Since September 11, 2001, getting in to the U.S. as a foreign visitor has become a harrowing experience. So much so, in fact, that foreign tourism is down 17% as many tourists choose to spend their holidays elsewhere rather than be poked, prodded, searched, fingerprinted and verbally abused by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Not to fear, though; the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State have done something about it.
The first Americans that foreign tourists run into upon arrival are Customs agents. Of course, what they’ve done doesn’t at all involve training Customs agents to be less abrasive and more welcoming.
Instead, Homeland Security and State have partnered with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts to produce a video to show to foreign visitors in international airport arrival areas and make them feel welcome, while they wait their turn in line to be shaken down. The government calls this a “multimedia initiative to welcome international visitors to the United States.”
“Disney commissioned the project as part of the Rice-Chertoff Initiative that seeks to secure America’s borders while welcoming legitimate visitors to the United States,” according to a CBP news release.
“America’s arrival for its foreign visitors really needs to be a welcoming experience,” said Walt Disney chairman Jay Rasulo in an accompanying video about the making of Welcome: Portraits of America. “We know that in the first one hundred steps when people leave an airplane is when we have a chance to really make an impression about what a welcoming place they’ve arrived.”
Now it’s true that after people manage to get past Customs and into the country, Americans are some of the most friendly, generous, welcoming people in the world. And this video showcases this fact. But it does nothing to assuage the fears of foreign tourists: that they’ll never get into the country in the first place, that they will be denied entry, or detained for hours for no reason, or even tortured.
A DHS spokesman last year called “flawed and self-serving” a 2006 survey which found that international visitors to the U.S. worried more about Customs agents than terrorists and that one-third found them so rude and abrasive that they planned never to return to the U.S.
The video began playing last Monday at Washington Dulles International Airport and Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and will be rolled out to international airports nationwide, according to DHS. No word yet on whether Customs agents will begin treating visitors with dignity and respect.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Rosie
Oct 28, 2007
Can you imagine, at Disney they call these pre-shows and they are very annoying. A customs pre-show! They should just call it what it is — 1984 style brainwashing.
fleeb
Oct 28, 2007
Frank Zappa took a customs form, before the whole 9/11 thing (since, of course, he died well before that event), and created a little musical piece out of it, called “Welcome To The United States”.
He punctuated the rudeness of the customs form to music, while having someone with a Germanic accent read the form to the audience (who were primarily German, as the performance was held in Germany, if I recall). The form asks a lot of bizarre things, like whether or not you were involved in the Nazi persecutions during WWII.
You know, that line will probably remain in the customs form 100 years from now, and nobody will understand why.
We Americans may be some of the most upbeat people in the world, but damned if our bureaucrats have any idea how to be civil. Still, I suppose one shouldn’t expect much else, considering these are the same folks who lie in an effort to put us into wars strictly for their own personal profit.
Fleeb
Oct 28, 2007
Okay, now that I’ve seen the thing, I can’t help but think we should add to the ending some guy snapping on a latex glove as he says, “Welcome! Please make your way to customs.”
Guards
Oct 28, 2007
No need for gloves just have a Secret agent or guard at all stores or where any dangerous things are obtainable which is anywhere. The money spent is less than the 911 disaster!!! All it takes is more good decent guards everywhere whose goal is to work!!!
Bob
Oct 29, 2007
Anybody out there been through Chinese customs or Russian customs or Turkish customs lately? (“Midnight Express” was a long time ago, maybe the Turks are nicer now.) Just wondering how we stack up against the competition.
I didn’t mind the video even though I was a little disappointed with some of the obvious omissions of prime American content. No Bart or Homer, no Willie Nelson and I didn’t see any pictures of Graceland in there either. Come on people, we don’t have to gripe about everything. Watch the video……….we’ve got it good here!
It’s not the government’s fault that we don’t have the guts to stand up and live life anymore.
Oh yeah, sorry, but I don’t have a helluva lot of sympathy for Frank Zappa. If he got a full body cavity search from the customs man back in the seventies, he probably had it coming.
