alanR

By banning 8yr old boy and his father from travelling

Now bear in mind this is a Daily Mail story so it's unlikely the whole truth is present.

So what do you think the real story is?

Father is banned - but not the mother - so why is the child banned
Child didn't have an ESTA - but how did they check in
Father has a very sick friend who thought it would be a good joke
Child is indeed a terrorist threat to the US.

BUT since when does the US have DHS operatives on the ground in the UK?

Parzival

Well, Think of the amount of flight daily between the US and LHR. There's upwards of 15 flights to Jfk alone daily. I'm guessing all of those flights will have FAMs on them and the "operatives" might be FAMs stationed on the ground.

danielonn

I'm sorry for the family to a certain extent but not 100 percent so as its the passenger's responsibility to ensure that all entry requirements are met prior to departure. I always check the Visa requirements as part of the planning stage before purchasing anything. I would wait to buy my ticket if I thought the Visa process would take time.

As,for the ESTA I would have dome a simple 2 second Google search and type in Entry Requirements into USA for UK passengers and applied for it before booking anything and wait for the approval. To take it a step further I would sign up anyone in my family who would potentially travel to the USA if I were not a US citizen.

For my trip to Brazil my Father and I applied for the Visa 10 months before our cruise.

At checkin I always verify to see that the boarding passes say DOCS OK meaning that I'm cleared for travel.

Not sure why the checkin person failed to see no ESTA as that number had to be added to the reservation. How was the boarding passes.even issued without the linked ESTA?

GUWonder

US DHS has IAP types working at various large European hub airports. Even before the U.S. had DHS, the U.S. had IAP types on the payroll working at various European hub airports.

GUWonder

USG denying the child and father travel to the U.S. to make sure the mother doesn't settle in the U.S. has been done before.

Even after having gotten an approved ESTA, it is sometimes revoked after check-in but before flight departure. There are also other potential grounds for the USG to use as an excuse to frustrate/deny travel beside the ESTA issue.

[Even as the USG claims that ESTA is not a visa, it really is a type of electronic visa.]

The USG has had IAP function types in the UK -- at least on and off -- for decades.

http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/fil...vis_prog_2.pdf

Often1

The UK is relatively unique in that its visa process is an affirmative approval for entry unless fraud is later discovered. The US and most other countries still deny properly-documented travelers.

I certainly don't regard the Daily Mail as an authoritative source and I don't expect either US or UK authorities to comment. But, the bottom line is that had the father not been picked off at the boarding gate, he would likely have been denied entry on arrival at LAS.

These things may appear to be random and casual, but they are far from it. Doesn't mean that this guy is a bad guy. Maybe he is a name match and the same age of a bad guy. So, maybe DHS was wrong. But, still not likely a random selection.

alanR

Given their track record a random selection would be more successful.