How to get Visa-free access to the United States

The United States is one of the least welcoming countries in the world based on our visa policy. Only Canadians, Palauans, Marshall Islanders, and Micronesians can come here without some sort of visa. Everyone else needs to either preregister for $14 or pay $140 for a ten year visa. Most people need to pay the $140.

I think this is ridiculous because many countries which require visas are safer than we are, and we are really not protecting ourselves by making German tourists pre-register before they invade with socks and sandals.

All jokes aside, this should be a much bigger diplomatic issue. There are a few options for countries to reciprocate. Some countries usually will charge the citizens of the other country the same amount before abolishing visas, but I think there is a better way to do this.

When most Americans travel abroad off the continent we will most likely travel to The European Union. These countries are our allies, and safer than us by practically every metric. There is absolutely no reason to have visas for German and French tourists. I count a visa as any document which a tourist must pre-register for and pay money before they arrive, whether there is a 99.9% approval rate or not. The European Union should negotiate with my country to get visa-free access for their citizens by making a demand.

Either all Schengen Treaty citizens get visa free access to the United States,or the following laws will trigger.

1. Americans will have to pay $140 for a 10 year visa to visit the Schengen Area effective immediately. This will be an on-line application. Each and every applicant will be given a message that this is reciprocity, and if they want visa-free access to call their member of congress which the EU will provide for them on the page.
2. Elected government officials must pay $1000 for a single entry 14 day visa to visit the European Union or Schengen Area effective immediately.
3. The United States President and Secretary of State are banned from entering the European Union or Schengen Area effective immediately.
4. Ambassadors must pay $3 per day to remain in the European Union. Starting 1 January 2021 Ambassadors must pay $1000 per day to remain in the European Union.

Or the United States can give EU and Schengen Area members visa-free entry.

Tourist visa fees will be refunded after visa-free access is granted.

This would probably work.

Unfortunately, the European Union is not doing this plan. Instead, under the leadership of Juncker they are deciding to go with a similar plan to the US, Canada, and Australia of having low-cost visas for tourists starting the beginning of 2021. They said themselves back when the US started charging for ETA that the idea that it would increase tourism is ludicrous. However, 8 years later they end up doing the same thing which will not help their tourism industry. It will not keep Europeans safe, neither will it increase goodwill between countries. Their system is even worse because applicants will need to announce which country they intend to enter in and will not be allowed to enter in other countries in the Schengen Area. This means that unless if they see sense before then that people will be required to always to fly through one country and then transfer, which will hurt tourism.

I personally have family in Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Saying I MUST always enter through Germany to go to Finland for a three year period is inconvenient, and doesn't benefit anyone.

The system we have now where we present our passport when we arrive and get a stamp is as much as we need (probably more than we need actually) in terms of safety on both sides of the Atlantic relative to both countries. ETIAS is also not just being targeted at the US, Canada, and Australia who have similar absolutely ridiculous systems.

More than this, pre-registration like ESTA, ETA, and ETIAS push refugees out of sight and out of mind, enabling fascists. With the EU, Canada, USA, and Australia implementing such systems, the number of places where refugees can safely go to avoid persecution grow low in number. These programs are not being targeted at countries like Saudi Arabia which would be a real security risk given their attacks on other countries with their paramilitaries, but instead between free and developed countries, where they simply do not belong.

There also isn't nearly enough research on the impact of such systems on tourism or safety, meaning they are not making us safer, and the government has failed to provide any proof that they actually keep terrorists from crossing borders.

We need proof that these are not working, and to abolish them as fast as politically possible. Europeans need to vote out EPP, Australians need to vote in Labour, and Americans need to vote in Democrats. Then a Democratic Party, Labour Party, Liberal, S&D alliance can work on ending visas between the EU, Canada, United States, and Australia since the far-right coalition has failed to provide any evidence that these programs actually keep people safe.

Wir sind ein Volk.

Appendix:
The ESTA was funded to support The Brand USA, a private-public partnership funded by ESTA visa fees to advertise tourism to the United States. They state on their website: "As one of the best levers for driving economic growth, international travel to the United States currently supports over two million American jobs (directly and indirectly) and benefits virtually every sector of the U.S. economy."

