DHS readies plan to track foreigners flying from U.S. - washingtonpost.com

DHS readies plan to track foreigners flying from U.S. - washingtonpost.com

by Spencer S. Hsu

The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing a proposal to collect fingerprints or eye scans from all foreign travelers at U.S. airports as they leave the country, officials said, a costly screening program that airlines have opposed.
The plan, which would take effect within two years, would collect fingerprints at airport security checkpoints, departure gates or terminal kiosks, allowing the government to track when roughly 35 million foreign visitors a year leave the country and who might be overstaying their visas, DHS officials said. The department plans to send the proposal to the White House as soon as next month for review and inclusion in President Obama's next budget.


Well, security is important - I'll grant that. But if I was a potential tourist looking to visit the USA I might start looking for somewhere else to spend my vacation money. Somewhere that doesn't treat guests like criminals.

Fence in the South - Gates in the North

Towns at Vermont-Quebec Border Installing Security Gates


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 3, 2009

DERBY LINE, Vt. (AP) —

For decades, Derby Line, Vt., and Stanstead, Quebec, have functioned as one community.
They share a sewer system, emergency services, snowplowing duties and the border-straddling Haskell Free Library and Opera House, where a skinny black line across the hardwood floor of the reading room marks the international border.

But work began on Thursday to erect a pair of five-foot-tall steel gates across two previously unguarded residential streets — a project that will divide the towns physically but has united them in displeasure.

for more read at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/us/04border.html

Did U.S. immigration policy cost Chicago the 2016 Olympics?

Greg Siskind makes an excellent point on his immigration blog today: 

"Perhaps the Pakistani IOC official who grilled President Obama on why Olympic officials should not trust the President's promise of a friendly welcome actually did this country a favor. Most Americans are not even aware of just how unfriendly US immigration officials are to people who want to spend billions of dollars in our country and spread the word in their home countries regarding how wonderful a country the US is."

Well, there's nothing wrong with having the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 (I'm sure it will be memorable because Brazil has never held an Olympics before). Still, we don't want to become a country that others don't want to come to for fear of being hassled and insulted.