And they wonder why visitor-numbers are down

The USA, the land of the free and the brave, isn't all that welcoming to visitors to its shores. In fact the whole process of both of entry into and departure from the USA borders on the absurd and farcical.

It has been recently reported that visitor-numbers to the USA are down as many find it a country which doesn't welcome visitors. Alternet in a piece "Welcome to America ... You're Under Arrest" concerning a Pakistani entering the USA, confirms why travellers might want to by-pass America all together as a tourist destination:

"Mr. Sampson, I Presume?

It was about five years ago. I was returning from Pakistan and standing in the immigration line at JFK, completely exhausted after a 20-hour flight. When my turn came up at the counter, the INS agent looked at my papers, typed a few things into his computer, and then asked me to follow him to a large room at the side of the immigration hall. I was informed that I was being detained. Two agents handcuffed me and led me to another smaller room. When I asked what I had done. They said things like, "Oh, you know what you've done. We know who you are."

"Who am I? What have I done?"

"You should know that better than we do, now shouldn't you?"

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