Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Post of the Day: Biometrics

The Ethelred Post of the Day Award goes to Roscoe P. Coltrane for this little gem regarding biometric passports and border controls on the US-Mexico line:

Will they scan everyone entering the US from Mexico (and Canada)? At some border places it all ready takes an hour to cross...

Do like many Mexicans do: take the short route across the Rio Grande, it only takes 30 minutes and they don't require you to be scanned...

Seriously thought, this police-state "security" with borders as tight as a prostitute's legs amounts to installing a steel door on a camping tent.

...

Well, it made me laugh...

As an aside, a friend in college in Minnesota was a Mexican who did indeed take the shortcut across the Rio Grande. Or so he claimed -- it was always fun watching people's reactions to him when he talked about it. (Yes, he was pulling their legs. But few people doubted him for a second.)

Favorite quote from him, when he overheard me speaking in German once: "This is America, dammit! Speak Spanish!"

borders

[freejung]

I met a guy in jail who regularly crosses through the Mojave desert to get into the US. It takes him a couple of days on foot, but he knows the way well and has little trouble doing it. He says you have to watch out for snakes, but that's about the only problem.

Most of the other Mexicans I know use the coyotes to get across. For a fee, they will smuggle you across the border in groups, using various methods with enormous success. The idea of border security without a big armed wall along the whole border

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:borders

[freejung]

What happens if the terrorists use a forged American passport to gain entry?

Good question. But what I meant was, what if they just walk in? Or what if they pay the Mexican coyotes to bring them? It costs like $1500, peanuts to most serious terrorists I would think. These illegal Mexicans I'm talking about, they don't have any passport of any kind at all. Most of them don't have any form of real ID, though they often have a couple of cheap fakes. They get in by simply walking around the checkpoints, or by

Re:Sig test

[Ethelred Unraed]

Sheesh. What killjoy modded this offtopic?

Cheers,

Ethelred