NYT: Detention of British Travelers Brings New Policy (cuffed, detained)

[DeepModem Mom]

Detention of British Travelers Brings New Policy
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

Published: August 16, 2004


WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 - One by one, the British travelers recounted their dizzying experiences upon arriving at American airports: One man was detained and denied the opportunity to call his wife and lawyer. One woman was handcuffed and another was placed in ankle cuffs that she complained were too tight.

United States officials said the travelers were not terrorists or criminals, but ordinary visitors who were handcuffed and detained this year for "minor, technical" violations of immigration law. In recent months, such stories have been splashed on television shows and in newspapers in Britain, giving what Commissioner Robert C. Bonner of the Department of Homeland Security described as "a black eye" to the United States' reputation.

On Thursday, Mr. Bonner announced that the department was changing its policy: Travelers from Britain and other countries that do not require visas to visit the United States will no longer be searched, handcuffed and detained if they overstayed their visas by a few days during a previous trip to this country.

"The consequences were grossly disproportionate to the minor, technical violations," said Mr. Bonner, who heads the department's customs and border protection bureau. "Typically these individuals were handcuffed during the time they were transported to and from detention. In other words, they were treated as criminals....

***

The decision affects travelers from 27 industrialized nations, including Britain, Germany and Japan, who are allowed to visit the United States for 90 days without a visa. Under previous rules, visitors from those countries who stayed longer than the 90 days were detained, often overnight, when they tried to return to the United States; then they were put on the first plane back home....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/politics/16visa.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. Too little too late...damage done...dramatic slowdown in tourism

leading to more loss of revenue and higher deficits. These guys really know how to selfdestruct....

Arrogance is a learned thing and it starts from the top....

[Mokito]

2. So *, do you now see why pronunciation is of such importance.

Terrorists - Tourists...NOT much of a difference when badly pronounced. Could create a whole lotta trouble, Georgie!

[non sociopath skin]

3. This doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Last Easter we travelled to Miami to visit my mom-in-law. My wife, a US citizen, got through immigration in 5 minutes. I was there two hours. Non-Americans were herded like cattle, "spoken" to like convicts and their comfort and convenience totally ignored (the lady in front of me was told that the fact that she was going to miss the plane for a flight to Canada was "not of interest")

As no-one in immigration is allowed to use a mobile phone, my wife would have spent the whole time worrying, had a helpful lady from a Caribbean airline not noticed her distress and communicated between us during my stay at Dubya's pleasure. Incidentally, one of the snafus was the new surveillance technology which the goons at Homeland Security obviously had no idea how to operate. I watched one lady have her mugshot taken four times before the Ernie Bilko loookalike finally got the hang of which button to press.

When I finally reached the desk of the officer for my line and he had returned from his third soda-pop break that hour, he turned out to be a hispanic gentleman whose own command of English turned out to be faltering to say the least. He had obviously been brought up on Dick Tracy en espanol, however, and spent the five minutes of the interview conducting what he took to be a 30s-style third degree interrogation consisting largely of asking me whether I'd ever visited a range of destinations. The declaration that I'd never visited Omaha, Nebraska, finally seemed to convince him that I was not a risk to American security.

When we returned, we were subjected to "special passenger" treatment consisting largely of a full body search and the destruction of several items in our baggage. Interesting that my wife retains her maiden name for professional purposes and that her name, although jewish, sounds arabic ....

During these ordeals we spoke to a lot of European visitors who unanimously were declaring that this would be their last visit to the States. And many people I know here who vacationed in the US every
year are changing their habits.

Bad news, and something that President Kerry needs to address pretty urgently ...

The Skin

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I'm in the UK at present, and these horror stories...

as you say, are widely known here. I saw a couple interviewed recently on a morning "chat" show; they said the husband was handcuffed and taken away on arrival, and the wife told nothing and given no help in finding a place to wait, or find out anything about where her husband was, or what had happened to him. The man was, of course, an ordinary tourist, no threat whatsoever --

[leftchick]

5. That is an eye opening story Skin....

I had no idea things had gotten so bad over these last 3 years for forgeign visitors. This mis-administration has got to go!

[teryang]

6. Police and apparatchiki

...don't know a thing about commerce or goodwill. They're out of control, nationwide.