On the flight from Amsterdam to Memphis, we were treated to the obligatory “Homeland Security Procedures for Foreign Visitors” video. This animated feature is intended to provide newcomers to the Land of the Free (TM) with an overview of our nation’s labyrinthine and xenophobic entry requirements.
The video is set in a colorless, sterile world where there are only two kinds of people: faceless foreigners and faceless Border Control Agents. Both roles are played by identical, vaguely masculine figures with slightly hunched shoulders. Though these shadowy clones were likely conceived to avoid ethnic references, the final effect is chilling. In America, it seems, everyone (including the Americans!) is considered to be cut from the same dark, threatening cloth.
The video goes on to explain that in America, as in most countries, visitors must provide passports and visas. In addition, exactly like common criminals, all visitors are expected to pose for mug shots and submit to fingerprinting. In other words: these days, everyone entering the Land of the Free (TM) is assumed to be a criminal. Just in case you’re inclined to fulfill your criminal potential, we want photographs and fingerprints on file.
Who stores those photographs and fingerprints? Where do they go? How long are they kept on file? How secure is this information? What guarantees are there that it will not be misused or abused? What laws govern its collection, storage, and use?
We are not told. All we do learn is this: in the Land of the Free (TM) everyone is assumed to be a terrorist.
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