ANZ is thinning LA stop overs with no discouragement by US authorities.

If this procedure continus as a phenomenon the US will be a fortress by the next decade. Perhaps no entering or leaving. Completely surrounded by a DMZ zone. International media will be cut off. Only authorised propaganda sound bites will be supplied to international media agencies which will only be fit for the waste basket. The US will be run by several coporations and international shipping will be severely restricted.

The US will simply become a communist iron curtain.

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/11/protecting-american-from-finnish.html

When was the last time any Kiwi got consular help overseas.

There was no support for Kiwis involved in the Bali bombings.

Kiwi’s are always told they will not get help if they are caught victimised by terroist acts or war carnage. From what has been posted above it is obvious NZ embassies have no interest in Kiwi citizens innocently caught out by international red tape.

The US is treating internationals as potential criminals at all points of entry which is a signal they are advocating a down turn of foreign visitation across the board.

I will not be surprised to see them interferring in Australia’s plans to check incoming baggage once between countries by improved technology just announced to make travel convenient and more efficient for border controls. The US will never advocate this convenience and certainly will pressure Australia to drop it.

Fortunately pro Bush Howard is heading to the end of his tenure.

In 1999, I overstayed by three weeks in the US, and was busted crossing the Canadian border by bus from North Dakota to Manitoba. The Americans were friendly enough when I got my exit stamp; the problems started when the Canadians wouldn’t let me in because I’d overstayed in the US and didn’t have an onward ticket or evidence of funds. I was very naiive at the time — I’d just been in Europe and thought that the US-Canada border would be like those in the EU.

The Americans couldn’t let me back in, so they stuck me in the county jail in a tiny border town near Fargo and said they would probably deport me to NZ via Minneapolis. But they were nice enough about it, and gave the impression they’d really rather let me go to Canada if the Canadians would have me.

Fortunately, I had some friends in Winnipeg who advocated on my behalf, so after four days and many phone calls, the Canadians agreed to give me another shot at crossing the border and the US Border Patrol dropped me down there. My friends in Winnipeg used my credit card no. to buy me a ticket out of Canada, and came down to the border to pick me up. I also had to leave a $1,000 CAN bond, and specifically check in with Canadian immigration when I left the country. Three months after I left Canada, they kindly sent my bond refund back to my NZ address — by which time I was in Guatemala.

All this was of course prior to 9/11, so things were a little more relaxed. But I was still no more threat to the security or wellbeing of either country than Rick is now. The whole espisode was a frightening reminder of how one can basically become a non-citizen at the frontier — even of a developed and technically friendly nation. Forget how nice and harmless you or your home country are, if the ’security’ bureaucracy decides you’re contravened the regulations, you have fewer rights than a hardened criminal.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/news/unwelcome-tourists-avoid-the-us/2007/11/02/1193619101824.html

Isn’t it an odd contrast however that while, both internally and at the Canadian border, security has tightened up considerably, the Mexican border has been extremely porous.

You’d thinkif the yanks were so hell bent on him leaving the country that they’d let him do just that, rather than hold him for a month wihtout charge, before potentially putting him on a plane and sending him half way across teh world at massive cost to the US taxpayer.

Then on the other hand you have illegals being given drivers licences.

I don’t see any sympathy for people who overstay in New Zealand. Not one tear of it. Especially from the people who are demanding the release of this lawbreaker.

Reap what you sow.

[DPF: I don't think in NZ overstayers who are happy to leave the country that day are held in detention for six weeks. The problem is the length of detention, not that he is deported]

I don’t believe that Rick has been officially arrested or charged with anything either. He was simply “taken into custody”