Of course illegal aliens will remain exempt

Trans-Atlantic Travelers Must Give
48 Hours' Notice to Enter U.S.

By Andrew Ward and Stanley Pignal
Financial Times, London
Friday, August 3, 2007

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1169f782-41eb-11dc-8328-0000779fd2ac.html

Western European business travellers will be forced to give 48 hours' notice of their plans to visit the US under legislation signed on Friday by President George W. Bush.

The bill, aimed at bolstering security against terrorism, also requires the screening of all air and sea freight at foreign ports before being allowed into the US.

The measures were among the recommendations made by the commission set up to investigate the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

Mr Bush said: "This legislation builds upon the considerable progress we have made in strengthening our defences and protecting Americans since the attacks of September 11, 2001."

Visitors from 22 western European countries -- including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain -- will be affected by the rule requiring travel plans to be registered online 48 hours before departure for the US.

The measure, expected to be introduced next year, is designed to increase scrutiny of visitors from the 26 developed countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter the US.

Congress has become increasingly concerned about the potential for terrorists to exploit the relatively lax checks on visitors from members of the visa waiver programme, which also include Japan and Singapore.

Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen who was convicted of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and Richard Reid, a British citizen who attempted to blow up a transatlantic airliner with a shoe bomb, were both able to travel to the US without visas.

The attempted attacks in London and Glasgow in June heightened US concern about the presence of terrorists in the UK and other European countries.

"After Madrid, London and Glasgow, there can be no doubt that there are lethal and committed Islamic terrorist cells active all across western Europe," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Many of these terrorists are citizens of those countries and under the visa waiver programme they can easily enter the US with no prior screening."

Michael Chertoff, US homeland security secretary, has vowed that provisions will be made for visitors who need to visit the US at short notice. But the 48-hour measure is likely to increase concern among business travellers and tourists about the greater inconvenience surrounding visits to the US since the September 2001 attacks.

"Obviously, it's a big inconvenience," said Filippo Pandolfini, a London-based investment banker at JPMorgan, referring to the 48-hour measure. "You never know when you have to travel for business. Plans can change." He added that many would support the measure if it helped shorten queues at immigration on arrival.

Visits to the US from countries other than Canada and Mexico have fallen 17 per cent since 2000, in spite of a 20 per cent increase in cross-border travel elsewhere in the world.

The legislation represented a compromise between domestic demands for greater restrictions on the visa waiver programme and international pressure on the US to welcome more countries into the scheme.

New eligibility rules included in the bill will allow visitors from 12 more countries -- including South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, and the Czech Republic -- to enter the US without a visa.

The visa waiver programme had become an increasing source of tension between the US and close allies such as South Korea and the Czech Republic, which were excluded.

Mr Bush views expansion of the programme as a way to reward allies and combat anti-American sentiment. A recent Pew survey of global attitudes found people who had visited the US felt significantly more positive about the country than those who had not.

He vowed to continue working with Congress to open the visa waiver programme to more countries -- a gesture to allies such as Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary, which were excluded from the latest expansion.

Mr Bush also promised to make sure that screening of cargo into the US did not disrupt international trade.

The legislation called for all air cargo to be screened for terrorist devices -- particularly nuclear material -- within three years and all sea containers within five years, although it allows for extensions to the deadline.

European and Asian countries have complained that mandatory screening of all cargo will cause delays and more costs.

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