Europe has ALWAYS had stronger passport/airport enforcement than the US. Menacing, in fact. You need only travel abroad to find that out.
In Iceland they are very professional but courteous at the same time. I have been over there 3 times in this year. Upon return, arriving in JFK all the personnel seem to have a really nasty attitude. They snarl and growl and are just nasty. Polite is not in the vocabulary. Coming into Logan has been much better. Only on one trip was one agent at passport control unpleasant..the others were fine to everyone but the line I was in, the man was ugly to everyone. I cannot speak to other airports.
Try the Dominican Republic. Leaving the country a while back, a young lady who spoke good English (my Spanish is not very good but good enough) wanted to take my cell phone. I have a wife, step kids and grandchildren there so I showed her pictures on my phone and softened her up. They are tough there. I’ve been wanded, frisked, emptied my pockets and the like. They’re trying to show the US how tough they are.
I miss the old days when your friends and family could walk to the gate with you or, on arrival, be at the gate to greet you. Oh well, I guess I’m just getting old.
The IOC nixed Chicago’s bid and gave it to Brazil because South America has never hosted the games. Maybe it’s time to share with our neighbors. I really don’t mind Obama and Richard Daley being p***ed off. So be it. The loss of jobs the games would provided is unfortunate, however.
Not my experience at all, and I'm over there several times a year. (I have 6 years left on my current passport, already have had to have the extra pages added to it, and at the current rate of travel I will need a new passport in 3 to 4 years.)
They don't even ask why I'm there; they just swipe, stamp and send me on. Foreigners entering here go through more, including iris scans and maybe still fingerprinting, and I don't know what else.
As a U.S. member of an International Standards Organization technical committee, I can say that when it's the U.S. hosting the annual face-to-face meeting, we work hard to find meeting locations attractive enough to draw our international colleagues despite the security barrier they have to clear.