Friend from up north
Oct 29, 2007
I’m one of those 17%. I’m Canadian and prior to 9/11 regularly did 3 or 4 overnight or multi-night trips/vacations to the States annually.
I went once after 9/11, and made the mistake of flying (to Boston no less!) What a goddamn nightmare. It was very intimidating for me, and I’m a fat white English speaking middle-class male. I can’t imagine how nervous/terrified a brown non-english speaking visitor would be. I don’t think *I* would be randomly rendered to Syria for a vigorous round of torture, but I’m not 100% sure; I’m sure Mr. Brown visitor doesn’t much like his odds!
So, I don’t go anymore, which pisses me off because a) almost without exception the Americans I meet are wonderful people and b) With the US dollar worth less than the Canadian (we call it the American Peso now) things are much cheaper there.
But, I’m voting with my pocketbook and will spend my money and leisure time at home or Europe, or Cuba instead of Florida.
Pity. The rest of the world understands your government is scared, and doesn’t speak for thinking Americans, but we’re sick of being treated like scum for no reason, sick of the spill-over effect on international travel, and are staying away.
Anyway, we all hope things turn around so we can visit you again real soon. I imagine that time might coincide with your next regime change ^H^H^H^H^H^H election.
Bob
Oct 29, 2007
Our ancestors would be ashamed. Many years ago they fled their own countries and people, suffered the month or two voyage crammed in the damp hold of a ship with no facilities and little food or water just to get here. If they survived the trip and made it to immigration, they were treated like animals. If your name was too complicated, they gave you a new one. “Shut up and keep moving.” They walked on shore with the dirty shirts on their backs happy to be alive and got busy building a country. Now look at what we whine about.
People are the building blocks of the country and it’s government. The state of the country is just a reflection of the way we run our own lives.
Canuck
Oct 29, 2007
Umm…. I hate to break it to the Disney corporation, but the shot of Niagara falls in the video “Welcome: Portraits of America” is of the (Canadian) Horseshoe Falls, and is taken from the Ontario side of the falls! Does this have something to do with NAFTA?
Tim
Oct 29, 2007
I’m thinking we might need to start sending warships to patrol the falls.. exercise our sovereignity. Maybe we can borrow the Russian sub and plant a Canadian flag at the bottom of the falls.
Bert
Oct 30, 2007
Bob,
Mom said you need to get off the computer now, because Billy-Sue needs to use it for her home economics class, she’s learnin’ how to bake blueberry muffins and put the same number of blueberries in each one.
Bob
Oct 30, 2007
Okay, Bert.
Guards
Oct 30, 2007
We need those decent homegrown people that love to work and live to work to protect us. You know those guys like your Uncle or Grandpa whose soul goal is to work for the American dream and be a decent respectable admirable man!!! We can turn America around with those guys. Those are the guys that make America the place it should be.
Richard Braakman
Oct 31, 2007
I expect that that 17% drop is just the beginning. These things have a long lead time. The people who aren’t visiting now are the ones who did visit a couple of years ago and made up their mind then. The ones who are getting fed up with it now won’t show up in the statistics for another few years. The USA will get a reputation as a bad place to visit, and that can take decades to wear off.
And it’s not just tourism. Keep an eye on how many meetings and conferences are scheduled in Canada now. It used to be that the USA was the natural place to hold any kind of international technical or scientific conference. There’s increasing pressure to hold them somewhere — anywhere — else. This can add up to a brain drain. The USA will no longer be “the place to be” to pick up on the latest developments, and the people on the leading edge will no longer spend most of their time there. The same is probably happening to business summits, but I have no experience in that field.
These effects will take a lot of work to turn around, and any improvements in customs & immigration will take years to have effect on travel patterns.
J'raxis
Oct 31, 2007
Why don’t they just go all the way and start building Potemkin villages like the Russians?
Ken
Nov 05, 2007
“Can you imagine, at Disney they call these pre-shows and they are very annoying. A customs pre-show! They should just call it what it is — 1984 style brainwashing.”
Exsqueeze me?! Pictures of kids playing and the Grand Canyon are 1984 style brainwashing? You might want to double up on the meds.
