Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 01:56:52 +0000 From: "Frank Pawlak" <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>, lcremean@tidalwave.net, Joao Carlos Mendes Luis <jonny@jonny.eng.br> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: US Immigration (was: Funny, but true...) Message-ID: <980617015652.ZM11169@darkstar.connect.com> In-Reply-To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> "Re: US Immigration (was: Funny, but true...)" (Jun 16, 6:13pm) References: <199806131959.QAA25251@roma.coe.ufrj.br> <19980613174107.42635@st-lcremean.tidalwave.net> <19980615125757.61980@papillon.lemis.com> <grog@lemis.com> <980616221213.ZM10797@darkstar.connect.com> <19980616181307.09604@papillon.lemis.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Jun 16, 6:13pm, Greg Lehey wrote: > Subject: Re: US Immigration (was: Funny, but true...) > On Tue, 16 June 1998 at 22:12:13 +0000, Frank Pawlak wrote: > > On Jun 15, 12:57pm, Greg Lehey wrote: > >> Subject: US Immigration (was: Funny, but true...) > >> On Sat, 13 June 1998 at 17:41:07 -0400, Lee Cremeans wrote: > >> > >> > The root of this, though, is the fact that the State Department is > >> > paranoid, very paranoid. I'm sure they have some right to be at this > >> > moment, after all the attacks on US installations in the Middle East > >> > (and the NYC World Trade Center bombing here 5 years ago) by rabid > >> > Islam fundamentalists...and the Nazi thing is because there are > >> > Nazis hiding out in South America, apparently, that avoided the > >> > Nuremburg trials in 1946 (most are very old now, and I would not > >> > doubt they'd all be dead in 10 years). > >> > >> Don't believe that these questions are new. As I mentioned, we had > >> them (+ communism) in 1957, and every time since that I've applied for > >> a US visa, I have had to answer pretty much the same collection. > >> > >> Here's another one. My visa is valid until some time in 2001, but > >> when I left for the US last week, I was given a green form I-94W (Visa > >> Waiver Arrival/Departure Form). On the back of it, just above the > >> signature, was this interesting statement: > >> > >> WAIVER OF RIGHTS: I hereby waive any rights to review or appeal of > >> an immgration officer's determination as to my admissibility, or to > >> contest, other that on the basis of an application for asylum, any > >> action in deportation. > >> > >> My first reaction was to cross out this paragraph. I decided a little > >> later that that would not be a good idea, and got the I-94 (white > >> form, for people with visas). But what a waiver! Any immigration > >> officer who didn't like the look of me could just send me back half > >> way round the world, and I couldn't even complain. > > > > Just for comparison purposes, when you enter countries such as England, France, > > Germany, or your own country Australia? Are we in the US more or less > > paranoid? > > The US is particularly unusual in its treatment of foreigners. I > haven't seen questions or waivers like this in any other country. The > INS people also seem to have been trained to be nasty, a trait shared > only by the English immigration people. Probably due to the slight illegal alien problem that we have here. ;-) On a lighter side, I could tell a story about meeting some members of the Australian Army and mistaking them for British. That's an error I will never make again. >In Europe, you usually don't > need a visa, and any inspection is pretty cursory. In Asia, you will > need a landing card which concentrates normally on things they could > more easily get out of your passport. In some countries you'll need a > visa (Australia is one of them), but most don't worry any more. China > and India still need visas, and some people (including Australians, > but excluding US citizens) need a visa for Japan. The American customs officers are not even nice to Americans, judging from personal experience. Several years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Canada to attend a computer training class. On the airliner they passed out a card to be filled out to enter Canada, which I rolled-up and put into my pocket. When I got to Canadian customs, they took it all very well, and gave this silly American a pen and patiently waited while I completed the information requested on the card, and was then on my way. Upon returinig to the US it was a whole different issue with US customs. Firstly, I couldn't get through the metal detector, it kept sounding the alarm. So they used a wand on me and proceeded to be vary nasty about what was causing the problem. Turns out that the Canadian coins in my pants pocket was the problem, but it doesn't end there. They gave me a bad time about everything they could conceive of. Bringing liquor into the US, of which I didn't have a drop, to why my luggage was so heavy. My luggage was full of books and other items from the class. Makes one wonder at times what others must think when they visit here. > > Recall what I said above. I know it's been like this for at least 40 > years. I suspect it grew out of the large immigration floods of the > last century. > I had forgotten about this. In the 50's we had a lot of politicians looking for communists behind every lamp post and under every bed. A lot of elections were won using that stance. In general the 1950's were good years here, with the exceptions of that and civil rights. Frank > Greg > -- > Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key > See complete headers for address and phone numbers >-- End of excerpt from Greg Lehey To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?980617015652.ZM11169>