Saturday, September 26, 2009

Travelers Not Welcome

I love the United States of America. And I like being from the USA. But there are times that I’m embarrassed to be from the US. At Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, I had one of those experiences.

For many years, citizens of major Western European countries haven’t needed a visa to travel to the USA (and we don’t need a visa to travel there). But the geniuses at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have come up with the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The other name for the ESTA is “Visitors Not Welcome in the USA.”

As someone who lived through the terrorist attacks in New York, I believe in strong immigration policy, but this is insane. Instead of targeting groups that are known to be terrorists for additional security screening, we are targeting all good and decent tourists and making it a huge hassle for them to visit the U.S. and spend their money.

Signs like this one might as well read: “Visitors Not Welcome in the USA.”



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