August
2011
by:
Liam Schwartz*
------------------------
September
11, 2001
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the
September 11th terrorist attacks, this month’s Consular Corner is
devoted in its entirety to the thoughts of current and former consular officers
regarding that terrible day.
In the accounts that follow, we see the
determination of consular officers on the day to offer help wherever help was
needed. We learn of the outpouring of support and encouragement these officers
received from people on the street with whom they’d ordinarily interact only on
either side of a visa interview window. We hear the prayers and feel the
tears of these officers at the end of the day as they tried to make sense of
the events that had occurred back in New York and Washington.
We also see how 9/11 was the spark that
motivated some of today’s newer diplomats to join the Foreign Service, either
right out of school or as a second career.
But most of all, we become witness to the
essence of the American spirit in the consular corps. As one former officer
puts it:
“Many times over the span of my almost 30
years in the Foreign Service, both before and after 9/11, I witnessed repeated
acts of dignity, grace, and selfless courage on the part of my consular
colleagues in the Foreign Service in the service of American citizens in
distress abroad…. It is easy to lose sight sometimes in this toxic
political environment about how extraordinary Americans can be--and how much we
care about one another. Consular officers through their service
remind us of ‘the better angels of our nature.’“
Without further ado, we proudly present
the reflections and insights of consular officers past and present with regard
to that dark day in September ten years ago.
Where were you on September 11, 2001, and
what are your most salient memories of the day?
Stephen
Pattison
Senior
Counsel, Maggio + Kattar PC (Washington, DC)
I was in Brussels, where my
wife Carolyn and I were serving tandem tours at the U.S.
bilateral embassy. My office was on an upper floor of the main
chancery building, on a floor that was largely vacant, while my wife worked in
the public affairs section on the ground floor. It was around 2:30 in the
afternoon, and I was typing up a report on my computer when I received a
call from Carolyn. I knew at once something was horribly wrong when all
she said, in a tense voice, was “Come down here right now.” I raced
downstairs and ran into the public affairs section, where there were
several large screen televisions, just after the second plane flew into the World
Trade Center. I knew then, in one horrible
moment, that the world I knew and thought I understood had changed
forever. The first thing I remember saying aloud was “We are at
war.”
The next several hours were a
daze--watching first one, then the other tower collapse, frantically trying to
send messages to colleagues and family members, receiving news
of planes flying into the Pentagon and crashing into a Pennsylvania
field. Rumors of additional attacks on the State Department and the
Capitol were flying. Colleagues from the mission ran in and out, looking
dazed and frightened. No one cried--that came later--some cursed, but
most just stared at the TV screens, disbelief warring with shock on their
faces. I don’t remember what time we left--but do recall the stunned
quiet on the subway back home. Belgians are dignified and reserved
people, not prone to display emotion in public, but the atmosphere of the
entire city was eerie, abnormal; it was deeply unsettling. I felt,
as an official American, intensely conscious of the stares and somber faces
around me. We arrived home to find our Romanian housekeeper in tears in
front of the television, and our young daughter shaken and
trembling.
A crisis engenders strong emotions, but
as foreign service officers my wife and I had been through many stressful and
dangerous times. We knew the drill. You shut down key parts of your
emotions and focus on the task at hand. For us, this meant dealing with
the immediate--first by gathering as much information as we could and
“being there” as needed at the office, then by reassuring our loved ones at
home and soldiering on through the remains of the day. We called our sons
in England--shaken and devastated as the only Americans
at their boarding school, yet embraced and comforted by their English friends
and teachers. We sent e-mails to our families--yes we’re fine, no it’s
not dangerous here--and to our friends in New York, knowing that it would be
hard to reach them, yet desperate to know that they were safe and to tell them
that we were holding them in our hearts. Then, as the day wound down, we
found that we had nothing further to distract us. The emotions began
flooding back, and I retreated to a large park across the street from our
townhome, where I wandered alone until I found an isolated clearing in the
woods. There, the tears began to flow and I struggled to come to terms
with what had happened to my country and the world. I don’t know how long
I stayed there--it was getting dark when I returned, but I remember
praying for the souls of those who had died. After a while, I left,
saying to myself as I walked back “No matter how long it takes, we will find
and punish the people who are behind this evil deed”. Then I returned
home and began the painful process of re-engaging with the world.
