Don't mess with the INS
May 12, 2004 | 12:37 am
#1
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Don't mess with the INS
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/s...n11may11.story
This reporter gets no love from me. What a lousy, uncurious journalist she makes. Where's she been for the last three years? Only when it happens to her does she get interested?
Not to excuse the INS , but why would anyone think that it's OK to enter the US on a tourist visa and tell the INS you're going to work?
In 2004?
Inadvertently, I had arrived on American soil as a foreign journalist without a press visa, a requirement that has been on the books for years but is actually being enforced now under the strict guidelines of the Department of Homeland Security. I was traveling on my British passport and believed that, like most visitors from countries included in the U.S. "visa-waiver program," I could still come in and go out easily without special paperwork. I was unaware that since March 2003 (when the Department of Homeland Security was created) the United States had begun to regard journalists from friendly countries as hostile aliens. Our intentions must be closely scrutinized before we are allowed to do our jobs.
What sort of country is afraid of the foreign press? I had plenty of time to ponder this during my disturbing, humiliating and deeply disappointing encounter with a United States that seems to have become a travesty of the country I love. (Only countries like Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea demand that journalists apply for special visas.)
If I had announced myself as a tourist at passport control, I would have been waved through. By declaring honestly that I was a journalist (as I had done on previous visits), I had become a suspect persona non grata. As I explained my situation to various officials, I was sure that my innocent mistake based on my (and my paper's) ignorance of the still-obscure visa requirement would soon be clarified. After all, I had come from Britain, a staunch ally. Could I possibly be denied entry?
Incredibly, I was. And from the moment the decision to deport me was made, I was treated like a dangerous criminal without any basic rights. I was groped and searched. I was fingerprinted; mug shots were taken. Then, with my hands handcuffed behind my back a particularly painful and demeaning method I was taken through the airport to a van. Walking handcuffed among free LAX passengers was an indescribably strange experience; more than anything, it brought home the Kafkaesque fact that I was now a prisoner.
What sort of country is afraid of the foreign press? I had plenty of time to ponder this during my disturbing, humiliating and deeply disappointing encounter with a United States that seems to have become a travesty of the country I love. (Only countries like Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea demand that journalists apply for special visas.)
If I had announced myself as a tourist at passport control, I would have been waved through. By declaring honestly that I was a journalist (as I had done on previous visits), I had become a suspect persona non grata. As I explained my situation to various officials, I was sure that my innocent mistake based on my (and my paper's) ignorance of the still-obscure visa requirement would soon be clarified. After all, I had come from Britain, a staunch ally. Could I possibly be denied entry?
Incredibly, I was. And from the moment the decision to deport me was made, I was treated like a dangerous criminal without any basic rights. I was groped and searched. I was fingerprinted; mug shots were taken. Then, with my hands handcuffed behind my back a particularly painful and demeaning method I was taken through the airport to a van. Walking handcuffed among free LAX passengers was an indescribably strange experience; more than anything, it brought home the Kafkaesque fact that I was now a prisoner.
Not to excuse the INS , but why would anyone think that it's OK to enter the US on a tourist visa and tell the INS you're going to work?
In 2004?
May 12, 2004 | 12:58 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 436
Originally Posted by Droneklax
Not to excuse the INS , but why would anyone think that it's OK to enter the US on a tourist visa and tell the INS you're going to work?
May 12, 2004 | 2:01 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 7,566
Originally Posted by HomelessScientist
Well, people in most other occupations are allowed to enter the US under the visa waiver program to conduct business. The restrictions on journalists are the exception rather than the rule.
I have heard of other cases like this one (including the son of people I know) where people arrived in the USA in good faith thinking that they were going to be covered by the visa waiver scheme and finding that they were not. Their stories are the same - they were all treated like criminals. Yes, they should have known better, but clearly there was no criminal intent - they had merely misread the rules and made a mistake. Send them back by all means - after all, they are not entitled to enter the country. But treat them like criminals? Handcuff them? Why? They have not stolen anything, they have not murdered anyone, they have not hurt anyone, they have not defrauded anyone. They were acting in good faith, intending to enter the USA for a temporaray visit for entirely legitimate purposes.
By contrast with these stories we read from the USA... :
I know two people who tried to enter the UK without the correct paperwork. One was an Australian who, like the journalist in our story, had been too honest - "I've come to join my British wife" rather than "I've come as a tourist". As he was joining his wife he needed a residence permit which he should have sorted out before leaving Australia.
The other person actually had a work permit, but did not realise that because her work permit related to a teaching job it did not entitle her to re-enter the country after the end of July even though it was valid until the end of August.
