Now You Need Permission to Exit or Enter the Country?
Today's comment is by Mark Nestmann, our Wealth Preservation & Tax
Consultant and President of The Nestmann Group.
Dear A-Letter Reader:
Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007,
we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to
leave-or re-enter-the United States.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all
airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance
for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States.
It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. passport-a "travel document" that now,
absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified
right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want. When the DHS
system comes into effect next January, if the agency says "no" to a
clearance request, or doesn't answer the request at all, you won't be
permitted to enter-or leave-the United States.
Consider what might happen if you're a U.S. passport holder on assignment in
a country like Saudi Arabia. Your visa is about to expire, so you board your
flight back to the United States. But wait! You can't get on, because you
don't have permission from the HSA. Saudi immigration officials are on hand
to escort you to a squalid detention center, where you and others who are
now effectively "stateless persons" are detained, potentially indefinitely,
until their immigration status is sorted out.
Why might the HSA deny you permission to leave-or enter-the United States?
No one knows, because the entire clearance procedure would be an
administrative determination made secretly, with no right of appeal.
Naturally, the decision would be made without a warrant, without probable
cause and without even any particular degree of suspicion. Basically, if the
HSA decides it doesn't like you, you're a prisoner-either outside, or
inside, the United States, whether or not you hold a U.S. passport.
The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized there is a constitutional right
to travel internationally. Indeed, it has declared that the right to travel
is "a virtually unconditional personal right." The United States has also
signed treaties guaranteeing "freedom of travel." So if these regulations do
go into effect, you can expect a lengthy court battle, both nationally and
internationally.
Think this can't happen? Think again...it's ALREADY happening.
