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Comment by bodhiandphysics | Hacker News Reader

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I haven't been back there since 2007 and have no intention to ever go back there. I missed a couple of funerals of friends because of that but the typical 'welcome' (I use the term loosely) afforded by DHS to visitors to the USA has persuaded me that I have better things to do with my life.

The decision not to re-visit was made somewhere between the point where my shoes were confiscated because they might be used as weapons and the time when I spent 6 hours on a bridge trying to get into Canada because they could not imagine a person carrying a Dutch passport had a legitimate interest in crossing the border into Canada.

At one point I had a company in the US, spent a ton of money there annually and was seriously considering immigration, go figure.

> the time when I spent 6 hours on a bridge trying to get into Canada because they could not imagine a person carrying a Dutch passport had a legitimate interest in crossing the border into Canada.

The US doesn’t operate Canadian border control?

They checked outbound as well at that time, not sure if that is still the case.

AFAIK that only happens with planes and boats, where the transporting company is on the hook for sending you back if the border at the destination turns you away. I've driven into Canada numerous times and never encountered any sort of American checkpoint before the Canadian border. But when I get onto a ferry in America that goes to Canada, they do check my passport first before I get onto the ferry.

This was the bridge into Canada at the Sault Ste. Marie checkpoint. The traffic was backed up for a very long stretch and it is the only time I've been stopped there outbound from the USA so maybe they were looking for something specific, still, it really upset my plans at the time, and I was already pretty tired from the trip and only about 45 minutes driving time from home.

Did you read TFA? It would only be used for people entering the US.

Besides complaining about people reading the article being against the guidelines, yes, I read it and yes, that would be exactly my position.

Nobody in this thread apparently read it. This has turned into a Reddit America-bad thread, it's embarrassing for HN.

Sorry, I did read it and by my reading it looks like a non-reciprocal request for access to a lot of EU data that isn't supposed to leave the EU at all, ever, especially not in bulk.

What alternative reading do you have?

The problem with the approach outlined in the document is that it tries to break open the EU by approaching member states individually, possibly even to access data from other member states, something that I have a serious problem with.

There is no "bulk" access to data. When visitors apply for a visa, they'd send a search request with biometric data (I assume fingerprints). Only if there was a hit - that the person was a known subject of interest such as a terrorist or wanted criminal, would any data be shared. This was outlined quite early in the linked slides.

Wanna spend some time out in Gitmo because your phrasing had wrong speak?

This is the introduction to draconian policies/laws in which you have no rights to opt out of this, representation caring to uphold your rights, or courts that are principled. Wanna get out, but still have family.. oh wait better give up more rights/risk going to jail to see them in the us. (Or they'll be interrogated back at home).

The point in this post is not to criticize you, but to criticize the lack of caring that a 6 month waiting for a visa is a systematic failure in need or ability.

I have no interest in visiting the USA. It hasn't been "the land of the free" for a long time now.

Sure, why not? If the US wants to go isolationist I say we should let them.

I can assure you almost nobody here has any interest in ever visiting the US for prolonged periods of time.

If those two options are the only available choices, then yes.

> So... you want to spend six months waiting for a US visa?

Whoever said I wanted to visit the US?

Not just "no", but "hell no".

Add it to the list of authortarian demands. Many have already been waiting more than six months for the US to drop the outdated Covid vaccine requirement.

It is a wise idea to not visit countries where rule of law does not exist.

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