How America Scares Off Foreign Tourists
Published in Frankfurter Rundschau
(Germany) on 4 August 2015
by Daniel Haufler (link to original)
(Germany) on 4 August 2015
by Daniel Haufler (link to original)
Translated from
by Ron Argentati.
Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Planning a visit to the United States? Well, good luck! Gaining entry into the U.S. is becoming more of a hassle year by year. Inane questions are the least of the problem – and woe unto anyone foolish enough to crack a joke.
The United States is still a popular destination for immigrants and tourists. That should make Americans happy because they need immigrants, without whom some industries would collapse, and they need tourists because they spend a lot of money, without which a lot of jobs would cease to exist. Still, America's politicians and border guards have tried their best to avoid giving the impression that visitors or immigrants are always welcome. They say they want to build walls on the U.S.-Mexican border, and they constantly threaten any potential immigrants with deportation.
Tourists don't fare quite as badly, but the trip in has been getting less and less pleasant by the year. Visa applications are time consuming and expensive. Those who have the long flight behind them then run into a long line of cranky customs officials who appear to have been trained by former East German border guards. They ask stupid, unnecessary questions and demand to scan your fingerprints for the umpteenth time. And woe unto those who crack a joke – they might just as well turn right around and fly back home.
A Strange Way To Do Business
Here's what actually happened to Aimee Valentina Schneider, a graduate of a high school in the state of Hessen. She engaged in a Facebook chat with a second cousin in the United States and offered to take care of her children for four months in their own home. A U.S. customs official therefore accused Schneider of neglecting to state in her visa application that she was seeking work as an au pair in the United States. Her application was determined therefore to be fraudulent and she was immediately deported from the United States.
This incident is so grotesque one could only laugh about it – if it weren't so serious. On the one hand, Aimee Valentina Schneider's personal rights were grossly violated, something that ought to be considered scandalous in the United States. On the other hand, it raises this question: Do U.S. border officials really want to make the image of the ugly American any uglier than it already is? They need to think about that, particularly when it comes to their closest allies and friends. And lastly, where is the reaction of German politicians?
They're probably all on vacation. Hopefully not in the United States.
The United States is still a popular destination for immigrants and tourists. That should make Americans happy because they need immigrants, without whom some industries would collapse, and they need tourists because they spend a lot of money, without which a lot of jobs would cease to exist. Still, America's politicians and border guards have tried their best to avoid giving the impression that visitors or immigrants are always welcome. They say they want to build walls on the U.S.-Mexican border, and they constantly threaten any potential immigrants with deportation.
Tourists don't fare quite as badly, but the trip in has been getting less and less pleasant by the year. Visa applications are time consuming and expensive. Those who have the long flight behind them then run into a long line of cranky customs officials who appear to have been trained by former East German border guards. They ask stupid, unnecessary questions and demand to scan your fingerprints for the umpteenth time. And woe unto those who crack a joke – they might just as well turn right around and fly back home.
A Strange Way To Do Business
Here's what actually happened to Aimee Valentina Schneider, a graduate of a high school in the state of Hessen. She engaged in a Facebook chat with a second cousin in the United States and offered to take care of her children for four months in their own home. A U.S. customs official therefore accused Schneider of neglecting to state in her visa application that she was seeking work as an au pair in the United States. Her application was determined therefore to be fraudulent and she was immediately deported from the United States.
This incident is so grotesque one could only laugh about it – if it weren't so serious. On the one hand, Aimee Valentina Schneider's personal rights were grossly violated, something that ought to be considered scandalous in the United States. On the other hand, it raises this question: Do U.S. border officials really want to make the image of the ugly American any uglier than it already is? They need to think about that, particularly when it comes to their closest allies and friends. And lastly, where is the reaction of German politicians?
They're probably all on vacation. Hopefully not in the United States.
America welcomes tourists with open arms. We are a land of immigrants and millions of us are from your own country
so please tell me which industry will collapse without illegal immigrants? at the end of wwII we had about 140 million people after our casualties fighting major wars on two hemispheres. our war time production figures are astounding ie an aircraft carrier launched every week over 50 of which were used in the invasion of Okinawa, jeep production was halted, in I think 1943, we had so many there was nowhere to store them hence the urban legend of the $50 jeep in a crate. with over 300 million people currently we have no need for any more people with robotics and automation we have a huge surplus. locally they are field testing a robotic strawberry picking machine which replaces 50 pickers more if you were to use it 24 hrs. a day which should be an easy modification. any labor shortfalls which could occur could be easily overcome with H2 (A and B) workers. face it we don’t need illegal immigrants and could live without any immigration at all