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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."'"

10 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. "It's really a 21st-centry model." by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "It's really a 21st-century model," said James Carafano, a Heritage Foundation analyst who specializes in homeland security.
    It's really a 21st-century police state.
    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:"It's really a 21st-centry model." by Original+Replica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But it's only being applied to foreigners, so it will be ok with enough short sighted fools to get pushed through before there is any real thought or debate on the issue. Then it will be extended to include Americains who are considered "threats". Then the definition of who consistutes a "threat" will be expanded. Then it will include everyone, but likely be automated, via the purchase of your plane tickets being automatically entered into a Homeland Security tracking database.

      I wish this all sounded more paranoid than probable.

      --
      We are all just people.
  2. Like Predicting the Sun Rising in the East by sehlat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sooner or later, this will be applied to ordinary citizens, as well.

    "I'm sorry, sir, but you didn't register your travel plans to go from Oakland to San Francisco."

    "But my wife's having a baby and that's the nearest hospital!"

    "Then where is the BABY's travel registration."

  3. Newspeak and Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    > 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."'

    Spectacular. In the 20th century, of course, that sort of thing was the opposite of "not compromising your privacy", and the sort of thing we used to think of as the domain of the Soviet Union.

    But in Newspeak, we have the advantages of doublethink and duckspeak, and it no longer feels as weird. Thus: "20thinkers unbellyfeel Amsoc. 21thinkers bellyfell Amsoc! Carafano doubleplusgood HomeSec doublethinking duckspeaker!"

    Speaking of the Soviet Union, from TFA:

    > Applicant countries say U.S. officials are living in the past if they are worried about a flood of East Europeans entering - and not leaving.
    >
    > "Many people in the U.S. seem to believe it is a natural instinct of every Pole, Hungarian or Slovak to want to stay in the U.S.," Reiter said. "This is totally wrong today."

    No Newspeak translation available:
    "In Soviet Russia, people fleeing from tyranny wanted to stay in America!"

  4. Tourism revenues by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are figures that your economy is losing out in the magnitude of tens of billion dollars due to decreased tourism to the USA because of stupid procedures. I know that I'm not willing to go to the USA as long as I'm treated as a criminal and I'm not alone with that sentiment.

    These new plans are just bound to make it worse.

    --
    It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
    Be yourself no matter what they say
  5. Re:Umm, RTFA? by chris_mahan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah, I forgot, the sub-human foreign travelers. Nice. My Japanese citizen wife and mother of my son will really appreciate your point.

    from TFA: Paragraph 2:

    The requirement, proposed by the Homeland Security Department...

    Pass the tomatoes.

    --

    "Piter, too, is dead."

  6. As a european.... by sjwest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Visiting the usa again got less desire-able. No i don't think i will be doing that conference in the US this year again.

    While i respect the feeling that getting blown up by saudi arabian (bin g. w. bush relative) is a valid fud for the american public i don't like the aspect that all 'aliens' go to America to cause trouble.

    I'm not of middle eastern origin etc but I'd still rather not visit. A thing in a national newspaper in england recently from a Journalist said that even stopping in america to jump on another plane (two hour stop-over) at Miami was the pits.

    Republicans seeking tax cuts might like to know that the tourist promotions e.g. 'visit usa' might be got rid of on the basis that america it seems does not really like the concept of 'short term visitors*'

    * a month or less.

  7. 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.
  8. This nonsense is costing us jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    People don't want to travel to the US of A anymore because they're more afraid of the customs goons than the terrorists.

    Scientists don't want to come to conferences. Families don't want to go to Disney World.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&objectid=10436518

    In a recent poll of international travellers, commissioned by Discover America Partnership, a coalition of US tourist organisations, 70 per cent of respondents said they feared US officials more than terrorists or criminals. Another 66 per cent worried they would be detained for some minor blunder, such as wrongly filling out an official form or being mistaken for a terrorist, while 55 per cent say officials are "rude."


    Are we safer? There's no data to prove it. Are innocent people suffering? Yes. Even Senator Kennedy got on the no-fly list.

    It's stupid. It's costing us jobs. It's costing us the liberty our fathers died to preserve.
  9. 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.