Posted on 01/04/2003 1:41:36 AM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON - The government wants detailed information about every person who enters or leaves the country by plane or boat, and for the first time would require U.S. citizens to fill out forms detailing their comings and goings.Under rules proposed yesterday, the information would be sent electronically to the government for matching against security databases.
The public will have a month to comment on the plan before the final regulations take effect later this year. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has criticized many of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism information-gathering efforts, said these rules should not impinge on people's privacy.
"We don't see a huge downside," said ACLU spokeswoman Emily Whitfield.
Congress mandated the changes in legislation signed into law by President Bush in May.
The proposal requires passengers arriving or departing, as well as crew members, to provide name, date of birth, citizenship, sex, passport number and country of issuance, country of residence, U.S. visa number and other details of its issuance, address while in the United States and, where it applies, alien registration number.
Airlines, cargo flights, cruise ships and other vessels carrying crew or passengers will be affected. The information will be sent electronically to the government before a traveler arrives in the United States or departs, giving officials a complete passenger and crew manifest.
It is radically and grossly different from a customs declaration form.
Customs is able to collect duties in explicit accordance with Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution ("The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." Asking a person to pay duties is permitted by the Constitution.
Quite differently, there is no provision in any area of the law whatsoever to require innocent American citizens to state their legal and personal movements on a law enforcement document.
Were this "rule" to be applied to one's domestic movements, there would be a huge public outcry and it would be shot down in court within 24 hours.
From the perspective of our rights as Americans, this proposal is not supported by law, precedent, and is a gross violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments.
Finally, it looks as if the USG is going to employ the airlines to enforce this "rule," e.g., no form, no flight.
If it is a preboarding requirement (which looks to be the case here) it is a defacto exit visa. "Mr. & Mrs. Smith, why are you going to Egypt and Kenya?"
Exit visas are used in such tolerant democracies as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
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