I will post no more to this board on this topic or any others, as there seems to be a problem with this topic. After reading and rereading the posts in the original discussion, I felt that there was a need to clarify some of the facts regarding this incident. However since the post was closed I will drop the matter and no longer visit the forum.