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Posted on 11/02/2006 10:28:24 AM PST by DanielKronlid
Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States.
It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. passport-a “travel document” that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want. When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the agency says “no” to a clearance request, or doesn't answer the request at all, you won't be permitted to enter-or leave-the United States.
Consider what might happen if you're a U.S. passport holder on assignment in a country like Saudi Arabia. Your visa is about to expire, so you board your flight back to the United States. But wait! You can't get on, because you don't have permission from the HSA. Saudi immigration officials are on hand to escort you to a squalid detention center, where you and others who are now effectively “stateless persons” are detained, potentially indefinitely, until their immigration status is sorted out.
Why might the HSA deny you permission to leave-or enter-the United States? No one knows, because the entire clearance procedure would be an administrative determination made secretly, with no right of appeal. Naturally, the decision would be made without a warrant, without probable cause and without even any particular degree of suspicion. Basically, if the HSA decides it doesn't like you, you're a prisoner-either outside, or inside, the United States, whether or not you hold a U.S. passport.
The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized there is a constitutional right to travel internationally. Indeed, it has declared that the right to travel is "a virtually unconditional personal right." The United States has also signed treaties guaranteeing “freedom of travel.” So if these regulations do go into effect, you can expect a lengthy court battle, both nationally and internationally.
Think this can't happen? Think again…it's ALREADY happening. Earlier this year, HSA forbade airlines from transporting an 18-year-old native-born U.S. citizen, back to the United States. The prohibition lasted nearly six months until it was finally lifted a few weeks ago.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history that didn't allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission. If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to this list.
For more information on this proposed regulation, see http://hasbrouck.org/IDP/IDP-APIS-comments.pdf
You can always walk back in through Mexico.
Hmmmmmmmmmm, Guess I better institute plan B.
Just fly into Canada or Mexico and walk back across!
"Close the Borders" is what was asked for. That is what is given. The assumption that government will do anything in a reasonable or effective manner is a false assumption. The assumption that BIG GOVERNMENT can solve our "border problem" is a false assumption.
I don't want my tax money financing that false assumption.
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Tax Cuts
Chairman of The Sovereign Society, John Pugsley discusses why tax cuts ultimately hurt individuals, rather than help them.
I smell BS here.
They call it a Passport.
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Regardless, is this serious?
It doesn't sound good.
But then, the Patriot Act is constantly misrepresented by commie malcontents.
>>Regardless, is this serious?
It doesn't sound good.
But then, the Patriot Act is constantly misrepresented by commie malcontents.<<
The source isn't worthy of being taken seriously but the issue is. Regardless of what people say about the CFR and the administration there is no plan to remove the borders. The plan, in fact, "strengthens" the borders by requiring a biometric ID to cross between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada in any direction.
This means that law abiding U.S. citizens could be forbidden to leave the country.
Of course, without securing the border in other ways, thius will mainly effect law abiding citizens not illegal aliens.
Sounds like an invasion of our privacy. Wouldn't Hitler and Stalin have loved biometrics? (Not to mention the Klintoons.) A gerat way for the government to monitor our every move.
Kan I haff your papeeers, pleeze?
IOW, this is what we're going to do instead of border control.
>>Sounds like an invasion of our privacy. Wouldn't Hitler and Stalin have loved biometrics? (Not to mention the Klintoons.) A gerat way for the government to monitor our every move.<<
>>IOW, this is what we're going to do instead of border control.<<
1. I think it is wrong for a government to prevent law abiding citizens from freely leaving the country. Now, whether the country on the other side of the border lets them in should be up to that country - but we should be able to leave freely.
2. I wish I could disagree with you but government has a history of putting the burden on law abiding ctizens rather than targeting only law breakers. And I don't think the government does this because the government is evil but because its easier to control the law abiding.
Regards, Ivan
Biometrics: the new Belin Wall.
>>Biometrics: the new Belin Wall.<<
This bidirectional biometric ID requirement is something I talk about a fair amount - but I avoid language like "Berlin wall" because I don't believe the government has bad intent or motives anything like the Berlin wall -also, we can vote to change the government in a way the East Germans could only dream of.
Nonetheless, it is a slippery slope and a place that people concerned about individual freedom should be aware of and that we should express our concerns to our representitives.
>>Profiling would be much simpler than doing this.
Regards, Ivan<<
There is nothing to stop them from profiling and encoding that into your biometric ID.... the "best" of both worlds.
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