Ken
Nov 05, 2007
Bert,
Mom said you need to get off the computer now and get a job and stop chatting on line with you conspiracy pals.
Dutch Peter
Nov 13, 2007
Yep, I am part of the 17%. Used to travel to the US somewhere around 4 times a year on Business back in 2000 – 2004
After 11.9 (I prefer to use the ISO standard date format), I symphazied with the US and had no issue with going after Bin Laden. But things dramatically changed after the US invaded and occupied Iraq. Abu-Graib, Rendition of EU citizens kidnapped in the Europe by the CIA, Secret CIA torture prisons in Europe and abroad, Torture, Guatanomo Bay. What do we call a country that tortures, invades other countries. causes hundred thousends of innocent citizen to be killed? A rogue state, an evil power?
I mean where was the threat? Where are the WMD? Could have developed WMD… yes, so do we on the Netherlands, when will you invade us? I object by US intrusion in my privacy. The US does not have the right to snoop into my financial transactions through illegal SWIFT taps, snoop into our EU phone calls, check our e-mails, having spy satelites snooping to check if am I burning a US flag in my backyard. I also suspect the US of conducting Economic espionage…. you say no, then prove it to me!
As to the experience of entering the US. First I was offended but then thought, I am going to the US on an business trip, if they don’t like what I say, do or what I am, I have no problem if they send me back. Now I think differently, I don’t want to take the risk of being put in a prison without charges, being prevented from making calls, prevented from getting legal assitence and prevented to get support from my Embassy, being renditioned to Syria or other country that tortures. And then after being beaten, waterboarded, frozen etc released to hear from Mrs Rice that mistakes are being made, but an apology or changing programs?…No of course not, the US cannot afford to admit they were wrong. Some recommendations: US get out of the Geneva Conventions and get out of Europe for as long you do not have a majority that feel bound by international treaties, international law, real democracy, Human rights, Fair trails, Sufficient Privacy Protection, etc.
And you think that playing a Disney Movie would change my perceptions? Get real….
Very concerned and disgusted EU and Dutch citizen
Bob
Nov 14, 2007
Dutch Peter.
Two books for you to read. “America Alone” by Mark Steyn and “While Europe Slept” by Bruce Bawer.
Maybe watch Aljazeera once in awhile. You guys have your own set of problems over there. Quit criticizing the Americans and start dealing with your own troubles.
We are on our last legs over here, so this time when you have to deal with a tyrant on your own soil you’re probably going to be on your own. I hope that works out for you. The Moslem fundamentalists aren’t as nice as the Americans.
Tom Lowe
Nov 25, 2007
Bob, you said “The Moslem fundamentalists aren’t as nice as the Americans.” Bob, your nation has killed over one million innocent people in Iraq so yes, by any standard the Moslem fundamentalists are MUCH NICER than your stinking war criminal nation.
Bob
Nov 25, 2007
Tom Lowe. Define “innocent” and we’ll talk. And when you say “my” nation, you sure as hell better not be living here, or in any other western country that has existed under US protection for the last 60 years. Go live in Iran or Syria and burn your US passport before you go. See how nice they are. I usually don’t resort to name calling, but you sir are a jackass.
Bob
Nov 26, 2007
And you didn’t like Ronnie Raygun either. I thought I recognized the name.
Mike A.
Nov 30, 2007
Now really, i have been many times to the US also after 9.11. I have always been treated normally by the customs, although a bit more friendliness would not hurt. Could be that i always travel with my wife and we are both white and mid 40’s, apart from that i leave my Kalashnikov at home.
Instead of the USA softening up the security, i think the EU (i am a EU citizin) should up the security a bit. Maybe treat the US citizins the same when they come to the EU.
Anyway just wait a year Bush will exit and a Clinton will take over. The hassle will become less.
Peter
Dec 19, 2007
After many trips around the world on business, America customs is the worst of the lot.
