hobbes79

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...nightmare.html

"A couple of passengers got a bit stroppy about having to go through all the rigmarole again and these petulant officials decided to take revenge,” said John Randall, 60, a retired dentist from Wigan, who bought the cruise as a retirement gift to his wife.

"There were about 2,000 people on the quayside with only eight immigration people.

“They were just doing basic checks to begin with but after the argument we had to do full finger prints on left and right hands and all the biometric stuff.

"Then their computer system broke down but no one was bothered about helping us.

“A couple of people struggled to control their bladders and someone said they'd suffered a prolapsed disc.”

Bob

Docked at LA, says it all

andy1

I just saw that on Yahoo , total disgrace , something ought to be done, i hope they all take out law suits

Bluegrass Lass

Lawsuits against whom? I don't believe TSA can be sued.

andy1

I dont know who , but imagine the stink if that was the other way round ! its a disgrace , and people , regardless of age , should not be treated like that .

robin1234

Let the market decide.. tourist visits to the United States are in the doldrums. Total, overseas visitors to the United States;
2000 -- 25,975,000
2009 -- 23,756,000
(source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2011.)

lansbury

There is one golden rule which applies the world over.

Do not mouth off at immigration officers.

lyonsden1193

couldn't agree more.

Have seen immigration/customs get really assy at Southampton when someone woke them up! Also seen them get on trains at Folkstone and take people off and march them back.(my mate spent the best part of four hours giving them a blow by blow account of Amsterdam trip)!!

Lissbovavd

That may well be true....
However, these selfmade demi-Gods (US or otherwise) are basically nothing but glorified civil servants, more often than not with draconian personal powers without much supervision to speak of.
Yes, they can make things hellish for innocent people at a whim, but what is really outrageous is the fact that politicians and the public/voters at large allow them to get away with mounting such vindictive power displays, just for the sake of it.
And, no, I´m not just talking about the US in this particular context.
Rotten immigration officials are a curse in way too many countries.

Manc

Why would a US citizen care that a dentist from Wigan needs his fingerprints taken in order to enter the country?

robin1234

That's the basic problem right there. The average American assumes that a dentist from Wigan is an incompetent charlatan, based on the state of the teeth of the average Englishman.

Bob

Well tourism has been taking a bit of a hit and place that rely on tourist money probably should perhaps give just the slightest bit of a crap.

robin1234

Problem is, tourist visits to the US are only down slightly in recent years, whether you look at the entire country or individual cities (e.g. Miami.) And that could be attributed to the economic downturn, rather than stringent entry hassles. The Daily Telegraph keeps coming out with horror stories but it doesn't seem to stop British people from coming here. I've advised my sister never to come to America again, she's a bit emotionally fragile & I just wouldn't like to see how a bad border guard experience would affect her.

Englishman43

This is America so lets get in the spirit of things: start by sueing Immigration officer and entire family, then cruise line and all employees of, followed by city ship was docked in, state city is in , country city is in, company that made the computer that broke ,anyone who owns a computer or has been on a ship. The guy who booked the trip for you, your friend that suggested a cruise might be a nice holiday, your wife for agreeing with friend , etc, etc

another bloody yank

Tourists and (non citizen) immigrants don't vote.