America's war on tourist

[Alex+R 0]

And your point is? Brazilians are not coming to the US as tourists now?

Uh, no. He said "let me make sure I understood correctly" in reference to a bunch of posts made by Rey and me, so I cleared up one thing and said otherwise yes, that's what we were saying,

[Otto 83]

Uh, no. He said "let me make sure I understood correctly" in reference to a bunch of posts made by Rey and me, so I cleared up one thing and said otherwise yes, that's what we were saying,

Just checking...

(I read all the other posts...just didn't quote them all for size reasons..)

[natty bumppo 297]

Nope, the day after the American gov't said that foreign nationals had to be fingerprinted at the POE to get into the US, the Brazilian gov't passed a bill that required all Americans to be fingerprinted at the POE in Brazil.

And they didn't have the electronic fingerprint thingy for the first 3 months. It seems that the delivery of those machines was delayed due some "bureaucracy"...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1231-02.htm

From this 2003 article:

A Brazilian judge has announced that US citizens will be fingerprinted and photographed on entering the country. Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva was reacting to US plans to do the same to Brazilians entering the United States.

He made the order after a Brazilian government office filed a complaint in a federal court over the new US immigration measures.

From 5 January, travelers from all countries which need a visa to enter the US will undergo the same checks.

Let me make sure I understand correctly ... the brazilian gov't made this rule in response to the US declaration .... without seeing how it would be implemented. Then conducted this process for a short period of time to all people visiting brazil who were required to have a visa for entrance to the USrequired to have a visa to enter Brazil resulting in:

brazil spent the R$ to implement for a short period of time and does not perform this service at this time and has not for some period of time.

And, the US has implemented this process and continues to use this process as a means of recording aliens entering this country

Not sure why the strike through in the text above as the new meaning does not agree with the article.

Does this mean that brazil was trying to gather world pressure for forcing the US to alter it's entrance policy?

Note: during this time period, TSA was also making life very difficult for all US passengers as well. Long lines, searches, etc. The gov't implemented lots of new regulations for air travel and entry into the US without providing the needed infrastructure and support services. These changes in policies were not always welcome and people would also take their frustration out on overworked TSA / immigration people. I'm not defending a rude persons attitude as there is no reason to be rude on either side of the counter (visitor or agent).

*******

####### for Tat: Brazil to Fingerprint US Citizens

A Brazilian judge has announced that US citizens will be fingerprinted and photographed on entering the country.

Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva was reacting to US plans to do the same to Brazilians entering the United States.

He made the order after a Brazilian government office filed a complaint in a federal court over the new US immigration measures.

From 5 January, travelers from all countries which need a visa to enter the US will undergo the same checks.

"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva said in the court order.

The new security measures will come into effect on 1 January unless Mr Da Silva's ruling is challenged by the justice system.

Anti-terrorism

Washington's new rules are part of increased anti-terrorism measures.

They aim to identify people who have violated immigration controls, have a criminal record or belong to groups that WAshington has on its list of "terrorist" organizations.

An official from the US Department of Homeland Security said at least two of the 19 hijackers in the 11 September 2001 attacks could have been stopped if this security system had been in place.

It will not apply to citizens of 27 nations who do not require a visa to enter the US.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1231-02.htm

[Caladan 19]

I don't think fingerprinting is a bad idea, generally. It will check if someone switches IDs and enters on someone else's passport.

But I think the idea that it will prevent lots of terrorism is pretty far-fetched, if only because al-Qaeda was certainly smart enough last time around to use very "clean" young men. No criminal records, no criminal ties. Probably first illegal thing they ever did was hijack an aircraft. So there wouldn't be a database to compare to.

My prints aren't in the FBI database, as far as I know. Never been fingerprinted.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

My prints aren't in the FBI database, as far as I know. Never been fingerprinted.

You just don't know...

As I always say: Just because I'm paranoid does not mean they're not out to get me.

[homesick_american 1]

I wonder which part of America they are talking about..

A few of my friends who visited not too long ago where saying how they could not stand LA, as people are generally rude there. Ironically they found people in the south to be quite friendly.

Not sure what you mean by "ironically." The stereotype about the South is that it is the most friendly place in the whole country. Hence "Southern hospitality." So far I have actually found that to be true in my experiences.

Yeah, me either. The friendliest people I've ever encountered have been in North Carolina and my home state of Texas. Boston takes the cake and LA is a close second for rudest city I've ever visited, and that list includes London and Paris...cities with reputations for being rude.

[homesick_american 1]

Fingerprinting doesn't strike me as the smartest use of our tax dollars.

But didn't they bring it in to coincide with the issuing of biometric passports in the USA and Europe? In some countries the biometric passports have been delayed.

I thought Brazil's approach was rather childish; they were PO'd about people having to have a single finger printed in the USA, so now they print only the Americans. Real mature.

[homesick_american 1]

I doubt that the U.S. is half as unfriendly to tourists as France is. I'm surprized at these poll results.

Have you been to France? I have, several times...I never found French officials to be any more or less rude than officials anywhere else. They're a lot like the US officials in that they're very businesslike and they don't make a lot of small talk, but I would not say that's unfriendly. It's just efficient.

[mawilson 2,133]

I don't think fingerprinting is a bad idea, generally. It will check if someone switches IDs and enters on someone else's passport.

It won't do that. If a person has several passports (legitimately or not is another question),

the system will think they are different people.

The system doesn't compare your fingerprints to everyone else's fingerprints -- that would

be insane, and would generate lots of false positives (fingerprints are not as unique as you think.)

[Emancipation 2]

Speaking from a personal perspective.. my friends/family won't visit the US right now because of the following:

1. Political Agenda/ Governmental Decisions

2. Fear of Harassment from the Officers at the Boarder

3. Strength of US currency

4. The "lure" of Europe

Strength of the US currency? Last I checked, the USD was to be had for a mere CAD 1.11. Just five years ago, you had to shell out CAD 1.55 for the USD. The USD has just reached a new historic low against the EUR. Soon enough it will be the USP (as in US Peso) if the trend continues. Canadians and Europeans can vacation quite on the cheap here these days.

Yep... I do realize that the trend most recently has been a stonger CDN dollar.. However.. Believe me, I worked in a CDN company for 5 years doing export to the US and for sure the US dollar did better than the CDN dollar over those 5 years. Also included in my logic is that the US is also competing along side countries like Dominican, Cuba etc. for CDN winter tourism dollars (Snowbirder's aside).

[Caladan 19]

I don't think fingerprinting is a bad idea, generally. It will check if someone switches IDs and enters on someone else's passport.

It won't do that. If a person has several passports (legitimately or not is another question),

the system will think they are different people.

The system doesn't compare your fingerprints to everyone else's fingerprints -- that would

be insane, and would generate lots of false positives (fingerprints are not as unique as you think.)

In that case, it's just a waste of money.