Stephen
Kelley
Visiting
Professor of the Practice of Public Policy and Canadian Studies,
Duke University
I was in the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa,
Canada, on the morning of September 11. The Ambassador was
traveling in western Canada that day, so as Deputy Chief of Mission,
I was in charge. We had just started a regular weekly staff meeting when
the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
I remember thinking that was a tragic accident. A little while
later my office manager came to tell us a second plane had hit the Towers.
We all knew that something very dangerous was underway, and began
discussing contingency plans for the Embassy personnel. By the time the third
plane hit the Pentagon, it was clear that Washington
itself was under attack, and with an evacuation of the State Department under
discussion, we knew we would not be getting much guidance from headquarters. We
were on our own.
Like most Americans, I have millions of
memories from 9/11. It was a beautiful day in Ottawa, as in New
York and Washington. The news coverage was
horrifying. Embassy personnel looked ashen, but highly professional.
But the memory that will always stick
with me the most is the reaction of the Canadians. Within hours people
began gathering outside the gates of the Embassy, leaving flowers and candles
and written messages. People kept a vigil there the first night.
Within a day the mound of good wishes had grown so high we began moving
items indoors to make room for more. It was spontaneous, and so generous.
When the FAA closed U.S. airspace, U.S.-bound airplanes that
were too far along to turn back were welcomed in small airfields across Canada.
Townspeople in Gander and Goosebay and Halifax
went to the airport and took home stranded passengers. Prime Minister
Chretien decided to hold a rally of public support on September 14 on
Parliament Hill. And although no official announcement was made, tens of
thousands of Canadians turned out in support. I’ll never forget that day or a
line from the PM’s speech. ”The great Martin Luther King, in describing
times of trial and tribulation, once said that: ‘In the end, it is not the
words of your enemies that you remember, it is the silence of your friends,’“
said Chretien, addressing the U.S Ambassador, Paul Cellucci, who was at his
side. ”Mr. Ambassador, as your fellow Americans grieve and rebuild, there
will be no silence from Canada.”
Stephen
A. (“Tony”) Edson
Management
Consultant
On 9/11 I was working in the Visa Office
in Columbia Plaza, with office windows overlooking the
Potomac River and the Kennedy Center.
When we heard about the first impact in New York,
several of us turned on the television in the conference room. I watched
with disbelief as the second plane hit the Twin Towers
and then noticed smoke over the Pentagon from my office window. A group
of CA personnel were almost immediately dispatched to an alternate command
center while another small group of us gathered in the basement of SA-1 to be
prepared for what might happen next. By the time I left several hours
later, the sidewalks and trains where eerily quiet. There were almost no
cars on the road and I was even struck by how quiet the skies were. You
don’t really notice the number of airplanes until they’re gone.
Charles
J. Jess
Deputy
Consul General (Outgoing)
U.S.
Embassy Baghdad, Iraq
I was on a plane from Washington
to New York early on the morning of September 11, 2001,
and I landed at La Guardia around 7:45 a.m. I remember that it was a
beautiful Indian summer day, crisp and clean. I took a cab to the U.S.
Mission to the United Nations, dropped off my suitcase, and picked up my
credentials/badge for a 9:00 a.m. meeting at the U.N. I was walking
across First Avenue when I saw the smoke from the first
plane. I went into the U.N. and was watching live on closed circuit TV
when the second plane hit. Immediately I knew that it was no accident,
and a few minutes later, when the committee chair tried to call the meeting to
order, I recall standing up (without being recognized by the chair) and saying
something along the lines of, “With all due respect, do you realize what just
happened?” There was obviously no way that the meeting would go on, and
after a brief huddle, the chair decided to adjourn for security’s sake. I
had a hard time getting my suitcase out of the U.S. Mission, but finally I was
able to talk the Regional Security Officer into letting me remove what would
obviously become a target of suspicion. I walked down First
Avenue, and a few hours later, checked into my hotel. I was
unsuccessful in trying to locate a blood bank where I could donate, and because
the staff at the U.S. Mission discouraged me from offering any assistance
there, I walked around the city for the better part of the day talking to
people in various states of panic. By sundown, I had found a wine bar
where I downed a “flight” or two of various red wines before making it back to
my hotel and watching TV for the rest of the night.
