Fingerprinting delays?

[lfarj]

RE: Leave it at home

 

Dear Trilingual,

 

Never mind this rotten apple.

Felipe

[Guest BJohn4567]

RE: 180-days

 

During the mid-80's I was traveling back to the states via London and my seatmate, who was French, related his VISA travails. These seemed odd to me at the time, not knowing we required French citizens to obtain visas. It must have been a relatively new policy and the French were understandably upset and instituted their own reciprocal policy requiring Americans to obtain Visas to visit France. The fall-off of American tourism to France during that period was on the order of 1/3, a huge chunk of change. Whatever the diplomatic tiff was over at that time, the French government backed off and renegotiated probably with help from the EU. I cannot help but think that Brasil is doing a very similar deed, shooting themselves in the foot in the process. An average prospective American tourist knows little of Brasil and probably will be much less inclined to even consider a first-time trip in light of recent events. I think the Federal judge from Cuiaba was being shortsighted, not keeping in mind where the best interests of Brasil lie, the encouragement of its tourism industry.

I venture to guess that the American visitor to Brazil far out-spends, most, if not all others, on average. I personally think the Samba bands and flowers at the airport is not enough recompense to overcome the lack of welcome this fingerprinting reciprocity policy will engender. Having been to Brazil and experiencing its exhilarating culture, I can overlook the degradation, but I doubt whether a first-time visitor might do the same. It will leave a tarnished impression. The politicians/beaurocrats on both sides are mucking this up.

 

(Edited by moderator to delete inadvertent duplication of the complete posting.)

[trilingual]

RE: FINGERPRINTS/PHOTOS REDUX

 

There was a bit about the process in the Travel section of the Sunday NY Times, but it was sort of "old news." Considering how quiet the topic has been for the past week, and how the story has faded completely from the Brazilian press, I'm guessing that the process is now rapid and painless and everyone's moved on to some other obsession!

 

I'll be returning to Rio from the frigid Midwest next Monday, and I'll try to remember to post about how the process goes in Rio (where the initial 9-hour delays occurred when the policy was imposed by the judge in Mato Grosso). Unless someone who's arrived in the last couple of days posts here first about the current situation.

[Guest msclonly]

RE: FINGERPRINTS/PHOTOS REDUX

 

I can help but believe our policy is good for other countries, that have arriving passengers from the States. Since we are screening everyone more intensely, then other countries, the other countries can be assured, that folks from the US are less of a security problem for them, then those arriving from other countries with less effective or thorough screening.

 

Just my 2Reals worth!:7

[trilingual]

RE: FINGERPRINTS/PHOTOS REDUX

 

Your observation would be correct if all the foreigners arriving in other countries had first passed through the U.S. and been screened here.

 

However,

 

1) Most people travelling between other countries don't pass through the U.S. on their way (for example, there are lots of non-stop flights between European countries and just about everywhere else, and that's how most Europeans travel, not via the U.S.);

 

2) Passport holders from the EU, Japan, Singapore and Brunei aren't screened upon arrival in the U.S. because they don't need a visa to enter the U.S. (so if they travel onward to another foreign country the receiving country isn't protected because, in fact, they were never screened at all) and

 

3) Americans travelling abroad aren't thorougly screened (and someone with an American passport could be terrorist).

 

If those gaps in the U.S. screening system were closed foreign travel probably would be more secure, but there would still be a lot of travel between other countries that never requires U.S. screening.

[Guest msclonly]

RE: FINGERPRINTS/PHOTOS REDUX

 

With that explanation, then I am to assume that Brazil's fingerprinting of Americans fills the gap the OTHER country passport holders arriving from the US, and NOT being screened by the US. I really don't see the point of your argument.

 

Isn't Brazil ONLY fingerprinting American and letting all the other countries citizens pass with out any checks?

 

;(

[trilingual]

RE: FINGERPRINTS/PHOTOS REDUX

 

Of course not. Nobody (even the Brazilians) has ever pretended that the new fingerprinting requirement for Americans in Brazil is anything more than reprisal for the way Americans are treating Brazilians. Brazil hopes to use the situation to pressure the U.S. into rethinking the way it treats Brazilians, but considering the current generalized paranoia and xenophobia gripping the U.S., that's rather wishful thinking.

 

One possibility, of course, is that over time Brazil will actually start using the data it's collecting for real screening, and that it will decide to start screening other foreigners and not just Americans. Although Brazil has been blessedly free of foreign terrorism, it's not immune from the danger, and there are worrisome indications that the Triple Frontier area around Iguassu Falls has been used as a money-laundering and planning base for terrorist activity in Argentina. Brazil would be somewhat naïve to believe that such activity couldn't happen in Brazil, too. But that realization doesn't seem to be immediately at hand, so who knows what it'll take to make Brazil think about taking some real protective measures. If they do take them, eventually, I hope they'll be better thought out and more effective than what the U.S. is currently doing, which doesn't actually seem to be anything more than cosmetic.