“Why It’s Already Difficult to Gain Entry Into the U.S.”
According to a January, 30, 2017 news article by Ron Nixon, published on the website of the New York Times, entitled "Why It’s Already Difficult to Gain Entry Into the U.S.", entering the US has already become a problem for foreigners, even though the immigration reforms put forward by President Trump have not been implemented yet. Besides, while Trump justified his initiatives, saying that stricter border controls will prevent terrorists from invading the country, there are already a lot of special programs that have been dealing successfully with these threats to national security for years.
President Trump’s words about an urgent need for extreme vetting have caused resentment among immigrants. However, there already exist quite a few immigration programs that complicate the process of entering the US for foreign citizens. Nixon starts with describing the so-called preclearence program, that is run by the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP). CBP officials are dispatched to the airports of different countries. Their main task is to collect fingertips and background information about those willing to enter the US. Guided by the data collected, they can allow or forbid a foreigner to cross the United States border. According to the Government Accountability Office, this measure has already helped to prevent tens of thousand of people from arriving in the US, since agents managed to determine that they posed threats to the national security of the United States.
The author then moves on to the discussion the IAP program. IAP abbreviation stands for Immigration Advisory Program, and it is aimed at identifying high-risk passengers and terrorists before they board airplanes heading to the United States. Their functions and methods are different from that of the CBP officials. IAP agents are unarmed, they do not possess any law enforcement authority, and most of the time they assist air companies in preventing fraud and make recommendations about allowing of forbidding passengers to board flights. Although airlines are not obliged to follow their advise, they normally do.
In the next part the author informs the reader about the Visa Security Program run by The Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of Homeland Security (ICE). ICE agents are attached to diplomatic posts across the globe; their task is to make sure that criminals are not granted a visa. To that end, they investigate all visa applications and interview applicants. Over the past two years, ICE agents have prevented roughly 2000 people related to terrorist organizations from getting visas.
Further on, the author examines the Visa waiver restrictions that underwent certain modifications during the Obama administration in response to the terrorist attacks of 2015 in France. Visa waiver program is not limited to the US solely, it rather used in 38 countries. The program complicates the migration process for immigrants coming from Iran, Syria, and Sudan. However, Visa waiver does not imply that the citizens of the aforementioned countries cannot enter the US at all; it requires …
