Free Republic

<p>CRAWFORD, Texas -- Mexican President Vicente Fox arrived at the "Western White House" last night to press his case for looser immigration laws to a leader largely powerless to enact them this year.</p> <p>President Bush continues to push his immigration reform plan that would allow at least 8 million illegal aliens currently working in the United States to keep their jobs and open the door for millions more to follow.</p>

A hi-tech visa is to be introduced for travel from Britain to the United States to combat terrorism. Tens of thousands of Britons planning to travel to the States from the autumn, for business or holiday, will have to be fingerprinted. An estimated 250,000 will need to apply for the so-called biometric visa. However, there are warnings from the US Embassy that it may not have enough staff to supply them and the tourist industry has warned of cancelled holidays. The biometric visas are being introduced because the US has ruled that anyone entering the country must have electronic ID,...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration backed off plans to require that millions of visa-carrying Mexicans who make short visits to America and stay close to the border be fingerprinted and photographed to get into the country.</p> <p>Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security department's undersecretary for border and transportation, was to publicly announce the policy change at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, a congressional official who was briefed on the plan told The Associated Press.</p>

"Our enemies are not idle, and neither are we," said Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James Loy today, echoing the words of President Bush. Although the president used those words to challenge terrorists, they might also describe the flurry of activity at the Department of Homeland Security, which has worked to achieve better security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy and introduced several new security initiatives. Loy, speaker at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Homeland Security Conference here, said DHS has made "great strides" over the past year and yielded a "pretty impressive" record of accomplishments....

<p>Brazil, weighing in with a population of 179 million and an area larger than the United States minus Alaska, is capable of standing up to America on the global playing field. It has been doing so recently on a number of issues.</p>

Poland angered at US failure to waive visas By Edward Alden in Washington and Jan Cienski in Warsaw Published: January 28 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: January 28 2004 4:00 Washington and Warsaw clashed yesterday over Polish demands that its citizens be granted visa-free travel to the US as a reward for its staunch support of the US war against Iraq. In a joint appearance with President George W. Bush following an Oval office meeting, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Poland's president, pressed Mr Bush to remove the visa requirements, saying repeatedly "that is the future, that is the future." But a visibly...

<p>WARSAW -- What was conceived as a feel-good meeting between Iraq-war allies has become much more serious because of new U.S. visa rules requiring visitors to be photographed and fingerprinted.</p> <p>Analysts say the United States will lose perhaps its best friend in Europe if Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski is unable to win relief from the policy when he meets President Bush at the White House today.</p>

<p>LONDON - Not so long ago, when the world seemed a safer place, Britons such as Julia and Paul Chattenton would hop on a plane to the United States with little concern beyond how awful the meal would be and whether the flight would be delayed.</p>

Poke around the Polish bakeries, liquor stores and beauty shops of Milwaukee Avenue all you want. Chances are, you won't find a terrorist. You'll find a kid with an expired student visa who sleeps on his cousin's couch all day. She tells him to get a job or go home. You'll find a waitress who's afraid of getting caught for not reporting all of her tips on her 1040-EZ form. As if there's a waitress in town who does. But a terrorist? Not unless you mean the occasional building inspector. "I always dreamed about coming to this country," said Joseph...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - An American Airlines pilot was arrested at Sao Paulo International Airport on Wednesday after making an obscene gesture while being photographed by Brazilian (news - web sites) immigration officers, police said. The pilot, identified as Dale Robin Hirsch, raised his middle finger at police to protest new Brazilian security measures that require U.S. citizens to be fingerprinted and photographed upon entering the South American country. Brazil implemented the policy on Jan. 1 in retaliation for a similar U.S. program that requires those foreign visitors who need visas to have their fingerprints and pictures taken on...

LOS ANGELES -- Last Friday I was again reminded of how visiting the United States has begun to resemble entering a police-state. As I waited in line to check my bags at Heathrow Airport, a couple behind me joked about playing the "spot-the-sky-marshal" game. Like many others, I find the concept of plainclothes, gun-carrying officers aboard aircrafts more alarming than reassuring. And my anxiety is further compounded by the fact that, due to U.S. pressure, government ministers in Britain and other countries have rushed into plans for American-style sky marshals policing their airports and flights. The unilateralist U.S. administration is...

