Posted: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:00 am
But at Los Angeles International last weekend, they were treated as such
The rights of human beings, much less their comfort, count for nothing where the government is concerned. That's the impression created by Saturday's problem at the Los Angeles airport.
Some 2,500 people coming in on international flights were kept waiting for hours, kept prisoner in the airliners in which they arrived. The reason was a breakdown in a computer system.
The system, according to a report by the Associated Press, contains the names of incoming passengers and any criminal history information about them. Immigration agents evidently use the system to screen passengers before letting them into the country.
The trouble in Los Angeles was that the arrival lounges filled up quickly as passengers were not processed and could not leave. So additional planes had to wait on the tarmac.
Most people, if they have been on a plane for 13 hours or so, can't wait to get off. Keeping passengers cooped up for hours more, without any information on how long the delay will last, is a form of mental and physical cruelty that airline, airport and immigration officials should never allow.
Where does it say in the Constitution that the federal government can refuse to allow American citizens to go home because of a computer glitch?
The Americans on those planes all had passports identifying them as such. Otherwise they would not have been allowed to board. And the foreigners had proper papers as well. Without them they, too, would not have gotten on the planes.
Since 9/11 we have become accustomed to a heightened degree of government high-handedness in treating people who have done nothing wrong, all in the name of security. This episode in Los Angeles may not be the most egregious example of this. But it's the most recent.
We must let our government know that this kind of disdain for ordinary people has to stop. Or else.
Else what? Or else, if the vote still counts, the people in charge will get turned out. (hh)