Sounds like a self-aware wolf to me... because they are literally funded by a program which is proven to reduce tourism to the United States...

This is just too rich.

We must end ESTA

Unaware to most Americans, the United States implemented the Electronic System for Travel Authorization as a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, which restricts non-overland travel to the United States for all countries except Canada, Bermuda, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia. It is claimed to improve our security, but in reality this is completely false. Over 99% of applications are approved in no time, and people are required to apply at least 72 hours in advance. The pass fortunately lasts for the validity of the passport, but it still does make it less convenient for people from highly developed and safe countries to come to the United States. This has been used since January 12, 2009, 8 days before George W. Bush left office.

Other countries have since adopted similar policies at the pressure of the United States, particularly Canada on 10 November 2016, one year after Harper left office (notice a pattern yet?), Australia adopted it on 27 October 2008, one year after John Howard left office (definitely a coincidence), and ETIAs will be implemented in Europe in 2021, 2 years after EPP suffered a crushing defeat at the polls, and most countries will have national elections.

Also, you can still come to the United States visa free from all of these countries, as long as you travel to Mexico first. If ESTA is really designed to screen all passengers to protect us from camera wielding, towel carrying German tourists, it's doing a terrible job at it.

Maybe it is just a coincidence that right wing governments want to implement restrictions of the freedom of movement, but far enough in the future that they will likely not be in office to see the coincidences of their actions until it becomes the new normal. They claim it is for the safety of the nation, with an utter lack of terrorist attacks from the targeted countries, but they absolutely refuse to implement it before their sorry booties are kicked out of office.

This is because their claims that these new visa programs improve safety are absolutely rubbish. It is as true as all of the lies which the Tories in the UK have been saying about Brexit. The problem for the Tories is Brexit is such an extreme level of economic destruction which they are currently causing that the true intentions of their isolationist policies are obvious to all but the most blind. The flaw in their plan is they managed to stay in government for its impact and will feel the full brunt of their evil.

If these pre-clearance programs really improved safety, they would be implemented quickly. If they really improved safety, they would have a lower approval rate than 100% (with a rounding error). If they really improved safety, they would have no loopholes.

This program targeting German tourists was implemented in reaction to the 9/11 attacks. The one country which has NOT had any consequences from the 9/11 attacks is still Saudi Arabia. 15/19 hijackers on 9/11/2011 were from Saudi Arabia, and the United States has done literally nothing to restrict access from that religious fundamentalist state which is the only country to successfully attack American soil since before my grandmother was born. If they really wanted to protect America from countries which have actually attacked the United States we wouldn't target Germany, we would target citizens of Saudi Arabia.

The US, Canada, Australia, and EU need to wake up, improve travel between our countries, implement real visa-free tourism for the countries in these programs, and pursue real policies which make us safe.

The ESTA is not a policy which keeps us safe. It actually puts us in more danger by making travel more difficult. People to people connections foster peace through trade, which is the only time tested proven way towards a world which has less war. People got used to being able to travel freely between free countries, and fascists could not increase real visas between our countries during the brief era of free travel reciprocity we enjoyed in the 2000s. They are chipping away at this freedom piece by piece, moving us closer to war. The first step of this was the PATRIOT ACT, which was the first chipping away at our freedom of movement. The next step is to increase the cost of it until it is as much as a regular tourist visa, and their goal of alienating us from each other will be far harder to reverse. We reached a level of peace in the 1990s relative to any other time in history so deep, with so many economic and travel connections between countries, that it would take at least 50 years to get us back to the military dominated society with major European nations going to war with each other, feeding the military industrial complexes with that racket with our tax payer dollars against our will, chipping away at our freedoms through voter restrictions, travel barriers, and economic restrictions which funnel money from the majority of people to the modern aristocracy. They will not get the level of war they want until they succeed by ending free travel.

We must end these expensive, disruptive, divisive, and alienating policies and move in the opposite direction towards policies which bring us together as a world and increase connections between the people of all nations. This is how we have peace, this is how we have prosperity. We need economic policies which move individuals towards economic prosperity for all, and increase the expansion of science, communication, and bridges between all peoples of the world. The Bush administration did everything they could to move us from this dream, and it is now up to us to undo their damage to our country.

