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Reinstated visa requirements hinder journalists' access to US. by Tom Regan posted June 8, 2004, updated 11:00 a.m. 
Foreign reporters cry foul Reinstated visa requirements hinder journalists' access to US. by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com In March of 2003, the Guardian reported Saturday, as the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over the duties of the immigration and naturalization service, officials in DHS decided to revive a visa requirement, dormant since 1952, that required journalists to apply for a special visa, known as an I-visa, when visiting the United States for professional reasons. This visa requirement also applied to so-called "friendly nations" - 27 countries whose citizens do not have to apply for a visa in order to visit the US for personal reasons. But the Guardian reports, the decision to restart the visa requirement is so little known that most foreign (and American) journalists have no idea it even exists. As a result, last year 15 journalists from "friendly nations" (Britian, Australia and others) were deported from the US. Twelve of those deportations occurred at Los Angeles International Airport. Writer Elena Lappin, on a freelance assignment for the Guardian, fell victim to this new visa requirement in early May. Ms. Lappin, who is married to an American and whose daughter is American, wrote in the Guardian this past weekend about her experience. Lappin says she was fingerprinted, handcuffed, strip-searched, and held in dentention for 26 hours. Her crime: she had signed the I-94 visa waver form, (an exemption allowing most residents of the 27 "friendly" countries to visit the United States for business or pleasure for up to 90 days), without noticing the fine print that said she was not entering the US as a representative of foreign media. Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Los Angeles Times that reporters detained for this reason must be handcuffed and searched "for their safety, for the safety of our officers and the safety of any other individuals who might be in the vehicle." In a similar case last December, reported by Canadian columnist Matt Welch of the National Post, Australian journalist Sue Smethurst, who had gone to Los Angeles to interview Olivia Newton-John, was detained by security, "interrogated, handcuffed, probed" and put on a plane back to Australia, because she did not know that the DHS had decided to restart the I-visa. Immigration and Customs officials later called it a "simple pat-down for weapons." In each of these cases, the journalists had no right to see a lawyer, no right to call their local consulate, and no right to appeal (these rules come courtesy of antiterrorism measures passed in 1996 and 2001). And the growing international outcry seems only to embolden the Immigration and Customs agents who are keeping the United States safe from celebrity hacks and technology journalists. 'A customs officer ... chose to make me sweat and to threaten me with deportation, even though I have a valid journalist's visa that does not expire for another two years,' wrote Andrew Gumbel, a correspondent of The Independent [who works for the paper in Los Angeles], in late July [of 2003]. 'A visa is not a guarantee of entry,' he told me. 'We've been deporting quite a few British journalists recently.' Dahlia Litwick, senior editor of the online news site Slate.com, said the policy serves only to damage American's relations with nations that want to be its friend. Singling out reporters for greater scrutiny than ordinary sightseers suggests there is something uniquely dangerous about journalism. As Lappin points out in her piece on her ordeal, only countries like Cuba, Syria, Iran, and North Korea demand that reporters have special visas. As James Michie, the public affairs officer at the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, told me this afternoon, this happens in other countries, too; another journalist reported to him that she was frequently treated this way in Yugoslavia. The problem has become serious enough that the American Society of Newspaper Editors wrote in early May, on World Press Freedom Day, to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. ASNE protested the "discriminatory practices" that require journalists from "friendly" nations to obtain visas to enter the United States while citizens from those same countries are not required to have visas for visits up to 90 days. 'Over the past 12 months, a number of foreign journalists have been seized at our borders and deported forcibly to their home countries,' wrote Karla Garrett Harshaw, ASNE president, and Cynthia Tucker, chair of the ASNE International Committee. 'Many have been mistreated and prevented from making telephone calls that could have clarified their status, violating diplomatic rules concerning nationals arrested in a foreign country.' Harshaw and Tucker point out that although none of the friendly nations involved have responded in kind, 'the actions of our government could lead to a degradation of the atmosphere of mutual trust that has traditionally been extended professional journalists in these nations.' The letter writing campaign may have done some good, reports the Daily Times of Pakistan. The DHS has told immigration officials to "use their discretion" in admitting working journalists who are "clearly no threat" to US security but who have the wrong visa. The journalists would get a "one-time exemption." In late May, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Commissioner Robert C. Bonner announced that new guidelines had been issued to all Port Directors regarding discretionary authority to permit travel for foreign journalists who attempt to enter the US with the wrong visa, while reminding those foreign journalists that they should be aware of immigration policies before they depart for the United States. Mr. Bonner said, 'While we carry out our mission and enforce our laws, we realise there is a difference between fraud and failure to be informed of the legal requirements for entering the United States. That is why we are giving our Port Directors leeway when it comes to allowing journalists to enter the US who are clearly no threat to our security.' ASNE welcomed the move, but said the government had moved "only part of the way" towards a "reasonable policy regarding visas for foreign journalists." ASNA, and the International Press Institute, want DHS to eliminate the special class of visas for journalists. In the most recent World Press Freedom rankings, issued by the international media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, the United States ranked 31 out of 166 nations. Finland topped the list, while North Korea was last. |