Except, of course, travel across our southern border.
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Posted on 08/13/2002 3:18:01 PM PDT by snopercod
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:29:42 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Every summer for the past 25 years, New Zealand native Maggie Anderson and her American husband have visited their family in Portola Valley.
But never before had her visit begun in handcuffs and humiliation.
Upon landing at Los Angeles International Airport at 11 a.m on July 24, Anderson -- a former flight attendant who had flown in and out of U.S. airports hundreds of times -- was questioned and arrested by federal immigration agents.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
US killer slips past Kiwi border checks
14 August 2002 - www.stuff.co.nz
A necrophiliac, jailed for the gruesome killing of his girlfriend in the United States, has become the fourth serious offender to slip through New Zealand immigration controls this year.
The American was discovered when he indecently exposed himself to a woman near Te Awamutu, the New Zealand Herald reported today.
Bradley Nelson Page was convicted in 1984 of voluntary manslaughter for killing his girlfriend, Bibi Lee, while she was jogging on a mountain trail in hills above Oakland, California.
He confessed to the killing five weeks after Bibi Lee died, and also admitted committing necrophilia.
Under the US law applying to his case, voluntary manslaughter is an intentional homicide under provocation sufficient to incite an "ordinary person" to "sudden and intense passion".
Page came to the attention of New Zealand police when he was arrested on January 31 after exposing himself to a woman tramper on Mt Kakepuku, about 11km from Te Awamutu.
The US case has been posted on an internet site and confirmed to the New Zealand Herald by New Zealand police who handled Page's case.
Bibi Lee was a brilliant mathematics student, and the case caused a sensation when civil rights advocates protested against Page's conviction, claiming his confession had been coerced.
His appeals kept him out of prison until 1992, and he was released in 1995 after serving 2 ? years of a six-year sentence.
The Immigration Service would not say when Page entered New Zealand, but spokesman Ian Smith confirmed he travelled on a tourist visa.
He appeared in Te Awamutu District Court on February 8, and was convicted and fined $250, with $130 court costs.
He left New Zealand within days.
Police spokesman Jon Neilson said police did not know that Page had entered the country until he was arrested.
"I don't know how he came in, or what he came in on," Mr Neilson said.
"We didn't know about it. Unless we've had formal notification from another international agency, we wouldn't know of anybody's travel movements.
"We would need to be notified to be able to do anything. If we're not aware of it then there's not much we can do."
In previous cases this year:
Scotsman Archie McCafferty, aged 53, was arrested in Kawerau last month and deported after failing to declare his criminal convictions when entering New Zealand. He was jailed in Australia in 1973 for killing three people and deported to Britain after his release in 1997.
Indian sex offender Balwinder Singh was found living in Pukekohe last month after beating immigration controls by changing his name. He was deported after serving a prison sentence for the attempted rape of a deaf woman in 1987.
Criminally insane killer Claude John Gabriel escaped from psychiatric care in Australia to hide in New Zealand. He returned to Australia voluntarily on May 12.
Mr Smith said Immigration Service checks were not foolproof, and relied mainly on information from other agencies, and on passengers filling out immigration documents honestly.
"We certainly rely on other agencies to give us information if they believe a person may be trying to come into the country. "Even the magnitude of that task is enormous."
He said Page had been flagged on the system and would not be allowed to enter the country again.
"Providing, of course, that he comes in under his own name and doesn't use false documents or passport to re-enter."
Mr Smith said the Immigration Service would introduce a computer network system next year to screen passengers bound for New Zealand before they boarded an aircraft.
"Once we get our advanced passenger processing system in place, it will open up more avenues for us to get information on people before they arrive in the country."
It is hoped that the new system will eventually accept information obtained from biometrics - systems that identify travellers by biological traits ranging from digital signatures to digital thumbprints and iris, palm or face scans.
These people were most likely following guidlelines set for them as to what to do when someone with this type violation was found. She was transported to another facility for the night, and before doing so they frisked her, checked inside her bra and underwear, SOP most likely. No mention of orifice exams.
She's crying victim "I was emotionally raped". BS. She was at one time too arrogant or lazy to apply for a visa extension. Because our system had gotten so easy , anyone could stay for however long they wanted, there was no repercussion..till now I guess.
You can bet there are others who have been apprehended in the same way with the new procedures, but the media uses this one to portray a system of clowns.
The actions taken were certainly overdone in her case, especially the delay in sending her back, but in MO it shows a system thats beginning to tighten up. It's hasn't even been a year since the attack, and the system is huge, so it has to be a gigantic task to hire, train, and implement procedures needed for change.
``It was, to me, emotional rape,'' Anderson said, sometimes through tears while recalling the events from two weeks past.
Well, a fitting punishment for symbolically raping 180000000 Americans.
Hyperbole works both ways, Ms. Anderson.
It's true that it didn't, but one could reasonably argue that such was not its aim. In "the bad old days", the geopolitical rivary was quite clear-cut. Our focus then was the blunting and containment of Soviet (communist) expansionist policies and actions. We had our successes and setbacks along the way, but in the end we succeeded in forcing the peaceful dismantling of a despotic and tyrannical sociopolitical and economic system whose cost in lives and treasure and human misery is to this day incalculable.
No one would argue that things have changed. Our focus needs to be different. I see nothing gained in the way of security or protection of our people by strip seaching grandmothers, confiscating the toys of our children, or wasting time and resources on deporting a citizen of a nation that has done us no harm and wishes us no ill, simply because of an eight day overstay on a visa, especially when we have persons from countries who are known to wish us ill and have so declared coming here in droves and disappearing into the hoardes never to surface again until they decide one day to fly airplanes into buildings. But the PC nazis won't let us take reasonable steps to intercept those individuals, but instead force us to waste time on people who anyone with an ounce of brains and common sense knows pose no threat.
Mine too.
I would ask for a personalized hand-written version and frame it.
I've never been called that either.
Except, of course, travel across our southern border.
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That has always been true, my whole life.
You don't think law enforcement is stupid, do you?
Prosecuting actual criminals can be dangerous.
No matter what law we're talking about.
You mention being extensively searched/detained in various airports like Saigon and Milan...but not in your very own country. I deplore the idea of frisking an 80-yr-old who is just travelling from Orlando to Phoenix to visit grandkids. I deplore fumbling hands under a 20-yr-old white blonde's sports bra by the same security Nazis who wouldn't dare ask a Muslim to remove a headpiece just to LOOK underneath (yes, these are generalizations/summarizations of different stories I have heard).
You also mention that your wife has travelled extensively and has been searched, "but not as aggressively". I just wonder if your views will change if she is ever randomly picked to be frisked under her bra and she finds it upsetting.
Who's "we", Kemosabe? I'm American, I disapprove the police state tactics currently employed at commercial airports. Disarmament does not promote security.
You can say that again
My wife has traveled alot since 9-11 and was searched every time, though not quite as agressively
which is why I am wondering how their tune might change if his wife is ever more aggressively searched (I'm sure some women have been traumatized)...for no reason other than "security".
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