Consider this a companion piece to mahigan's post below.
"Why are you travelling so often to Canada?" the tough U.S. border guard barked. I was on Amtrak, going from New York to Montreal, as I'd done dozen of times before over several decades. This was my first experience (summer 2006) of the increasingly standard and intrusive "U.S. Exit Interviews" on trains crossing the border. I've been hassled on every train crossing since then, most recently January 2007. The U.S. now has a combined FBI-compiled file of all arrests and charges at all government levels for millions of Americans, and this is instantly viewable by police in many jurisdictions, including border officials of the U.S. and most other countries. In some cities, local police can access this file via one's license plate. The files do NOT show the favorable disposition of arrests that did not lead to charges or of dismissals and findings of innocence. "And what's this entry stamp from Canada, with no country of departure? Was that from Cuba? You know U.S. citizens may not travel to Cuba--you could be imprisoned and fined."This line of questioning has been part of every exit interview since.
The story contains estimates of the number of Americans who soon may not be able to leave their country at all because they can't get passports -- millions. There's also some info on the economic impacts.
Most media attention about new U.S. travel restrictions has focused on harm to tourism and other business--with considerable protest from border communities about across border trade, and from U.S., Canadian and Mexican travel agencies. A Canadian government website dedicated to international trade, Strategis.Ca, estimates that there has already been an 8% reduction of U.S. visitors to Canada and a 7% reduction of Canadian visitors to the U.S., but that this will rise to 14% or more by the end of 2007 for visitors in both directions. Gay tourism to meccas like Montreal and Vancouver is decidedly down--some say as much as 30%. This would reflect the greater likelihood that gay men and women, like non-whites and the poor, would fall afoul of U.S. laws more frequently due to discrimination.
It's not a pretty picture.
Hat-tip to Melanie by email. I'd wonder if I should publicize that but I suspect it's already too late.
Never too late for Melanie ... I hope ... (she said nervously).
That is a powerful portrait, isn't it. Mostly when I think about this issue, I think about the danger to Canadians travelling there, so it is interesting to be reminded of how much worse in so many cases security paranoia is going to make things for Americans themselves. All those harmless people barred from having a passport -- it's not rational. And the dangers of being charged with any security-related offence have become so great, so frightening.
It is going to take them a long time to roll back this culture of fear ... if ever someone starts to try that.
Never too late for Melanie
I meant that it's too late to prevent the powers that be from discovering that Melanie isn't altogether pleased with the direction in which things are going. And that she corresponds with us undesirables.
Exit visas are the classic sign of totalitarian states who believe they own their citizens. An important thing to highlight. Controlling who /leaves/ the country is none of the government's damn business - controlling who enters is.
Visiting or passing through Europe is a decidedly odd experience for these things. Every EU country seems to have exit control. I was surprised the first time I encountered it.
This is a continuation of a long standing practice. At one time in Imperial China, anyone who left the country without the Emperor's permission was executed if they tried to return. The reason? To prevent travellers from upsetting the harmony of the nation by bringing back disruptive foreign ideas. Let's face it. I mean who knows what dangerous subversive ideas Americans could get from a visit to Canada.
I saw this article, and it did shock me rather. I was wondering if I should post it up, but probably would not have gotten around to it, so I'm glad somebody did.
I think what's so shocking about it is that it's so everyday. You hear about the misdeeds of the Bush administration, and it's always stuff they've done to a few people, or at least have done outside the US. Sure, they've done widespread surveillance, but in the absence of a shift in the broader law enforcement culture that's just a few spooks somewhere. Spies always gather intelligence, but you rarely see them doing anything with it. They've passed lots of nasty unconstitutional "we can nab anyone we feel like" laws, but haven't yet used them on more than a couple of American citizens. It's like they've created the police state in theory, but I always had this feeling that somehow it would all blow over before they could really put it into practice, or there'd be resistance if they tried to do it for real, or something.
But this is the practice. This is the rubber finally starting to hit the road, and apparently nothing's stopping them. Spooky.
I'm heading to Florida in the middle of February to visit some family (my sister and her family are ex-pats living in Asia, and believe it or not, it's a convenient geographical middle ground). I got my replacement passport last week (finally!!!), and even though I'm not happy about giving my tourist $ to the Bush regime, I miss my sister so I'll go.
And then I realized last night - while watching NCIS, of course - that I'm going to be fingerprinted by US Customs. ME?! I've never been fingerprinted in my life! Apparently it's standard practice for them now.
I wonder if they get to fingerprint US citizens before they leave the country?
I am soooo not happy about this.
If you are travelling on a Canadian passport, you will not get fingerprinted, unless something changed in the last couple of weeks. Any other passport will get you fingerprinted.
Oh, and I did some research. Most convicted felons can get passports---but Canada may not let them in. The passport requirement is not absolute either, you just get selected for Special Screening if you don't have one and try to enter the US. The US can't keep citizens out, at least not yet.
However, if you're under *political* scrutiny, well...
But they don't seem to care so much if you have been convicted of an internal, conventional felony.