Welcome to Amerika.
Jan. 6th, 2004 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peteryoung
I think the front page of The Independent today struck the correct tone, particularly with this very good side column by Andrew Buncombe.
The initial agreement that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swisstone was pointing me to here seems to be a deal struck, somehow, by Virgin Atlantic only, according to various Sunday papers. If so, I wonder if it will stick. BA have still not committed either way, which accounts in part for the deafening silence I and my colleagues are hearing, but I find it difficult to imagine the DoT and the CAA (not to mention the FAA) agreeing to different deals with all the various British airlines that fly into the US. Meanwhile, According to the headline Independent article, Thomas Cook Airlines (a British charter carrier) are bravely (quixotically?) refusing to co-operate with plans to put armed guards on their flights. I expect they will get slapped.
"So Pete, what dramas were there when you arrived in New York?"
I can't enter the US under the Visa-Waiver scheme because I need two different US visas to do my job, therefore one visa has to apply whenever I enter. So, arriving at JFK I step up to the desk, and once again they take my photograph with face-recognition software and again I provide the required biometric information to a country of which I am not even a citizen. Guess what, my fingerprints mis-match again. There's a major balls-up here, obviously.
I'm herded into another side office, and amid much confused scanning of computer terminals by three Immigration Officers, I try to keep my sense of humour. I promise them I have not changed my fingerprints since the last time I entered the country, and then one of the officers finally queries, "Is there a [crew member X] on your crew?"
"Yes there is," I reply.
"Because his fingerprints are matched with your name."
"So what can you do about it? [X] has already passed through your Immigration controls with no problem. Can't we just scratch my record and start again?"
"We've only had this system three days, we don't know how to do that."
"So I'm now going to have this problem every time I enter the US? I come here up to four times a month, you know."
"Well," cheerily, "Looks like it, for now! You're free to go."
Just great.
So somehow the Immigration Officer in Philadelphia on 31st December screwed up my record right from the start and has partly given me another identity. Until they figure out how to correct my record, my actual entries into the US will have to depend partly on my convincing explanation of their Officer's mistake in Philadelphia every time I arrive, and I have no guarantee that I will be allowed to enter the US as normal, and could well be denied entry if ever a Customs officer is having a personal 'Code Red' day.
I fear this wider 'biometrics' saga will be another deterioration in US relations with the rest of the world, and the tit-for-tat backlash has already started. Brazil and Mexico are now saying they will fingerprint arriving US citizens (Mexico were already planning this for visiting Guatemalans in an effort to curb illegal immigration). Once again, the Bush administration desperately needs to demonstrate some multilateral accord with other nations instead of pissing everyone off with the sudden early introduction of a particularly unwelcome security measure. Tom Ridge, Homeland Security Secretary, yesterday: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our government's commitment to securing our nation while upholding America's ideals about freedom of travel and the spirit of welcoming foreign visitors..." This really is a double-edged sword for the US. I expect people will prefer to stay away.
The initial agreement that
swisstone was pointing me to here seems to be a deal struck, somehow, by Virgin Atlantic only, according to various Sunday papers. If so, I wonder if it will stick. BA have still not committed either way, which accounts in part for the deafening silence I and my colleagues are hearing, but I find it difficult to imagine the DoT and the CAA (not to mention the FAA) agreeing to different deals with all the various British airlines that fly into the US. Meanwhile, According to the headline Independent article, Thomas Cook Airlines (a British charter carrier) are bravely (quixotically?) refusing to co-operate with plans to put armed guards on their flights. I expect they will get slapped."So Pete, what dramas were there when you arrived in New York?"
I can't enter the US under the Visa-Waiver scheme because I need two different US visas to do my job, therefore one visa has to apply whenever I enter. So, arriving at JFK I step up to the desk, and once again they take my photograph with face-recognition software and again I provide the required biometric information to a country of which I am not even a citizen. Guess what, my fingerprints mis-match again. There's a major balls-up here, obviously.
I'm herded into another side office, and amid much confused scanning of computer terminals by three Immigration Officers, I try to keep my sense of humour. I promise them I have not changed my fingerprints since the last time I entered the country, and then one of the officers finally queries, "Is there a [crew member X] on your crew?"
"Yes there is," I reply.
"Because his fingerprints are matched with your name."
"So what can you do about it? [X] has already passed through your Immigration controls with no problem. Can't we just scratch my record and start again?"
"We've only had this system three days, we don't know how to do that."
"So I'm now going to have this problem every time I enter the US? I come here up to four times a month, you know."
"Well," cheerily, "Looks like it, for now! You're free to go."
Just great.
So somehow the Immigration Officer in Philadelphia on 31st December screwed up my record right from the start and has partly given me another identity. Until they figure out how to correct my record, my actual entries into the US will have to depend partly on my convincing explanation of their Officer's mistake in Philadelphia every time I arrive, and I have no guarantee that I will be allowed to enter the US as normal, and could well be denied entry if ever a Customs officer is having a personal 'Code Red' day.
I fear this wider 'biometrics' saga will be another deterioration in US relations with the rest of the world, and the tit-for-tat backlash has already started. Brazil and Mexico are now saying they will fingerprint arriving US citizens (Mexico were already planning this for visiting Guatemalans in an effort to curb illegal immigration). Once again, the Bush administration desperately needs to demonstrate some multilateral accord with other nations instead of pissing everyone off with the sudden early introduction of a particularly unwelcome security measure. Tom Ridge, Homeland Security Secretary, yesterday: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our government's commitment to securing our nation while upholding America's ideals about freedom of travel and the spirit of welcoming foreign visitors..." This really is a double-edged sword for the US. I expect people will prefer to stay away.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 02:30 pm (UTC)Understatement. It'll be interesting to see if their tourism drops and if that has any impact on the legislation.
I also fail to see how it's going to do anything useful really, particularly while they don't have the "departure" scans set up yet.
Software
Date: 2004-01-06 04:10 pm (UTC)FPK3
Re: Software
Date: 2004-01-07 03:00 am (UTC)At $380m-a-year of your tax dollars, it doesn't sound cheap to me. BA are also well-known in the computer industry as cheapskates, spending £5m on a particular computer system and expecting it to do the work of a £10m system...
Re: Software
Date: 2004-01-07 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:01 pm (UTC)I think I'm beginning to see why.
(Of course it could be the Mayan end of the world one coming true that does it as well, you never know!)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 12:23 am (UTC)If all else fails, do you have a sane and helpful MP who could press enquiries about it with the relevant Government Departments and US authorities?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 03:05 am (UTC)I really don't want this hassle, it's the sort of problem that will compound itself unless it's nipped in the bud.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 06:39 am (UTC)He would have also pointed out that anybody who uses their hands reguarly is going to be a problem too as the print change enough over a period of time for a computer not to recognise them.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 07:00 am (UTC)That's not to say they can't be fingerprinted, but that you need to take the original print carefully and a human will probably need to do the analysis.
Shows like CSI with their "magic" fingerprint software don't help the perception of this stuff.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-08 04:04 pm (UTC)Yeah, well, that's probably where the idea came from in the first place. Gods know it wasn't the newspapers or Real Life.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 01:53 am (UTC)