The easiest first step towards the liberal dream is to kill ESTA and replace it with true visa-free travel.

How to defeat terrorism

The 9/11 report is a famous document of course, which claimed it wanted to improve "security" in the United States and prevent terrorism coming into America.the problem with this is that its recommendations are absolutely ineffective in actually fighting terrorism.

The reality of terrorism in the United States is that:

• White Americans are the largest perpetrator of hate crimes in America, targeted against people of color. Even when the evidence is obvious, these people sometimes don't go to prison, such as with the case of Trayvon Martin's murder. FBI Non-Hispanic Whites are underrepresented however, representing only 57% of hate crime perpetrators for which race was known, despite being 63% of the population according to the Census Bureau. African Americans were overrepresented according to the data from 2015. Despite being 10% of the population over 50% of assaults motivated by race were against African Americans as well. Assault was the most common type of hate crime in America. Murder was the least common of all. The FBI does not carry information on the income levels of perpetrators and victims unfortunately, which I wish was there. This topic deserves a full post on its own. Most terrorism in the United States is labeled as a hate crime, the differences between them are vague, and it makes sense to see them lumped together.
• The individuals who attacked us in 2001 are not covered by the ESTA, they all had applied for and received visas. They were also mostly Saudi, a country which stands idly by as their wealthy citizens support ISIS. There was also one Egyptian, two Emiratis, and one Lebanese man. These countries all require visas to the United States, and all of these individuals had received visas from the embassy. The Atlantic shows that the total number of Americans killed on American soil by Europeans remains at 0.
• The ESTA does not stop terrorism, it only decreases tourism. Reducing the people to people contacts between the United States and the rest of the world isolates us from our allies and hurts our image abroad. Having fewer people to people contacts with the rest of the world means that the only thing that people see on the news is drone bombing, police shooting, terrorist attack, and more nonsense. The news tends to blow situations out of proportion, as it did during the Köln bombings a few years ago. I was fortunate to be able to contact my friend who lives in Köln, a city I have personally traveled to and learned that what the media was portraying was extremely inaccurate. There were protests but the city was far from being shut down. Reducing the number of people who know Americans will make us see each other as dangerous places to travel, when in reality we are both generally safe, especially Europe. Proof which includes regressional analysis.
• No Canadian has ever committed a terrorist attack in the United States. No individual born in Europe has ever attacked the United States.

If we were serious about fighting terrorism we would do the following:

• Nation build in the Middle East and increase the number of people from those countries who study in the USA. Increasing people to people links foster communication and dialogue.
• End the ESTA program, replacing it with 90 day visa-free travel for its current members and expand visa-free travel to all of Europe except Russia and Belarus, along with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Botswana, most of East Africa, Thailand, and more countries. If an individual overstays their visa-free period we can bar that individual from coming, but not as a mass punishment. This will increase tourism and people-to-people contacts around the world.
• Stop the drone bombings. They are counter productive by serving as a recruitment tool.
• Pressure countries around the world to increase economic mobility. Most suicide bombers are in poverty.
• Pressure Saudi Arabia to stop sheltering extremists. King Fahd spent at least $75 billion during his reign to spread terrorism across the world, making Saudi Arabia the number one sponsor of Terrorism across the world, and the number one killer of American citizens besides ourselves. This is not money from Saudi nationals, this is money from the crown, which is indistinguishalbe from the government. Despite this, Saudi Arabia was not on the list of countries which Trump banned tourism from and continue to import their oil which funds the government, which is a known state sponsor of terrorism. Wikipedia They now take an approach of not cracking down on the plutocrats who fund ISIS while being militarily involved in fighting ISIS as well. This is a perfect example of the military industrial complex at work reaping billions off the suffering of Syrians. This is evil and must be stopped.

