The U.S. is considering requiring visa-waiver visitors to submit five years of social media history, ten years of emails, and pay a $250 fee. Critics say it will kill tourism, chill free speech, and cost billions in lost revenue, especially for states like Florida that depend on Disney World visitors.
New tourist screening rules could cost the US Billions of dollars. US Customs and Border Protection is proposing a major expansion of vetting for visitors from visa waiver countries, requiring up to five years of social media history, along with a decade of email accounts and detailed family information. According to the New York Times, industry officials were not briefed before the proposal. Which one Travel leader Quote a significant escalation in traveler vetting The US Economy is massive. Tourism generates or the travel economy is massive. Tourism generates roughly 170 to $200 billion in annual export revenue and supports millions of jobs. Policies that deter visitors could hit states like Florida, where I'm based, where Disney World and a lot of, a lot.
Of Trump supporters are based there.
It's where Disney World alone anchors a tourism sector worth more than $100 billion a year, according to some estimates. As immigration attorney Bo Cooper warned, the new method involves looking at online speech and then denying travel based on discretion and policy. Another expert added that the system has chilled free speech and invaded privacy of innocent travelers. Okay, what's the real message here? This administration proposal to look at video visitors coming to our country to look at their social media feeds for the.
Last five years to say, if they.
Said you don't like, that's the dumbest idea ever. Why not just say America is closed for all tourism. Come back in three years. Let's dig a little deeper here. Now this is getting out. I can tell you I was on a tour. I'm currently on assignment and on vacation in Vietnam. I was on a tour, a tour group yesterday and talking to a couple from Great Britain.
They love to travel. They travel all over the world.
They were talking about, they're like, wow, that sounds crazy. And these did not seem like radicals to me.
One gentleman ran a restaurant. His wife worked as an executive at a pharmaceutical company. These were not people, a part of some radical political regime changing faction. These were mainstream, successful capitalists in Europe.
Who have a lot of spending money.
Discretionary money to go on vacations. And I can tell you right now they are disinclined to come to the United States. The idea of someone going through every single social media post and, and what's going to be the criteria to get you banned? You made fun of Dear Leader. So now you can't come to the United states and spend 10, 20, maybe $30,000 on a luxury vacation for you and your family. It's odd.
Now it is true that if you're in another country, you don't have First.
Amendment rights, but it really sends a chilling message to people and a very contradictory message though. We're the, we're the land of the.
Free freedom of speech.
Government should not have overreach telling people what to say and what to think and then say, oh, but you said something. We don't like criticizing someone. So we're not going to let you in to the United States to go.
To Disney World or go to Disneyland.
Or go to see the Dallas Cowboys football team. I'm trying not to say New York City because some people might say, yeah, we don't want to support those liberals in New York City or Fornia. So I'm, I'm mixing it up here, folks, because there's a lot of oxes, oxen, I should say, to be gored if this actually becomes reality. Telling foreigners they can't come and spend money in the United States. Now let's look at some more of the facts here.
The proposal, and I should say it's.
Just a proposal, would require 10 years of emails. First of all, how do you even gather up 10 years of email? I look at the email I've received and sent the last 10 days. Who wants to go through that and who wants anyone reading every email you've said. I know I don't. Now we've seen people have their entire careers destroyed because of emails. And a lot of people I know are thinking, wow, could be me if someone saw every email. Now I, I don't think there's any email I have that would make a foreign government, well, with a few authoritarian exceptions because they don't like any criticism. I don't think I have any email that would make any serious country cares about individual rights think I would be a danger to come in. But I could tell you there are plenty of emails I've sent that I wouldn't want any human being, certainly a government official who doesn't know me reading. What do you think? Would you really want anyone reading every email you've sent in the last 10 years? That sounds bizarre. Now there's also something called a $250 visa integrity fee. Sounds like a bribe to me. Anytime you want to get a bribe and you're slapping on a label like integrity sounds pretty bizarre. Okay. According to Sophia Cope at the Electronics Frontier foundation, quote, it has not been proven at finding terrorists and other bad guys, but it has chilled the free speech and invaded the privacy of innocent travelers along with that of their American family, friends and colleagues. I guess she's referencing where this has happened in other places. A few other stats to keep in mind As I mentioned, according to Some estimates, you U.S. tourism generates as much as $200 billion in money to this country. And if you're going to increase screenings, a couple of things. A, presumably they're going to keep some people from coming in. We don't get their money anymore. B, some people are going to say, I don't even want to bother with this. These people sound like extremists. They talk about land of free. This sounds like land of the totalitarians. So it's going to have a big, big negative. Long approval delays may push travelers toward Europe or Canada. Guess what? Canada is a great place. I love it there. Even though I'll have to tell you another time. I was deported from Canada once, but we don't have time for that. Canada is a fantastic country. And Europe. Anyone who talks about how awful Europe is, I can tell you, has never been to Europe. Does the United States want to emulate every aspect of Europe and their, their economic growth rate or their tax rates? Not necessarily. It's a great place to visit. Absolutely.
Now, some other facts coming in. This could increase political friction with US Allies like France and Germany. It adds a lot of uncertainty to major events like the World cup and the entire travel industry. As if they didn't have enough trouble. I mean, some of them are just now recovering from all the losses they suffered during COVID and now they got to think about discouraging millions of visitors. This sounds like an absolutely horrific idea. I wish I could say it's an aberration coming out of Washington D.C. but.
You and I know that's not.
I'm TJ Walker. This is Filter. This is your show where we look at the top, typically five stories of the day. And then we filter them through the lens of communication skills, personal development skills, and frankly, common sense. Together, you and I are trying to make sense of the world. Try to figure out what's really going on. What do we need to know? What are the messages we're being told by people in authority, companies and brands? And what's the real message underneath it all? That's what this show is about. If you find it useful, please leave a comment. Subscribe, Follow if you're new listening on the podcast. We're relatively new on the podcast platform, so please subscribe, follow and leave a review.
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