My last experience was an international flight just doing a stop for refuel in Los Angles. Because you have to leave the aircraft for refueling, America now deems that your are visiting American soil, and you therefore have to go through immigration. For a whole Jumbo Jet of people, there was one Official scanning fingerprints, photographing and stamping documents. Three and a half hours of standing in a queue, the last person was processed, and we were then allowed to queue up to emigrate….by passing through the single customs official who processed us all in. We were all jammed into a single room and not allowed into the terminal itself and where never allowed more that 50 meters from the aircraft.
At one point the Customs official was handed immigration documents by a helper of someone in a wheelchair, but the wheelchair user was about 3 meters away from the counter. The Official shouted at the top of his voice that he was going to walk away if the right person was not in front of him RIGHT NOW, and we could just all stand there forever as far as he was concerned. I think the anonomous ‘Welcome to America, Have a nice day’ comment made just loud enough for him to hear might have made him think again. Either that or the laughter that followed.
Stand in a queue for 3 hours, be fingerprinted and photographed and shouted at by Immigration Officials just for a simple refueling stop. No wonder everyone in my Company will go any route other than via America.
Terri
Dec 26, 2007
I’m gonna focus on one demented comment above. If Frank Zappa got a full body search at an airport he didn’t deserve it. The government targeted him. The man’s intelligence was off the chart. He used his intelligence to ‘collect data’ about bio-engineered viruses, our economy and corrosion of our government. US government officials actually feared Frank Zappa because he was respected and admired the world over. No doubt there was a dossier on him. Were Zappa alive and campaigning for president on his Barking Pumpkins Ticket I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. He, Gail, Dweezil, Diva, Ahmet and Moon Unit would make the best First Family ever. I feel sure he’d hire security clowns for entertainment instead of inbred goons with inferiority complexes. Boy! I’ve digressed! Our guards are hasseling citizens at security checkpoints, confiscating personal belongs, prodding them with sticks, while extending ‘the hand of fellowship’ to foreigners and illegals. When did they let the inmates out. (“Have you seen ‘V for Vendetta’young man?” No Joke!!!)
Bob
Dec 27, 2007
Wasn’t Frank Zappa the guy who ate a turd on stage? I didn’t know that he was smart too. Definitely someone I should look up to.
opit
Jan 13, 2008
Bob
Your ‘quips’ are the shortest distance to understanding why nobody feels a burning desire for any more of your genteel ‘company’ than must be endured. Assholes grow like turnips everywhere. They are not a cash crop.
Bob
Jan 16, 2008
You hurt my feelings. I was just being honest. When I hear “Frank Zappa”, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. It’s hard for assholes like me to get past something like that. I know that I should be able to get past the fact that a guy ate a turd and appreciate his intellect and the quality of his soul but I’m an asshole.
Like you say, there’s a lot of us assholes. Something for all you feel good, earthy types to think about the next time you want to do something offensive to the assholes. You’re not winning any poularity contests either.
Joel
Feb 12, 2008
Bob, while your patriotism is commendable, it is also ridiculous. Your November 25 comment is the most asinine comment i have read in quite a while. Innocent by any definition is being not guilty of a particular wrongdoing, or being more generally in a state of blissful ignorance, that applies to 90% of the civilian Iraqis the US has killed. Why is the count always the 30000 troops killed, not the millions the US kills? The only thing that the continued US presence has created is increased terrorism sympathy. One nations terrorist is anothers freedom fighter..
Bob
Feb 13, 2008
Joel
I would have thought you’d pick the turd comment, but to each his own.
If you think that 90% of the people in the Middle East are in a state of blissful ignorance and not guilty of any particular wrongdoing, you’ve got your head up your butt too just like that other jackass. No group of people is that pure. 10% tops, and that would apply to ANY country that we’ve ever blown up.
I’m not patriotic, I just really believe that the US is the greatest country that there has ever been. The concept of individual rights and liberties protected by a constitution and defended by a court of law didn’t exist before the United States. Now the whole world takes it for granted.
“Never take nothin’ for granite, cause that’s what tombstones are made of.”-Hank the Cowdog
Bob
Feb 13, 2008
Joel. Click on Michael’s January topics and go to “TSA among most unpopular federal agencies”.
My comments #33 and #34 talk about your innocent Iraqis and what they’re doing to each other without American help.