For decades, those D.C. denizens who live within the Beltway in their own pampered world, busily amassing funds for their next election -- and who really don't give a damn what happens outside of Washington -- have ignored the importance of incoming travel to the U.S.
Now, given the extremes of our dysfunctional Homeland Security agency, every prospective visitor to our country is branded a terrorist until proven otherwise, this by means of an exhausting rigmarole of red tape and bureaucracy. These turned-away visitors now vacation elsewhere: Dubai, Shanghai, Cape Town or Buenos Aires.
We have millions of unskilled, unemployed citizens who might find jobs if we permitted more visitors to enter the U.S. We would need more hotel maids, taxi drivers, porters, guides, tour bus drivers, restaurant staff, etc.
Maybe, the White House is waking up to this -- finally!
Last week, a friend, an Argentine lady with her own thriving business, visited me from Buenos Aires. The U.S. Immigration officer blandly looked her in the face and asked: "Ever been in jail?" I kid you not!
Rex Fritschi
Rex Travel
Chicago
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