In the United States’ never-ending quest to piss off every single foreign visitor to our country, Congress has decided that international visitors must be fingerprinted like criminals when they arrive AND when they leave the country.
But Congress didn’t say who should be responsible for taking the prints. So the airlines are being fingered (sorry…) by Homeland Security to do the deed, and they’re resisting.
On the plus side: Airlines are finally standing up for their international customers and pushing back. But they’re not pushing back against the culture of fear; they’re making a legal argument about unfunded mandates and the role of the private sector in performing government functions.
But let’s face it, airlines only objected once they had to start actively participating in the fingerprinting scheme. They only objected when they had work to do.
So if Homeland Security takes responsibility for the mandated ‘printing, will any airlines maintain their objections to the scheme? Don’t bet on it.
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March 19th, 2008 at 1:45 am
I’d be for international boycotts on travel here, even if it harmed the economy in the short term. Maybe it’d send a message to the buffoons up high.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
“On the plus side: Airlines are finally standing up for their international customers and pushing back.”
Like Richard Reid.
“But they’re not pushing back against the culture of fear;”
World Trace Center, Pentagon, PA fields.
“they’re making a legal argument about unfunded mandates and the role of the private sector in performing government functions.”
But not when local gov’ts condemn property to build airports, when general taxes pay for the FAA, etc, etc.
-TF
March 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
TierFlyer, Richard Reid got on a plane in the UK. He wouldn’t have been ‘printed until he got to the US.
And playing the 9/11 card is, frankly, too easy. Would fingerprinting the 19 9/11 terrorists (who flew domestically) have helped?
If you really think that every passenger can be a threat to the USA, then fingerprint every passenger, every flight, to every destination, regardless of citizenship.
Your attitude toward personal rights, as well as toward foreign visitors to our country, is disturbing, to say the least.
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” — Benjamin Franklin