US becoming a police state

[Almo]

Got this from expedia:

Dear Expedia.ca Customer,

Will you be travelling to the United States in the new year? The U.S. government will soon require you to present a passport that establishes your identity and nationality in order to enter or re-enter the United States.

Unless you are a frequent international traveller and participate in an existing U.S. border identity program, you will require a passport. Documents such as birth certificates, citizenship cards, driver’s licences and provincial health cards will no longer be accepted by U.S. border agents.

January 23, 2007 – A passport will be required for all air travel to the United States.

June 1, 2009 – The passport requirement will be extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel to the United States.

If you are travelling to the United States with a child, you should also carry documentation proving your custodial rights, particularly for very young children. If a child, younger than 18 years, is travelling with only one parent or a non-custodial guardian, they must also provide a certified letter of consent proving that travel is permitted by both parents.

Travellers by air, land and sea must also provide documentation regarding their place of residence while in the U.S. This information will be declared on your U.S. Border and Customs manifest. You must be able to provide: Street Address/Hotel Name, City, State and ZIP Code.

Bolding mine. We're citizens, dammit. We can go where we want after entering the country. An iron curtain is decending across the US, and it upsets me greatly. Very glad to be living in Canada right now. What's going on in the US is abominable.

 

[Solus]

Got this from expedia:



Bolding mine. We're citizens, dammit. We can go where we want after entering the country. An iron curtain is decending across the US, and it upsets me greatly. Very glad to be living in Canada right now. What's going on in the US is abominable.

I guess we are already getting to 1984. I need a passport to travel aboard? What's so crazy about that? First passports, next they'll be tracking our every movement with implanted chips.

Let me know when the US really starts being a "police state", thanks.

Oh yes, Hitler and Nazi germany had what's called a police state. You should look up what that word really means. Godwin invoked.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Got this from expedia:
We're citizens, dammit. We can go where we want after entering the country. An iron curtain is decending across the US, and it upsets me greatly. Very glad to be living in Canada right now. What's going on in the US is abominable.

Ten years ago I had to turn over my passport to the clerk at a hotel in Perugia, Italy, in order to spend the night there. Haven't had to do that in the US lately, although each hotel I have stayed at in the past 8 years has asked for home address info, and has demanded a credit card imprint up front.

Methinks you are a few years late in your "Chicken Little" reaction.

George Orwell for President, 2008. Vote the NewSpeak Platform, sweep the Unbad Party into Congress. I don't care if Orwell is dead. If dead people can vote in Texas (Jim Wells County) and Illinois (Cook County) then dead people can get elected! Oh, crap, Orwell wasn't born in the US, was he?

There goes my political career as UnBad Party hack, down the toilet.

*flush*

DR

 

[Skeptic]

(Puzzled look)

You're joking about the "police state" part, aren't you?

 

[Huntster]

Ten years ago I had to turn over my passport to the clerk at a hotel in Perugia, Italy, in order to spend the night there. Haven't had to do that in the US lately, although each hotel I have stayed at in the past 8 years has asked for home address info, and has demanded a credit card imprint up front.

Very dangerous. I wouldn't have done it. I'd go to another hotel or even sleep in the alley first.

Once I was challenged my a military police officer to surrender my military ID, and I could get it back when I exited a particular secured area. I told him I was not leaving my ID anywhere. He persisted until I asked to use the phone, then he reconsidered before the phone call was made. I signed in and went forward with my ID in my pocket.

Never, ever surrender your ID and leave it.

 

[Francesca R]

Very dangerous. I wouldn't have done it. I'd go to another hotel or even sleep in the alley first.

It's a fairly standard request in Europe, although hotels cannot require that you surrender it. Instead you can remain at the desk whilst they do whatever checking they do with it.

Unless you are a frequent international traveller and participate in an existing U.S. border identity program, you will require a passport. Documents such as birth certificates, citizenship cards, driver’s licences and provincial health cards will no longer be accepted by U.S. border agents.

Is this about Canadians needing passport ID to enter the US? I am surprised they didn't need it anyway. Don't US citizens need it too? I need my UK passport to enter the UK. And when I go to the US I need to provide two finger imprints and have my photo taken. At least the line has been renamed "VISITORS" instead of "ALIENS"

 

[Solus]

Ten years ago I had to turn over my passport to the clerk at a hotel in Perugia, Italy, in order to spend the night there. Haven't had to do that in the US lately, although each hotel I have stayed at in the past 8 years has asked for home address info, and has demanded a credit card imprint up front.

Methinks you are a few years late in your "Chicken Little" reaction.

George Orwell for President, 2008. Vote the NewSpeak Platform, sweep the Unbad Party into Congress. I don't care if Orwell is dead. If dead people can vote in Texas (Jim Wells County) and Illinois (Cook County) then dead people can get elected! Oh, crap, Orwell wasn't born in the US, was he?

There goes my political career as UnBad Party hack, down the toilet.

*flush*

DR

Room 101 for you...

 

[Huntster]

Originally Posted by Huntster
Very dangerous. I wouldn't have done it. I'd go to another hotel or even sleep in the alley first.

It's a fairly standard request in Europe, although hotels cannot require that you surrender it. Instead you can remain at the desk whilst they do whatever checking they do with it.

Yes, it's a growing trend, and one which should be resisted.

I'll stand there patiently while any and all checking and verification takes place, but when they say that it must be surrendered until your departure, I'll be making a couple of phone calls to try to convince them otherwise.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Very dangerous. I wouldn't have done it. I'd go to another hotel or even sleep in the alley first.

