Border Security: America's Front Line

Never in my life have I seen a non violent, passive aggressive, and misrule that the officers display. The job is to prevent drugs/weapons/agricultural threats,etc. NOT get to decide if someone's personal life is up to the standards that they set forth. But then again, maybe it's justified? Is it ok to do wrong things to obtain a good thing?

You see the episode 4 times by the time the show is over. I'd rather see more commercials.

I like the idea behind the whole show but just play it once, do not recap it over and over and over again.

This show is pique reality TV: there's only maybe 7-8 minutes of content per episode, but they keep cutting away and recapping content over and over, filling out a 21 minute program.

Compared to the Canada and Australia versions of this program, the American customs and immigration staff seem a good deal less competent and more aggressive. They make accusations against people and ask them to prove a negative. They're generally ruder. They ask for documentation for trivial items. They damage people's items very frequently, items proven harmless, and don't compensate people for the loss. They will prohibit entry for behavior of a person's non-present family members. They use language suggesting America is uniquely "in danger", expressing that American hyper-paranoia and self-aggrandizement.

Also, any drug testing on items in close contact with cash should be considered invalid - all cash will test positive for drugs due to contamination. They use this to go on fishing expeditions that usually turn up nothing. A lot of bad faith behavior.

It's a very interesting show to watch; however, I can't help but feel that the officers being portrayed in the show have a level of cockiness towards turning away non-violent offenders. It seems as if they get a morale boost by denying access to people such as a woman from China trying to determine if she wants to actually marry her boyfriend or someone that is bringing food like pork to the US. I get these things need to be checked and follow the rules but the officers seem to masquerade that these people are vile criminals when they just want food they enjoy or to find love.

They play and replay the scenes to amp it up and create tension within each episode so it creates about 50% filler material. They bounce back and forth between each of the border locations, so you only see a few moments of each before it rips you away to the next one again. All that being said, I somewhat enjoy the episodes and fast forward through the filler material. Also a really annoying narrator who's continually making puns. But it's cool to see how professional the customs agents generally are.