Homeland Security
Tightens Grip on International Travel
By Ezekiel
11/04/06 "SFTS"
-- -A radical change in
international travel rules has been
lost in these tumultuous last few
months that have seen the demise of
habeas corpus, the
legalization of torture and the
expansion of the President's martial
law powers.
The Department of Homeland Security
proposed
new rules back in July that would
fundamentally undermine the right of
American citizens to travel abroad.
Public carriers--airlines, cruise
lines, even fishing boats--will be
required
to submit the
names of all passengers to Homeland
Security prior to departure and to
obtain permission from Homeland
Security to board those passengers.
These new rules will take effect
January 14, 2007.
Current practices already represent a
severe restriction on the right to
travel. The "no-fly list" dates back
to 1990, but Patriot Act I created a
new agency, the Transportation
Security Administration, that was
charged with creating and maintaining
a list of people who were not allowed
to board airplanes. The list was
reported to have contained around
1,000 names by the end of 2001 of
people strictly forbidden to fly plus
a second longer list of "selectees"
who were to be called out of line and
subjected to closer searches and
intense questioning before they were
allowed to board. Many American
politcal activists reported that they
were on the "selectee" list. These
lists of names were provided to
airlines who were charged with the
task of separating out listed
passengers and notifying authorities.
In December, 2005, a Swedish airline
leaked that the list had grown
from 1,000 to over 80,000.
The new procedure will completely
eliminate the opportunity for the
public to find out how many people are
on the list. No airline or cruise
company will ever receive a "no-fly"
or "selectee" list. Instead of
providing a passenger manifest
after departure
as now required by the Customs and
Border Patrol, airlines, cruise lines
and other public carriers will have to
provide a provisional pasenger list
prior to departure. This list will be
checked against a Homeland Security
list of citizens approved for
international travel, and the carrier
will be ordered not to board those who
are not approved. This is from the
proposed rule itself:
Therefore, CBP [Customas and Border
Patrol] has concluded that the
prevention of a high-risk passenger
from boarding an aircraft is the
appropriate level of security in the
commercial air travel environment.
Manifest data received and vetted
prior to passenger boarding will
enable CBP to attain this level of
security. Further, this vetting of
passengers on international flights
should eliminate the need for
passenger carriers to conduct watch
list screening of these passengers,
upon publication and implementation
of a final rule. Accordingly, with
this proposed rule,CBP is proposing
two transmission options for air
carriers to select from at their
discretion: (i) the submission of
complete manifests no later than
60minutes prior to departure or (ii)transmitting
passenger data asindividual,
real-time transactions, i.e.,as each
passenger checks in, up to but no
later than 15 minutes prior
todeparture. Under both
options, the carrier will not permit
the boarding of a passenger unless
the passenger has been cleared by
CBP.
Seagoing vessels are required to
submit their list 60 minutes prior to
departure under the rule.
Who will be on the list? That's a
secret. What criteria will determine
who is on and who is off the list?
That's a secret. How many people will
be approved and how many will not?
That's a secret. If you're not on the
approved list, how can you petition
the government to change your status?
You can't.
The non-profit Identity Project has
filed
comments with Homeland Security
urging that the rule changes be
dropped. They argue that they violate
the U. S. Constitution and
international law:
The [proposed rule change] would
replace a requirement for ex post
facto notice to the CBP of
information about who is on each
vessel (ship or plane) with
anunconstitutional system of prior
restraint of international travel,
entirely unauthorized by statute and
inconsistent with the U.S.
obligations embodied in the
International Covenant on Civil and
PoliticalRights. Under the proposed
rules, orders by the CBP [Customs
adn Border Patrol] to common
carriers not to transport specific
persons would not be based on
restraining orders (injunctions)
issued by competent judicial
authorities. Instead,they would be
based on an undefined, secret,
administrative permission-to-travel
(?clearance?) procedure subject to
none of the procedural or
substantive due process required for
orders prohibiting or restricting
the exercise of protected First
Amendment rights. From the authority
of law enforcement officers
andagencies to enforce certain types
of orders, once lawfully issued by
compe tent judicial authorities, the
[proposed rule change] would usurp
for the CBP the authority to issue
those orders on its own.
I remember watching Sound of Music
when I was a child and feeling my
heart race as the Von Trapp family
made its escape from Nazified
Austria. I could never have imagined
that a day would come when those
wanting to leave the United States
would be forced to "make a run" for
the border to evade a myriad of
obstacles placed by an
American government in
the path of those who wished to
exercise their fundamental human right
to emigrate.
That day has not yet arrived. But it
will on January 14.
WORLD PEACE ASSOCIATION