Paul
Mayer
Director, INR
Watch, Department of State, Washington DC
My wife and I were just starting
Estonian language training at the Foreign Service Institute after having
finished up 3 years as ACS Chief in Bangkok. We’d
been studying that morning and had not turned on my TV.
As we drove south from my apartment
to FSI in Arlington, VA, I noticed a
low-flying passenger jet pass from right to left in front of me. I
noticed that it was flying far too fast for a plane on final approach to National
Airport, and noticed that it didn’t have its landing gear
extended.
When we arrived at the FSI parking
lot about 5 minutes later, we saw people standing and looking to the east,
where a plume of smoke was rising. People told us that it might be
connected to what had happened in New York. My wife
and I ran into FSI where a TV was playing in our classroom. We watched
with horror as the first tower fell, and I shed many tears. We were
then ordered to evacuate FSI. I remember driving back to our apartment,
and hearing the sound of military fighters flying overhead.
William
Bent
Chief of
Consular Notification & Outreach
Office of
Policy Coordination & Public Affairs, Bureau of Consular Affairs
I was working in the Visa Office that
day, on the 7th Floor of Columbia Plaza. I am sure that my
story isn’t very different from others. When I heard that the first plane
hit, I assumed it was a small-engine plane, thought it was strange, but then
when back to my work. Then the second plane hit and of course we and all of America
knew it had to be a terrorist attack. I remember many of us then heading
down to a conference room to watch the news on TV. There was
a reporter, I think from ABC news, in front of the White House, and the
anchorman asked him what the smoke was coming from the horizon. And of
course that was the Pentagon. I don’t remember people panicking at any
time, although there was confusion about what to do. Should we evacuate
the building? There were reports coming in -- they of course were proven
false -- about a car bomb going off near the State Department. I
didn’t want to dismiss my staff if conditions were dangerous outside. But
then we got word that the main State building had been evacuated, so people
began leaving. After that, my memories are about trying to reach loved
ones and friends. I drove home to Falls Church, and
first stopped off at my son’s elementary school. They already had a
police officer detailed there in front of the school, which was both reassuring
and alarming at the same time. People were taking their children out of
school, but I decided that my son was safe and didn’t want him to upset
him. I remember trying to call my mom and sister, plus others – for
example, a friend who is a pilot for American Airlines, and another who I thought
worked at the World Trade Center --
but it was impossible to get a call through. Later, after more lines were
open, I started getting calls and I remember an FSO colleague calling me from
overseas. Everyone was in a state of shock but there was this
overwhelming urge I think to connect. In some ways I think it must have
been harder for my colleagues who were serving abroad at the time, watching
from afar while their nation was under attack.
Anonymous
On September 11th, I was in Sofia,
Bulgaria, for a business trip and series of meetings with my
former firm. I came back to the hotel at the end of the work day and heard
someone in the elevator say that a plane had hit the World Trade
Center. I thought it would be a small plane that was out
of control or off course. I was concerned but had no idea that this could
be a commercial airliner. When I got back to my room I saw the second
plane hit. I was shocked and immediately thought “we’re going to attack
someone.” It was so upsetting and unreal.
Watching the whole series of events was
unbelievable and surreal. I the situation was unfair and I felt powerless
to do something about it. The Hotel Manager wrote a letter to all
Americans where he denounced the attacks and offered
his assistance for anything I may
need. I was very touched by his response.
My joining the foreign service was
definitely influenced by these attacks.
DeMark
Schulze
Economic/Political/ESTH
Officer
U.S.