We have been lucky to not have a major terrorist attack like 9/11 since 2001, but the real reasons why 9/11 happened have not been targeted by our government effectively. We continue to do drone bombings instead of nation building in countries which have the lowest approval rating of Americans in the world, and refuse to do the necessary measures to stem the flow of money from our so-called military allies to terrorist groups. These action would actually improve our image and standing in the world, stemming the conversion of people to terrorist ideologies. Terrorism is not the root cause, it is a disease of a much larger problem. Fighting terrorism the way we do would be like trying to fight obesity only by taking care of children once they become obese while still serving McDonald's quality food in school cafeterias. This wouldn't make sense to most people, but is the same approach that the United States government has taken to fighting terrorism.

Our current policies to fight terrorism would be like fighting obesity by limiting access to uncooked vegetables in school cafeterias. Our current policies to fight terrorism only make the problem worse, as the research has shown.

If I were hired with my international politics education to design a policy plan in order to increase terrorism across the world based on the research I would do the following:

1. Increase barriers to travel globally, to make people see only  the bad things in other countries.
2. Increase support for state sponsors of terrorism.
3. Create a culture of fear and intimidation in the media that everyone is trying to attack everyone else.
4. Purposefully and indiscriminately bomb third world countries and support allies which create proxy wars in third world countries.
5. When we are done invading countries and bombing the bloody shit out of their civilians, do not build infrastructure or set up economic systems to give people a path to stability. This will increase the number of suicide bombers. Leave the people poor and angry, and they will want to kill you for destabilizing their home.

This is the ongoing policy of the US government and powerful interest groups.

We need to fight the root causes of terrorism if we are ever to increase peace and prosperity across the world, and ensure that the policies we have in place which we claim are there to reduce terrorist attacks actually work. The current policy of the United States government only increases terrorism globally and must be reversed as soon as possible.

More on Visa Policy

Since George W. Bush was in office the United States has mad large efforts to alienate us from the rest of the world, to the point where only Canadians, Palauans, Marshall Islanders, and Micronesians can enter the United States without some sort of visa. There are two ways this happens, either through the "Visa-Waiver Program" which is a misnomer, and through the normal visa system.
For those who don't know, the Visa-Waiver program is offered to 38 countries, and this requires people to sign up before they land in the United States (one major characteristic of a visa) and they pay a fine of $14 (it is basically a special type of visa). This has no real effect on catching terrorists (the people who bombed the World Trade Center and Boston Bombers all had visas) but only serves to inconvenience people who want to visit the United States by making them have to pay more money and spend more time before arriving. It is more expensive meaning more processing time for people across the world without actually protecting us.
Now Canada is going to start their own Visa Waiver Program, for everyone except the US (because we're friends) which will seriously inconvenience people who are able to visit Canada without providing any realistic benefit. I am not Canadian, but they should not give in the United States government on this issue. Unless if we were starting a customs union with Canada (which would be a very good thing for both countries) this action is completely counterproductive for Canadians.

Instead of further tightening of our border what we should do is eliminate the Visa Waiver Program altogether and institute visa-free travel from all the countries currently under it which requires no pre-registration, like every other free country except Australia practices today. Individuals who are known to be dangerous from foreign countries we have a visa-free regime with will be blocked from entry, and their passports will be blocked, and this has the advantage of blocking those we do want to block without inconveniencing everyone else. I personally am on the ultra-liberal side of having as few restrictions on travel for this issue, because I see it as a tool for furthering goodwill among nations and making for a better world altogether. I also don't see the threat when the total number of terrorist attack in every other country that has an economy like the United States and doesn't have a large group of home-grown extremists doesn't see large numbers of terrorist attacks.

I don't see any reason to believe that this prescreening works at all, and see no reason to ask people from our closest allies to fork over money to visit America when we don't have to do the same in their country. Plus, we already scan everyone's passports when the enter the country (like every other country I know of that isn't participating in a customs union with other union members) which means we will have records of who is coming in.

In general, this is the wrong direction for Canada and America. We need to fully analyze the costs of having pre-authorization for people from Europe, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, and other highly developed stable democracies and not go backwards on such issues.

We will only know peace when the majority of people can meet people from other cultures and know that we are all human. This is how we fight extremism, and we do this by allowing as many people as possible to travel freely.

Sources:
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2013/2013-12-07/html/notice-avis-eng.html#d108

For further information, read about the "Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan" which is the official policy between the US and Canada.