"Visit Fortress America — We Might Eventually Let You In"

A pretty cheap way to treat foreign friends

WASHINGTON ?- In the nearly two years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has conducted dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of hearings in which legislators issue dire warnings about our vulnerability to terrorism. But Thursday's hearing of the House Government Reform Committee sounded a radically different note. Suddenly, both Republicans and Democrats were expressing concerns that America may be making it too onerous for foreign business travelers and tourists to enter the USA.
Virginia Republican Tom Davis, the committee chairman, ominously declared, "Long-standing business relationships are being disrupted because legitimate travelers attempting to travel to the U.S. cannot obtain visas." The committee's senior Democrat, California's Henry Waxman, warned that a soon-to-take-effect round of regulatory changes involving foreign passports and visa requirements are "a recipe for disaster."

Congress, of course, has not gone wobbly on the question of securing our borders against would-be terrorists. What the bipartisan hearing symbolized instead was the emergence of second thoughts about border-control policies that combine enhanced security requirements with inadequate resources. Waxman talked about the need to draw a balance "between having an open society, one that encourages international tourism and commerce, and the need to protect ourselves against real terrorist threats."

To understand this intriguing debate, it is necessary to first explain the rules that foreigners who want to visit America must currently follow. Residents of 28 industrialized countries, mostly in Europe along with such Asian nations as Japan, benefit from a program that allows entry into the USA by merely showing a valid passport. Other foreign nationals, including residents of such allied nations as Israel and South Korea, must first obtain a visa from a U.S. embassy or consulate. The visa regulations technically require a personal interview with a consular official, but these provisions are waived in most cases.

Now here is what is about to change. The State Department has issued regulations, taking effect Aug. 1, that will require most visa applicants to submit to a personal interview. The theory is that a brief conversation in an embassy might snare a few would-be terrorists.

But this increased vigilance comes at a price. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated in a May 3 cable to U.S. missions abroad: "Posts must implement the new interview guidelines using existing resources. Post should not, repeat not, use overtime to deal with additional workload requirements."

In other words, the State Department does not have the money and staff to implement the regulations without subjecting legitimate travelers to harrowing delays.

Meanwhile, visitors from passport-only nations are also in for a shock. The USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, requires that travelers coming from these friendly nations must have machine-readable passports by Oct. 1.

The problem with this anti-fraud provision is that many residents of countries such as Spain, Switzerland and, yes, France still carry old-fashioned passports. What this means is that some innocent tourists heading for Walt Disney World may not get any further than the immigrationline at an American airport. More prudent travelers will be forced to obtain visas, which, in Catch-22 fashion, brings us right back to the lengthy waits required for a consular interview.

At Thursday's hearing, it was hard not to have a bit of sympathy for Janice Jacobs, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for visa services. This midlevel official had to continually defend policies that seem designed to cause maximum inconvenience to the maximum number of foreign visitors. Jacobs was reduced to bragging about tiny remedies: "We have a net increase of 39 consular officials for fiscal year 2003 and another 40 in fiscal year 2004."

These 79 new staffers will do little to reduce the global backlog of visa applications. During the questioning, Jacobs also admitted that the State Department computers are still incompatible with those of the FBI. The result is more delays because the FBI must check the names of visa applicants against those on its terrorist watch list. Sounding like a government bureaucrat still mired in the typewriter era, Jacobs said in an optimistic tone, "Both of our agencies are working towards eventually doing this electronically."

Some Americans will chortle at the thought of the feckless French forced to stand in slow-moving visa lines for the privilege of visiting the nation that had the gumption to stand up to Saddam Hussein. But what about the Spanish, one of the president's few allies in "Old Europe"? The truth is that we institutionalize rudeness to foreign travelers at our own peril. Beyond the obvious economic costs to U.S. business, especially the tourism industry, we are needlessly antagonizing foreign citizens and fostering anti-American sentiment.

The issue is not border security. Rather, it is the government's insistence on trying to enforce the new visa regulations on the cheap. By starving the State Department's consular service at a time when we can afford tax cuts and a new prescription-drug program for Medicare, we are humiliating law-abiding foreigners whose only crime is wanting to visit America. If that is indeed our attitude toward the rest of the world, we might start running tourism ads in Europe that proudly declare, "Visit Fortress America ?- We Might Eventually Let You In."


link to article in:USToday: Hype & Glory : Walter Shapiro