Embassy, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
On September 11, I was still a student at
the University of Notre Dame living in a dorm room with two other guys. One of
the guys had such an early class that he had already left for morning. The
other two of us had an early class together and for some reason were planning
on attending that day. After having walked down to the showers, I remember
someone yelling into the bathroom that something had happened to a building in
NYC. I was still asleep enough that the information just rolled over me and I
finished my shower. But I remember walking back to my room and seeing
everyone’s door open and people still in their rooms, but awake, which felt
really odd. When I got back to the room, my roommate was sitting on the couch
staring at the TV. Just as I turned to TV, the second plane hit. I’m not sure
how long I stood there in my towel holding my shampoo bottle, mouth agape, but
it was a long time. We were totally speechless. Eventually, I said, “I guess we
better go to class.” When we got there, there was just silence for awhile, and
then the professor opened the floor to discussion, but we didn’t have much to
say because we didn’t yet know what was going on. Soon, the administration
announced that classes would be cancelled and that a mass would be held on the
South Quad. People from all over the city came to the mass- I remember thinking
that the only larger mass I’d ever been to was at St. Peter’s Square. I
remember walking over to different small groups sitting around trees asking if
they were alright. One friend of mine responded, “I’m not alright. And I don’t
think any of us will be alright ever again.” I thought then what I still think:
she might be right.
Tom
Holladay
Retired
Foreign Service Officer
I was on a WAE job in Quito
when news arrived and the waiting room was eventually cleared. We turned on the
TV and waited for official word which came much later. I was stranded in Quito
for a few days before flights resumed and flying back to Miami
was tense. Security on the flight from Miami was very
tight and we of course could not land as planned at DCA, which was closed for
some time after 9/11. Shared a cab from Dulles with Ecuadorian guys I flew back
with, young working immigrants, one a waiter at The Willard. We were all in it
together.
Madam le
Consul
I was in Washington
on that day, in an office from which one could see the smoking Pentagon.
My most striking memory was of Department employees’ responses to the
attacks. About 1/4 were crying and wailing, literally running around in
circles, almost hysterical; the other 3/4 were quietly making phone calls,
taking calls, meeting one another in the halls, planning moves and strategies,
glancing at the TV from time to time but not obsessively, glancing at the
hysterics with thinly-disguised contempt, working through and agreeing on how
to run the business smoothly now.
Anne W.
Simon
Bureau
of Consular Affairs/Visa Office
I had just arrived in Frankfurt the week
before, I was starting up the new Regional Consular Officer program for Africa.
We were in the old consulate on Siesmayerstrasse in Westend. It’s not a
clich̩ РI will never forget that afternoon and evening. At about
3:30-4:00 pm, a colleague mentioned to me that something was going on in New
York City, a small plane had crashed into the World Trade
Center, and the USINS office had it on the TV in their offices
on the ground floor. We went downstairs and watched. Then we saw the
second plane crash and we could not believe our eyes.
Seeing people running down streets
covered in dust and debris, all I could think of was what a Nairobi
consular local employee had told me three years earlier about the August 1998
bombing: there was so much dust that Wanjiku turned white. Now I
understood. My heart went out to my Kenyan friends and former colleagues
realizing what horrible flashbacks they would be having.
Most of the staff left at 4:30, but all I
could think of was that we needed to form a consular task force to handle
inquiries. The CONS chief and ACS chief were already in a telephone
conference call with Embassy Berlin and post
management. A first tour junior officer (JO), who lived above me on the
housing compound, offered to drive me home, but I insisted that we had to wait
and see if there would be a task force.
The wife of another JO was working as a
lawyer in a U.S. firm at the Messe Turm, a massive skyscraper
downtown, and her husband was on southern Germany at a
sailing camp. She was spooked, and called my JO neighbor to ask for a
ride home when her building was evacuated (as a precaution in case the Frankfurt
banking district was the next target). She took the U-bahn two stops
toward the consulate and we were to meet her. My last post had been Nairobi,
where we always carried hand radios for security. In the car, the JO
driver gave me her cell phone to navigate us to the wife who was describing
where she was standing. I was so keyed up that when we spotted her, I
used radio language to speak and to sign off (Over, 10-4, Tango Yankee,
etc.). The JO driver looked at me like I was crazy. The wife
understood; she’d had a radio at their first post in West Africa.