Both these people were treated with respect and courtesy and had their mistakes explained to them calmly and politely. The teacher was eventually admitted, the Australian was put on the next flight home - NOT in handcuffs, but as a free person. He was simply given a boarding card and was sent on his way and was free to wander round Heathrow while waiting for his flight to depart.
Last edited by Aviatrix; May 12, 2004 at 4:44 am
May 12, 2004 | 2:38 am
#4
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Originally Posted by Droneklax
This reporter gets no love from me. What a lousy, uncurious journalist she makes. Where's she been for the last three years? Only when it happens to her does she get interested?
Not to excuse the INS , but why would anyone think that it's OK to enter the US on a tourist visa and tell the INS you're going to work?
In 2004?
Your thread title is all about why the USA is having all its current troubles on the world stage. That obnoxious, cowboy attitude is costing the USA a lot more that its gaining through it....
And, no, that 'not to excuse the INS' doesnt get you off the hook...
Its clear that you are an unconditional supporter of the INS and their actions.I guess this is what the British get for being the US lapdog...
May 12, 2004 | 3:38 am
#5
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Originally Posted by Gaucho100K
I guess this is what the British get for being the US lapdog...
As a result we tend to get it from both sides. Don't worry, we're used to it. It's been going on for a long, long time.
May 12, 2004 | 6:52 am
#6
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Originally Posted by Gaucho100K
Rubbish. That obnoxious, cowboy attitude is costing the USA a lot more that its gaining through it....
work for INS.
May 12, 2004 | 7:32 am
#7
Join Date: Nov 2002
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Originally Posted by Droneklax
Not to excuse the INS , but why would anyone think that it's OK to enter the US on a tourist visa and tell the INS you're going to work?
In 2004?
May 12, 2004 | 8:58 am
#9
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The duties of INS as a whole were split by the DHS (Department of HomeLand Security) The INS earlier was responsible not only for approving petitions but also border security.
It's now been split up as USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) which handles the application portion , ICE (Immigration and Customs enforcement) , CBP (Customs and Border Protection)
Does that mean they are doing a great job? Who knows..
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home4.jsp
It's now been split up as USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) which handles the application portion , ICE (Immigration and Customs enforcement) , CBP (Customs and Border Protection)
Does that mean they are doing a great job? Who knows..
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home4.jsp
May 12, 2004 | 9:16 am
#10
Join Date: Aug 2000
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I was sure that my innocent mistake based on my (and my paper's) ignorance of the still-obscure visa requirement would soon be clarified.
This visa rule has been on the books for years and has been enforced for years, despite the May 2003 claims of this lady. Every few months some scribe who thinks that the rules don't apply to them comes forward and claims ignorance and persecution. Sorry, but after a while it gets old. There are plenty of resources on the internet alone with information about I-1 visas, so the only excuse that is valid is one of laziness rather than obscurity.
May 12, 2004 | 10:42 am
#11
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Originally Posted by Gaucho100K
Rubbish. What pathetic argumentation.....
Your thread title is all about why the USA is having all its current troubles on the world stage. That obnoxious, cowboy attitude is costing the USA a lot more that its gaining through it....
And, no, that 'not to excuse the INS' doesnt get you off the hook... Its clear that you are an unconditional supporter of the INS and their actions.
I guess this is what the British get for being the US lapdog...
Your thread title is all about why the USA is having all its current troubles on the world stage. That obnoxious, cowboy attitude is costing the USA a lot more that its gaining through it....
And, no, that 'not to excuse the INS' doesnt get you off the hook...
Its clear that you are an unconditional supporter of the INS and their actions.I guess this is what the British get for being the US lapdog...
You should know from my posts around here that I am no friend of what the US has become over the past few years. This place is closer to a police state than I have ever seen, and I include the INS ( or whatever they are called now) as a clear part of that.
In fact, the INS is the most unreasonable entity around. They were going around arresting muslims after telling them to go downtown to get their address on file.
I know people who got married to a US citizen years ago, got a divorce and years later (last week, in fact), got a pound on a door at 6 am, got sent to a detention center, because the INS had somehow merged records of people who got married to US citizens with some other database. They are downright scary.
BUT- and that was my point (which B747-437 understood), for a so-called "journalist" to wake up in mid 2004 and get bent out of shape about this, when it's been going on for months is more a reflection of her own lack of curiosity than anything.
It is a well known fact that by now that you'd better double-check, triple-check your story and your visa before you walk out of that plane.
Last edited by Droneklax; May 12, 2004 at 10:47 am