WARSAW (Reuters) - The mayor of Warsaw said on Tuesday he would cancel a visit to the United States in protest at the U.S. policy of fingerprinting visitors as part of new anti-terror measures. Lech Kaczynski, a former anti-communist activist who now leads a major right-wing party, was supposed to pay a visit in April to Chicago and New York, both home to large Polish communities. "I will go only when there will be no need for taking pictures and fingerprinting," Kaczynski told reporters. Poland had hoped that as a reward for its help in the war to topple Iraqi...

Mexico City - Mexicans are protesting the loss of sovereignty. Swedes and other Europeans are digging in their heels. And Brazil's government reportedly is set to strengthen retaliatory restrictions on U.S. travelers. The Bush administration's new counterterrorism measures for foreign airliners and tourists entering the United States are creating a furor in many places abroad. Some political analysts warn the directives, which mark the first time a country has sought to unilaterally impose security rules on other nations, could further tarnish Washington's image among allies already testy over the White House's insistence that they support the war on Iraq

WARSAW, Jan 9: Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski hit out on Friday at US visa requirements for Polish citizens, raising the tone on an issue blotting a blossoming relationship between the two allies in Iraq. Speaking in an interview on Polish radio two weeks before crossing the Atlantic for political consultations with US President George Bush, scheduled for Jan 26, Mr Kwasniewski said the visa requirements were "inexplicable" and "frustrating". "For Polish public opinion it is inexplicable why a partner, an ally, which takes part, shoulder to shoulder, in a very high risk mission in Iraq has visa problems and is...

US screening nets 30 criminals From correspondents in Paris January 10, 2004 AMERICA'S controversial foreign visitor screening program has nabbed 30 criminals in its first three days of operation, an official said yesterday. At the same time, European police pressed their hunt for a suspect who failed to turn up for an Air France flight to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. An Afghan national named only by French security officials as Abdulaye had been booked on the first of the cancelled flights from Paris, but he never checked in. French authorities confirmed the man was being sought but said it...

<p>A senior homeland security official yesterday defended tough new security measures affecting planes and people coming to the United States, in the face of concern that the measures might be an overreaction that will hurt the country's image.</p> <p>"Any time you have change there's a lot of questions that are asked," said Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security Department's undersecretary for border and transportation security. "We're working very hard to get the message out that these measures do not change the historic nature of America as a welcoming country."</p>

Last Monday, January 5, marked the beginning of the US VISIT program, which seeks to fingerprint and photograph foreigners from all but 28 countries on their way into the United States. Officials in the Department of Homeland Security maintains that the new program will increase the government's ability to identify more precisely who is entering and exiting the country, and that fingerprinting and photographing travelers will decrease the ability of terrorists and other criminals to use passports other than their own. Critics of the program claim that the information could be used for purposes beyond the scope of the program,...

In rolling out the new US-VISIT program to fingerprint and screen foreign travelers, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge boasted that it ''pulls the welcome mat from terrorists.'' But not all the way or all the time, as it turns out. A high-level memorandum from his department orders customs agents to stop fingerprinting as many travelers as needed to reduce ''delays and wait times'' caused by the the new program, which went into effect Monday at all 115 American airports that handle international flights. The fine print of the the new antiterror plan reveals a "wait time mitigation strategy'' that requires...

Israelis were among the thousands of international travelers fingerprinted and photographed at US airports this week in a new effort to halt terrorism. Like most foreign visitors who arrived this week at 115 airports and 14 cruise-ship ports participating in the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program, Israelis who landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday from Tel Aviv said the new process is an understandable response to terrorist threats. "If it's good for security, it's okay," said Momi Kedem, who described the process of placing his index finger on a biometric scanner as quick...

A new immigration tracking system went into effect Monday amid doubts that it would work as advertised and concerns that it might infringe on the rights of immigrants. The Homeland Security Department launched the first phase of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US VISIT) program at 115 airports and cruise ship terminals at 14 seaports Monday. By law, visitors with nonimmigrant visas are now required to give biographic, travel and biometric information before entering the country. Biometric information consists of a digital photo and two fingerprint scans, which are entered into a database and compared to terrorist...