When we got home, we gathered in the JO’s
apartment (I had no TV) and continued watching in horror as the day unfolded in
New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The sailing JO immediately left his program and started the 4-5 hour drive to Frankfurt.
I was frantic when we saw the report of a bomb at the State Department in a
crawl box. But there was no further news. After watching hours of
CNN, the husband JO arrived, and we all went home to our own places mentally
exhausted and in shock.
Ian
Turner
NIV Unit Chief,
U.S. Embassy Kingston, Jamaica
I was in Bishkek as a Boren Fellow
serving as the Acting Consular Officer. I think the most vivid memories
that night involved me calling American citizens all over the country and
monitoring our warden system all while running back and forth in the halls
doing various tasks.
[I remember] the teamwork of the Bishkek
team that all came together during that night. I was especially impressed
with the Marines who I was great friends with, go from the guys I would goof
around with to intimidating warriors ready to defend the Embassy (and us) at a
moment’s notice.
[I recall], while at a local bar at 3am
waiting for pizzas to bring back to the Embassy, watching the news and feeling
the full impact of what happened (I was too busy with the warden system to even
follow what was going on). As I walked out with the pizzas, all of the
patrons stopped and told me “Derzhis Amerika” (hang in there America).
I still remember trying to wipe the tears from my face.
The image of firefighters rushing up
blazing stairs to bring people out of the World Trade
Center buildings epitomizes the American spirit. What
post-9/11 story from your professional experience best illustrates the American
spirit in our consular corps?
Stephen
Kelley
While I am not a consular cone officer, I
have done consular work like all Foreign Service Officers, and worked with
consular officers throughout my career. Nothing illustrates their pluck
and dedication more than a disaster. When I was DCM in Mexico,
Hurricane Wilma bore down on Cancun in October 2005. Enjoying the
lovely weather that often precedes a hurricane, some 25,000 American tourists
ignored our warnings to get out of the way. Cancun was not only hit
squarely, but Wilma stalled over the Yucatan Peninsula
for 48 hours, dropping the equivalent of a year’s rain in that short period.
While no Americans were killed, all were
suddenly stuck in shelters that lacked electricity, running water or air
conditioning. The principal road to Cancun from our nearest consulate in Merida
was under six feet of water. Our consul in Merida had braved
the winds of Wilma to reach Cancun just before it made landfall.
But with the town in ruins, the hotels along the now washed-away beach
shattered, and the airport closed, there was little she could do.
Over the next few days my consular
colleagues swung into action. A convoy of them, blocked by the high
water, talked Mexican President Vicente Fox into towing their vehicles through
the water when he passed in an Army truck on his way to survey the damage.
They arranged bus trips that took a circuitous but dry route from Cancun
to Merida, where U.S. airlines arrived to take people
home until the Cancun airport could be reopened. They traveled
to far-flung hotels outside of Cancun to ensure Americans were
getting the best food, water and shelter they could under the circumstances.
One of the attractions of Cancun to Americans is that it feels
just like home, but with better weather. Unfortunately, when the tourist
infrastructure breaks down, you discover that many of the Americans who visit
there don’t realize they are in a foreign country, and get frustrated with
language and customs they are sheltered from in their hotels. Some of them took
out this frustration on our consular officers. All of them took it in
stride.
One of the main tasks of the State
Department is to protect Americans traveling abroad. That job generally
falls to consular officers. In October 2005 in Cancun,
Mexico, they showed how superbly they perform that task under
pressure.
Stephen
Pattison
Many times over the span of my almost 30
years in the Foreign Service, both before and after 9/11, I witnessed repeated
acts of dignity, grace, and selfless courage on the part of my consular
colleagues in the Foreign Service in their service of American citizens in
distress abroad. Every consular officer has a private store of
memories of individuals who reached out to the Embassy for assistance after
falling into distress, and most of us prefer to keep those stories in our
hearts rather than publishing them, because the Foreign Service is not a
grandstanding organization. Instead, it’s a service whose members pride
themselves on getting the job done--like the military--and who expect no
stroking for doing so.
