if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
Bullying Them Furriners
by Hal_10000
Sully again on America the Unfriendly:
So I’m returning here, my native land, on a sleep-deprived overnight flight from Europe and, without realizing it, step over the line on the floor before the Immigration booth. The officer barks at me like an angry pitbull, I look up and find myself confronted with a glare so intense that one would assume a drawn gun would be the next step in the process.
He also links to stories about a New Zealander in jail for six weeks because he overstayed his visa and another woman hauled off in shackles because she made a mistake on he paperwork.
I actually think that Sullivan is painting with a too broad brush here. My wife is an immigrant from Australia and we’ve had our experiences with INS and DHS, including having to stand in the foreigners line after our honeymoon even though I was an American. The sum total of our experience would be:
1) The DHS regulations are making it extremely difficult for good people to come to this country. To get her last visa, she had to travel to Sydney for a personal interview. To get her green card, we had to fork out tons of money, get a raft of medical exams and vaccinations and jump through more hoops than you can imagine. Oh, and she’s been fingerprinted too. I’ve never understood the purpose of this other than humiliation. We don’t have the fingerprints of Al-Quaeda on file.
Just for the record, she’s one of these tends of thousands of research scientists that are trying desperately to work in this country.
2) The people who work for DHS immigration are, generally speaking, surprisingly friendly and helpful. They are overworked and beset with mind-boggling amount of red tape—Bush mandated personal interviews for work visas without giving them the extra resources to handle it. Most of them are doing their best in a difficult job. When we got my wife’s green card, the doctor had not dotted an i on the form. The immigration agent stayed late to get her file finished. (This tells you something about how the DHS works: if we hadn’t gotten every i dotted that one day, it might have been months before it was reconsidered. They have a complex process so that they review a random set of files each day).
3) The system, however, leaves a lot of potential for abuse, just like any system of law enforcement. While most of the people in the DHS immigration and customs are good people, some of them get off on wielding arbitrary power and pointlessly inconveniencing people. And as government employees, there is no way to get rid of them. Immigrants, to my knowledge, have no options for complaining. It is a testament to American character that in a situation in which your travel, your livelihood and sometimes even your family are at their mercy, so few abuse their power.
Anyway, with DHS you have the perfect encapsulation of government and especially Bush government. Mostly decent people burdened with an impossible task, insufficient resources and no accountability. Are we surprised that we’re losing $100 billion a year in tourism trade? And has this made our country any safer? We need to move past this idea of just “doing something” about security and actually think about what options give us the most security for the least hassle.
Comments
yet leave the border wide open so that millions have come across.
Shh! We don’t want the bad guys to know about that.
It’s all about barn doors and horses having already fled. Ride the train recently? Or a cruise ship? Or fly a private/charter plane (e.g. a corporate jet)? WIDE open holes in the system. But because one numbnut on a plane 6 years ago tried to set his shoes on fire, everyone flying on any commercial airplane has to take their shoes off. Etc.
The amount of inconvenience we put up with for what’s not even an illusion of security is astonishing. Back when I was traveling a lot on business, I actually WANTED the registered traveler program to get established just to shortcut this nonsense.
There’s such a total guilty-until-proven-innocent mentality to DHS/TSA. I really don’t understand why people tolerate it. Even if it did make us safer (which I don’t believe it does; I think it simply shifts the threats), I am unconvinced that it’s worth it. To some extent, we are letting the bad guys win by letting them change the way we lead our lives.
That said, the vast majority of TSA people I’ve interacted with are reasonably efficient (within the scope of the tools they have available), and reasonably courteous, if you don’t get all up in their faces. Right around 9/11, I was traveling every other week to the west coast for work (in fact, a couple of my coworkers got stuck in Mountain View for several days across 9/11). I had long hair, a full beard, traveled alone. Until early 2002, I was routinely taken out of line at security or at the gate for “random” inspection (fortunately, never of the “clothing optional” kind). Even at that high-stress time, with newly-hired TSA people, they were as courteous to you as you were to them (even when you looked like a terrorist, as I apparently did).
I have had my fair share of experiences with border control, sometimes difficult ones - but explainable as i was coming in for long periods of time and regularly so it probalby looked like i was working illegaly but wastn’t. Having to go through secondary screening once wastn’t much fun and the woman was a complete bitch but still it didn’t take that long so can’t really complain.
I think generally I have been lucky because none of my experiences have been that bad; but I know this istn’t the case for a lot of people. I know a lot of friends now won’t bother going to the US if there is an easier alternative (so for example floria summer trips or ski trips to colorado) and will really only go for something that’s unique, like say New York. Given how weak the dollar is and how cheap it is for us to come and visit; it’s a big shame how much money you are lossing. One of the advantages of your currency being devalued is meant to be an increase in tourism ...
for people who come to visit the USA from a visa-waiver country, there is actually no way to appeal the decision of the CBP official on whether you can stay or not. So if you answer a question in a way he/she doesn’t like or just somehow piss him/her off, or even if the guy just feels like being a jerk, you may be deniend entry and may even be detained.
And the questions on the I-94 forms you have to fill in on the plane are nothing less than insulting. I was tempted to check ‘yes’ on the ‘have you ever been involved in espionage/terrorist activities’ question just to see what would happen. Probably a free ticket to southeast cuba…
If Sullivan wants to see real “unwelcomeness” (is that a word?) he should travel to the Arab world, where his kind, uh, aren’t exactly welcome. (Or don’t exist, if you believe that smeely Iranian bastard)
I meant “smelly,” not “smeely” (long day at work).
If Sullivan wants to see real “unwelcomeness” (is that a word?) he should travel to the Arab world, where his kind, uh, aren’t exactly welcome.
Granted. But we’re supposed to be moving away from the, not toward them.
The amount of inconvenience we put up with for what’s not even an illusion of security is astonishing.
I noticed that at JFK three or four years ago. After standing in a queue for about an hour and being admitted (the staff were courteous throughout) I went into the shop to buy a drink, went out through the wrong exit, and found myself airside again. So I just went back the way I came, and no-one batted an eye.
It’s like how we were talking yesterday about the need for education on the subject of what a real threat looks like. I had to certify that I had never been in the employ of Nazi Germany or its allies, but no-one thought to bolt the door that leads to the planes.
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It just astounds me that we can make the system seem torturous for some… yet leave the border wide open so that millions have come across.