Strict US visa policy scares away students, investors

[KamaAina]

This is when you know they've gone off the rails: when this Fortress Amerika B.S. starts to threaten their own economic security.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050504/lf_afp/usimmigrationvisa_050504073042

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A teenage Asian girl with a valid student visa was handcuffed and deported for entering the United States five days earlier than stipulated, highlighting strict American immigration policy.

A 79-year-old British historian, who came to work at the US Library of Congress on the life of US former chief diplomat Henry Kissinger, was herded on arrival in a wheelchair at Washington's Dulles airport to a small room facing a superintendent with a revolver in his hip for no apparent mistake....

Stringent enforcement of US visa policy and seemingly overzealous immigration officers following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks are not only scaring away foreign students and tourists but dampening the investment climate of the world's richest nation and taking a toll on its economy, experts told the conference organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies....

-- An international business conference in Hawaii had to be shifted to Hong Kong at the last minute because the organizers could not obtain travel papers for most of its participants, who were from China.

Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. Do these morans know how hard we've been trying to diversify our economy beyond tourism and their precious military by atracting Pacific Rim investment? And this, this is how they treat our (formerly) potential investors?!

:grr: :banghead: :nuke:

(Slapping the cuffs on the teenager was a nice touch, too. :sarcasm: )