I think in the post-9/11 context the best
illustration I can offer of the American spirit at its finest as
demonstrated by consular officers would be the swift, highly organized,
and utterly dedicated actions of consular officers in the aftermath of the 2004
Tsunami in Southeast Asia. This tragedy occurred between
Christmas and New Year’s, when many consular officers were on holiday with
family and friends. No matter--there were American missing--American
casualties--and the consuls in Thailand and elsewhere in
the region dropped everything to focus all their energies on identifying the
casualties and assisting the survivors. The Bureau of Consular Affairs
staged TDY officers and support staff to the region to help. Consuls and
locally engaged staff members went to the beaches of Sri Lanka, Thailand,
India, and elsewhere, setting up shop to find and assist
survivors, providing emergency passport and financial assistance, notifying the
next of kin. This kind of organizational determination and focus is, to
my mind, the essence of the American spirit. We get the job done--we
don’t rest, we are tireless in looking after the interests of our country and
our countrymen, and we do it without any thought of reward, publicity, or
approval. We do it because it’s who we are as Americans--the people who look
after their own and take care of one another.
My non-American colleagues and friends
observed this activity with awe. It is a truism in the diplomatic service
that no other country--none--does as much for its citizens abroad as
does the U.S. Thousands of Germans holidaying in Thailand
were affected by the Tsunami. I was in Germany at
the time, and I remember the highly critical articles and comments in the local
press about the German assistance effort. At the time, the U.S. was not
being seen in the most positive of lights by many in Germany due to the Iraq
war, which made it all the more striking how German tourists coming back
from the area praised the Americans, who were “everywhere” and who went the
extra mile to help their countrymen. It is easy to lose
sight sometimes in this toxic political environment about how
extraordinary Americans can be--and how much we care about one
another. Consular officers through their service remind us of “the
better angels of our nature.”
William
Bent
There isn’t any one story that comes to
mind, but I continue to be impressed with the resilience of the men and women
who make up the consular corps, whether they are Foreign or Civil Service, a
U.S. citizen employee or Foreign Service National, or serving domestically or
abroad. Each and every day they are serving the public and working to
protect U.S. borders, often under difficult
circumstances. I am not sure whether 9-11 changed this aspect of our
work, certainly consular employees throughout our nation’s history have worked
under equally challenging environments. I am just very proud to serve
with the Bureau of Consular Affairs and work alongside some of the most
professional and dedicated public servants in the U.S. Government.
Paul
Mayer
There is an almost universal
understanding and appreciation among my consular colleagues of the seriousness
of our responsibility, and the trust that the USG has placed in us.
During the tens of thousands of visas that I subsequently adjudicated in Estonia
and Montreal, I tried to walk the walk and talk the
talk. I never felt like I should apologize for the increased security of
the process, but I did try my best to ensure that my colleagues and I were
classy, efficient, professional and respectful.
I feel so frustrated when I read some of
the ignorant stories out there -- people who truly don’t understand or don’t
care to understand about visa adjudication and the underlying structures that
make it fair, safe, and as efficient as possible. I feel just as
frustrated when I see fellow conoffs who don’t try to understand the stresses
that visa applicants might feel. It is incumbent upon those of us who
are/will be senior consular managers to instill in new consular officers the
responsibilities we have, while also explaining how efficient visa adjudication
fits in the big picture of bilateral relations.
Madam le
Consul
Sadly, my response to [this question]
will not be popular: In the U.S. itself I felt wonderfully proud of the
way that ordinary Americans went out of their way to protect and defend their
Muslim neighbors, even to the point of sitting outside 7-11 stores with
shotguns across their knees, silently daring anyone to dare to bother Achmed or
Mohammed. A very close Hindu friend told me, with a tone of pure wonder,
“If this had happened anywhere besides in the U.S., there
would have been a bloodbath.” On the other hand, I also recall the
wonderful opportunities missed all over the world on every 9/11 anniversary
when our missions again and again made - and still make - it about us, the USA
only, instead of joining with our host country to remember their own citizens
lost in the disaster, rather than just ours.
Anne W.