Once I was challenged my a military police officer to surrender my military ID, and I could get it back when I exited a particular secured area. I told him I was not leaving my ID anywhere. He persisted until I asked to use the phone, then he reconsidered before the phone call was made. I signed in and went forward with my ID in my pocket.

Never, ever surrender your ID and leave it.

Italian Law. All the hotels do that, particularly to foreigners. Yes, she did give it back to me in the morning.

DR

 

[Francesca R]

Italian Law. All the hotels do that, particularly to foreigners. Yes, she did give it back to me in the morning.

DR

Under Italian law, tourists are required to register with a local police station within eight working days of your arrival to obtain a "Permesso di soggiorno" - a permit of stay.

• If you take a room at a hotel, the staff will take care of registering your visit with the police and you need take no further action (this is why the hotel staff will request your passport during hotel registration, returning it to you, usually, the next day) .
• If you are staying with friends or in a private home, you must register in person at the nearest police station within a 8-day period.
• If you arrive in Rome, there is a special police information office to assist tourists who need to obtain the Permesso. (Interpreters are available) telephone: 461-950 or 486-609.

Source

You don't have to surrender it to hotel staff. Most people think that is more convenient though.

ETA: When I go to Italy I don't usually stay in a hotel though, and I must confess to not popping along to the Polizia

 

[Darth Rotor]

You don't have to surrender it to hotel staff. Most people think that is more convenient though.

ETA: When I go to Italy I don't usually stay in a hotel though, and I must confess to not popping along to the Polizia

The clerk told me that the law dates back to Mussolini's reign. I believed her, but it may be an urban legend in Italy.

DR

 

[Francesca R]

In Mussolini's reign you had to hand over your gold too

 

[Ziggurat]

Bolding mine. We're citizens, dammit. We can go where we want after entering the country. An iron curtain is decending across the US, and it upsets me greatly.

Expedia gave out a generalized warning which looks to me like it only pertains to non-citizens, and you think that somehow indicates that we're becoming a police state? I think you're hyperventilating over the fact that Expeida didn't try to filter this message based upon the citizenship of its customers.

 

[bob_kark]

I think Almo's right. I went to Radio Shack and they wanted my telephone number and zip code. I said to the clerk "Forget you Nazi Man! I can buy my 500' of telephone wire, remote control mini Buick Skylark, singing wall fish, and cordless telephone that looks like a cell phone anywhere!" Although I was wrong, you really can't find crap like that anywhere else, I'm still glad I didn't bow to Nazi Shack's pressure.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. I called to order Direct TV and the guy was asking me all these questions like, "What's your name? Where do you live? What's your telephone number?" I said, "Look buddy, if you want my business, you won't ask me all these personal questions. Have your pals at the NSA, CIA, Neo-KGB, FBI, and AFL-CIO track me down with their satellites and nano machines you're sending through the telephone line. If I don't see your truck out here by the end of the week, I'll do my business elsewhere!" I never heard from them again. I suppose it's for the best. They would've just beamed their mindcontrol software into my head through the dish. Sneaky bastages.

 

[Tailgater]

I thought requiring a passport when entering or leaving the country has always been the policy. Birth certificates required especially for children. Did I miss something here?

 

[rikzilla]

Wow! You're right I just got a visit from the ministry for the prevention of vice and promotion of virtue.

They stole my big box o' porno, my CD collection, and my kite.

Woe is me...

-z

 

[Twilek]

I don't understand the the hand-wringing over requiring a passport, even to just cross into Canada and back. When I moved to Champlain NY and was dating a Montrealer (who became my husband) I knew I'd be crossing an international border on a weekly basis, so I got a passport.

Sure, they'd let me go with a NY driver's license, but they asked a lot more questions. Also, when I flew into Canada with just an AZ driver's license the year prior, I got pulled aside for additional questioning at customs.

This was all prior to 9/11, by the way. I didn't need the hassle then, and who the heck needs it now? If you want to travel, just take yer butt out and get a passport. Whoop-dee-doodly-do.

 

[steverino]

Ten years ago I had to turn over my passport to the clerk at a hotel in Perugia, Italy, in order to spend the night there. Haven't had to do that in the US lately, although each hotel I have stayed at in the past 8 years has asked for home address info, and has demanded a credit card imprint up front.
DR

Geeze. Yesterday you wrote about your Turkish colleague, today it's hotel rooms in Perugia. (insert James Bond theme song)

What's next, gondola rides in Hong Kong?

 

[BPSCG]

Bolding mine. We're citizens, dammit. We can go where we want after entering the country. An iron curtain is decending across the US, and it upsets me greatly. Very glad to be living in Canada right now. What's going on in the US is abominable.

You're kidding, right? The government that has the authority to decide who may visit the U.S. and who may not, does not have the authority to require you to state where you will be staying while you are visiting?

Yeah, we're a bunch of Nazis here (or Commies, I guess, if we're going to stay with the "iron curtain" metaphor); if you don't like our Nazi/Commie way of doing things, you're welcome to not come and visit.

Let me ask you, when you cross the border, and the customs agent asks, as customs agents have always asked, "What is the purpose of your visit?" what do you generally reply?

• "None of your #$%ing business, you Nazi filth!"
• "None of your #$%ing business, you Commie filth!"
• "Screw you guys; I'm going home!"

 

[Darth Rotor]

Geeze. Yesterday you wrote about your Turkish colleague, today it's hotel rooms in Perugia. (insert James Bond theme song)

What's next, gondola rides in Hong Kong?

Last time I was in Hong Kong, I . . . don't remember much. Big headache in the morning, though.

DR