Long Immigration Lines? Bypass U.S. Customs!
by Judd WileyMay 15th, 2008, 3:00 pm
When I read this AP headline - “Airport Program Could Allow Bypass of Customs” - I instinctively checked the date on my computer to make sure it wasn’t April Fools Day.
Here’s the whole story:
Travelers who love going abroad - but hate the tedious customs process - soon might be able to avoid customs altogether.
Dulles International Airport has been selected for a pilot program that will let U.S. citizens and others who qualify to check themselves through customs at a self-service kiosk.
Enrollees would pay a yearly fee of $100, go through a background check and then take a biometrics test to get through the process.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the goal is to accelerate the customs process, which can be plagued by long lines and delays.
If successful, the international registered traveler program could be expanded nationwide.
A similar domestic program called “CLEAR” also is being tried out at Dulles and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Government stupidity has reached a new low.
From 1789 until 2003 we had the U.S. Customs Service. Its job was to regulate what products could and could not enter or leave the country. Most important was keeping illegal products outside the borders. On March 1, 2003, the newly created Deptartment of Homeland Security swallowed up the Customs Service, and chopped it into little pieces. The agency that currently regulates products entering the country is U.S. Customs and Border Protection - the same organization quoted in the above AP story. It’s also responsible for keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S.
What happens once these self-service kiosks become operational?
Here’s one scenario. I pay $100, get a cursory background check (read: some miserable cubicle worker checks my credit history), take a biometrics test, and am cleared to travel. I fly to Latin America, purchase 5 kilos of cocaine and 1,000 Cuban cigars, fly back to Dulles, and avoid a customs inspection via the new self-service kiosk. I sell my Cubans and yayo, and head right back to Latin America for more. I become a very rich man and retire to the Bahamas.
Here’s another scenario. I pay $100 and get cleared to travel by the U.S government. I fly to Dubai on “business,” buy a ticket to Afghanistan with cash, fly to Kabul, and hitch a ride to Jalalabad in a jingle truck. I grow a beard, take a donkey ride deep into the mountains, and learn how to kill Americans. I transit through Dubai, fly back to Dulles, and avoid a customs inspection via the new self-service kiosk. I commit some horrible act of mass murder and become famous.
Just to reiterate: The entire purpose of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to make sure bad things - humans, animals, products - don’t get into the country.
What the hell are the riff-raff government workers thinking by replacing the customs inspection process - no matter how imperfect it currently is - with a self-service kiosk?
We definitely need a shorter, more efficient customs process at our airports, but not this stupidity.
Posted in Airports, Security |
Judd, I actually think it’s awesome that a Government entity has declared itself completely useless.
The only thing left to do is cut off the funding since we apparently don’t need this service anyway - after all, the honor system will clearly protect us.
Pulling the taxpayer nipple out of Customs and Border Protection’s Mouth would save us $9.5 billion - money our roads, railroads and mass transit systems need.
Hell, there is also a department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they’ve basically declared themselves worthless too. Let’s save ourselves another $5.3 billion.
I’m all for it provided it goes to our decaying infrastructure. If it finances another “Loud Radios May Drown Out Unwanted Passenger Conversation” or similarly obvious study from DoT, I will personally install a traffic light at the entrance to DoT and program it so that it never changes from red to green. I’ll see if those mouth-breathers can figure out how to leave the compound before they starve to death.
Guys,
Hiss Kaag back again to chat up this subject. Was speaking with my good buddy Koe Jehoe on the topic and I think we have come to quorum.
As long as 1 MM Mexicans can jump an invisible fence into the country, you might as well scrap DHS.
Also, while we’re slamming DHS might as well scrap those morons at DoT.
Just a thought.
G-d Bless.
SEE YOU AT IHOP.
Mr. Kaag
yo kaag, you sound to me like a ron paul supporter…am i off the mark here? let me guess, we should scrap every other governmental organization, tear up the yankee dollar, and switch to the gold standard.