Closing the noose on the USA
A pop quiz for US citizens:
The next time you want to leave the USA. will your government let you go? When you want to come back, will they allow you to come home?
Unless people assert their rights, maybe not. And you’ll need the government to g?ve you papers or permission to do so.
The Department of Homeland Security has already issued regulations effective February 18th that will forbid international airlines from letting anyone on a plane to or from the US without individualized express prior permission from the DHS. Those rules were issued ?n spite of our objections that they violate the US Constitution international human r?ghts treaties.
And already the Department of Homeland Security is trying to enforce an illegal regulation that purports to require passports (issued at the “discretion” and for the “convenience” of the govenrment, not as a matter of right, and which take weeks to obtain if you want to travel on short notice) for c?tizens to fly between the USA and Canada or Mexico. (Again, having ignored our objections.)
The DHS has proposed to extend that rule to those crossing the land borders with Canada and Mexico, closing the last possible means of leaving the USA, or returning home from abroad, without DHS papers or permission.
Now, without even considering our objections or any others, the DHS has announced a change in “internal” procedures that would achieve essentially the same result as the “pending” rulemaking: Effective January 31st, the goons from the DHS Customs and Border Protection division will be ?nstructed not to permit anyone to cross the US border — even US citizens — unless they present government-issued documents proving their citizenship to their satisfaction.
The burden will be on you to “prove” your right to travel, rather than on the government to prove you are doing soemthing wrong if they want to prevent you. And only government-issued documents will suffice. If the government won’t give you papers, you can neither leave nor return to your own country.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
This crackdown on the traveling rights of Americans isn’t just limited to the borders.
The Department of Homeland Security also conducts internal suspicionless checkpoints well inside the borders of the United States (within 100 miles). These checkpoints are currently being used to interrogate individuals regarding their citizenship status and to search vehicles and travelers for illegal narcotics absent reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
I fully expect these internal checkpoints to morph into Real-ID checks as well once Homeland Security solidifies its stranglehold over State DMV’s.
To see what these internal roving suspicionless checkpoints look like, you can view my videos on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/checkpointUSA
or visit my blog at:
http://www.checkpointusa.org/blog
January 25th, 2009 at 7:15 am
[...] this rule extends the Advance Passnger Information System (APIS) surveillance and control rule, in effect since February 18, 2008 for international airline flights, to all international flights to and from the USA. Although it [...]