I have a bone to pick with Uncle Sam.
Yesterday marked the end of my week-long vacation in London. Soon after my flight pulled into Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport, I proceeded towards the perfunctory customs and immigration check as a prelude to boarding the flight to my final destination. Here, I was greeted by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Department's pledge to travellers to the United States. It said:
- We pledge to cordially greet and welcome you to the United States.
- We pledge to treat you with courtesy, dignity, and respect.
- We pledge to explain the CBP process to you.
- We pledge to have a supervisor listen to your comments.
- We pledge to accept and respond to your comments in written, verbal, or electronic form.
- We pledge to provide reasonable assistance due to delay or disability.
The CBP did not adhere to any one of its commitments. No tourist in the serpentine queue leading to the CBP officers looked comfortable and at ease. There was palpable tension in the interactions between the officers and the visitors. Further, while collecting biometric information including fingerprints and digital photographs, no effort was made to assuage visitors' concerns. As one of the officers rudely brushed aside my concern about missing my connecting flight, a visitor from the UK, who stood directly behind me, remarked, "Fortress America treats us like common criminals, isn’t it? Actually, worse. For we're guilty until proven innocent."
I am not against the extant security practices, policies and procedures. However, my experience at Bush Intercontinental revealed to me a slip between the institutionalization of such policies and their execution, which can and is shifting focus from the isolation of terrorism to the isolation of America. According to the Commerce Department estimates, visitors from foreign nations accounted for about $93.5 billion in spending and economic activity in the United States in 2004. However, that is fast changing. Between 2000 and 2003, the United States' worldwide share of travelers from Britain declined by 15 percent, from Germany 18 percent, from Japan 15 percent and from Brazil 28 percent, according to data from the Travel Industry Association of America. A November poll by Seattle-based market research firm GMI Inc. of 8,000 consumers from eight industrialized nations revealed that 55 percent of respondents had an increasingly negative perception of that United States. Brad Foss, in this article, “U.S.: An Unfriendly Fortress?” states that the image problem aside, the U.S. tourism industry is already losing global market share as borders in many parts of the world have become easier and cheaper to cross, and as countries from Spain to Singapore outspend the United States in tourism marketing and advertising.
Article comments
1 - SFC Ski
Interesting article. I'd say that you raised some valid points except that most farmhands are probably not going through CBP; they are probably crossing illegally and that is a wholly different issue.(Beaten to death on this forum.) THe US does rely on a lot of educated professionals from other countries coming to work/research in the US, and they shouldn't be treated like a carload of illegals pulled over at 2AM.
On the other hand, foregners who know they will have to go through CBP should be aware that it's not as easy as it was 5 years ago and adjust travel plans accordingly.
2 - Deepa
Yes, I agree with the security checks and that tourists should adjust travel plans accordingly. My point is this - the visa accordance process itself is fairly strict - so the probability of a potential invader or terrorist getting a visa and being nabbed by the border protection force is fairly low. Every one of the 2000 odd tourists that day got through the check. Then why not just make the process more pleasant? You don't want to be in the queue for 2 hours and then be spoken to rudely by the officer. These are tourists and customers. I just thought that it was wrong that their pledge to treat visitors courteously, etc. should even be there. Oh well..
3 - RS
It is a question of perception management. Most of my friends in Europe would have loved to travel to United States for their summer jaunts but most changed plans and went elsewhere due to the perceived pain in the visa process and the unwelcoem feeling.Whose loss is it and what is Uncle Sam doing about it?
4 - alpha
I normally travel by Carnival Cruise lines from Miami to Cozumel since my heart doesn't allow commercial flights. It is slow, expensive and usually pleasant. Carnival itself and International Reservations, www.Rllopiz@carnival.com have been more that great through the last 9 voyages in 3 years. Security is tight and normally no problem with polite Carnival and immigration service people on both ends.
This time however my wife just left the hospital, was in a wheelchair with a partial amputation. Was she a great candidate for singling out for obnoxious treatment as a potential terrorist? Obviously.
The problem was a brownshirt crew of rentacops who wanted to show off their tiny bit of power or were racist against white women. A nasty woman insisted on feeling her painful leg and went crazy when it was not allowed. The standoff lasted over an hour while I called Carnival, ships' officers came and only when a normal, pleasant supervising brownshirt arrived was my wife allowed to stand with my help while the magnetic wand was passed over her bandaged leg. 5 minutes. How many terrorists could have easily passed by during the altercation, shouting and my wife's hysteria?
The problem was NOT Carnival and NOT even INS who were quick and professional. It was only a private company allowed these overdone games in an environment of paranoia and fear that has affected immigration, citizen travel, travel industries, and even us older,obviously non-threatening passengers on a cruise ship.
The problem seems to be the usual hysteria engendered in America that always goes far beyond what is needed to do things effectively. Europe has been controlling terrorism for decades without being holy terrors about it. Why is America so totally without courtesy, logic and efficiency?
Will some people actually take skills to other countries? Gee, I don't know. But I live in Mexico.
5 - Eric Berlin
I think you present both anecdotal evidence and statistics that present a stark warning for the United States. I've been reading up on Florida's work as well and am concerned that the United States, in its convulsive reactions and policies toward terrorism, may seriously alter its position as the leading light (let alone place to hang out, vacation, attend schools, and conduct business) in the world.
6 - John Bambenek
You know there is a difference between immigrants and ILLEGAL immigrants...
7 - Deepa
Yes, there is a difference. But the probability that an illegal immigrant has boarded a flight to the US and is waiting in queue to speak with the CBP officer is close to zero. It only adds to the perception of a paranoid country devoid of logic and courtesy.
8 - ummit sethi
I couldn't agree more with the contradiction between the CBP Pledges and the actual way in which we are treated as we pass through US airports. I've been in and out of NY several times this year and it's always the same - sheer rudeness. In fact, I'm not prone to plastering links about the internet, but here's something
I experienced first hand this week...
Having said that, I've just got a work visa so tend to rub against your statistics above. But I can certainly appreciate why the exodus is happening.