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Congress Considers Forcing Travel Registration

Posted by Zonk on from the looking-forward-to-travel-visas-for-interstate-trade dept.

macduffman writes "Congress and the Department of Homeland Security are considering several new visa restrictions, including forcing some foreign travelers to register their travel plans online 48 hours in advance. Business advocacy groups are worried about both foreign relations and the economic impact of such legislation, while privacy concerns see this as another possible 'in' for identity thieves. From the article: 'Along with online registration, the updated program would require new and existing member countries to improve data-sharing; more rigorously report lost and stolen passports (not just blank passports); and guarantee they will repatriate nationals if those people are ordered out of the United States. "It's really a 21st-century model," said James Carafano, a Heritage Foundation analyst who specializes in homeland security. "It'll all be done electronically and biometrically. And it really doesn't compromise your privacy."'"

2 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Umm, RTFA? by grcumb · · Score: 5, Informative

    It mentions foreign travelers inbound to the US, not US citizens outbound elsewhere. US Citizens travelling abroad (or internally, or etc) are obviously not affected by this. Also, it's not as if we'd be the first to implement such a plan in either case.

    Oh! Foreigners! Well, that's all right, then!

    I guess we won't be needing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then. Silly thing says all humans are created equal. And Article 13, the part about freedom of movement, is clearly a quaint antique, a relic of a bygone era when Americans actually cared about others.

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  2. Re:Umm, RTFA? by germanbirdman · · Score: 5, Informative

    And if you are going to say how safe the country has been with the new stasi...
    I will be blunt here, for I feel very strongly on this point. There is no secret police in America. The closest that we have come is with a bunch of telcoms either too chicken or too stupid to not comply with the FBI/CIA's illegal requests. However, there is no secret police in the United States.


    Stasi != Gestapo.

    Stasi; short for Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit; translated: Department of State/Homeland Security. Existed in the former communist East Germany and encouraged spying on all the individuals by individuals.
    Gestapo = acronymn for 'GEheime STAats POlizei' - Secret State Police. This was under the Third Reich.