Simon
The most amazing thing to me was that in
the next day or two, dozens of local expatriate Americans and regular Germans
living in and around Frankfurt and Wiesbaden called the Consulate
and the ACS Section, offering their homes and apartment to stranded travelers
at Frankfurt International Airport.
But we received very few phone calls for assistance from destitute
Americans. The world was in shock and could not move.
Siesmayerstrasse was immediately blocked
off by the German authorities with army tanks, police vans, barriers,
concertina wire and police. Consular Section employees manned desks with
condolence books for people to express their sympathy at either end of the
street. One of our greeter employees, a U.S./German dual national, worked
outside daily on long shifts meeting people. Having grown up in Michigan,
it was his way of reconnecting and providing American spirit with consular
service.
As we approach the tenth anniversary of
9/11, can the nonimmigrant visa application process be made more effective in
achieving America’s diplomatic goals?
Madam le
Consul
The visa process could be made more
effective in achieving our goals, but the obsession with ‘terrorism’ as if it
were an entity unto itself rather than a political act, the fear of losing the
visa process to DHS, the lack of courage, and the nonsensical drive to run an
impossibly risk-free, risk-proof operation, has turned the US visa process into
one of the most unfriendly activities on earth, well deserving all the
criticism it collects from respectable applicants whom it frustrates and
insults. The slogan “Secure borders, open doors” would be laughable if it
weren’t so transparently pitiful and cowardly.
Stephen
Pattison
This is an intriguing question. One
of the principal changes to the world after 9/11 has been the hardening of
borders: in many ways it’s harder to move around nowadays. Security
concerns have been at the forefront of every discussion about immigration and
visa policy since 9/11, and in the last decade we have seen the
introduction of the biometric passport, fingerprint capture, instant security
checks through a vastly expanded consular data base. A good illustration
of the impact of this brave new world can be found in the statistics for visa
issuances and entries into the U.S. in the years
following 9/11. The totals were way down for several years, and are only
now approaching pre-9/11 levels. We are and will remain an open
society, but one decade on, I believe we need to recognize that the security
imperative has come at a cost, both in terms of how others see us and how we
see ourselves. After 9/11 consular policy makers struggled to come up
with a new interpretation of the purpose of the visa process, and the result,
“secure borders, open doors”, tells where the priority was. Perhaps
its time to turn this phrase on its head: “Open doors, secure
borders”. A principal objective of American diplomacy has been the
encouragement and development of free and open societies around the
world. It’s harder to promote this objective when our own policies on
immigration make it harder for legitimate travelers, students, business
entrepreneurs, and scholars to come to the U.S. to learn
about us. Open doors are not incompatible with secure borders.
We should be encouraging travel to the U.S., not making
it harder.
One way policy makers have attempted to
redress the service/security balance is by preserving the Visa Waiver Program
through the adoption of the ESTA pre-clearance system. Many people may
not realize how close we came to losing the visa waiver altogether after
9/11. ESTA may be a complicating factor for waiver travelers but it did
the job, and the waiver is still in place and has even been expanded in recent
years. Another policy shift that represents a step forward are procedures
that allow certain NIV applicants to renew their visas without having to have a
new visa appointment before a consular officer. And the new Visa Service
Centers operating in Mexico represent an effort to
re-insert “service” into the visa process by allowing much of the work involved
in adjudicating visas to take place in advance of the actual visa appointment
itself at the embassy or consulate. These initiatives are
encouraging. When we reduce the stress involved in gaining entry to the U.S.,
whether it’s at the border or at the visa interview, we are advancing one of
our key diplomatic objectives and ensuring that “open doors” is more than
just a slogan.
William
Bent
Of course we are always trying to become
more effective and efficient. Our job can be difficult because of the way
we have to balance our duty to protect our borders with our responsibility to
ensure legitimate travelers get prompt visa service. I don’t think these
goals are mutually exclusive, but nevertheless it is a challenge sometimes to
make sure we are fulfilling these dual roles to the best of our ability.
I think we have made tremendous progress in improving the application process,
making it more secure and efficient at the same time. Our use of
biometrics, is a good example: it is allowing us to quickly identify
impostors, criminals and others who would do us harm. This means we can
keep the bad guys out, but at the same time can more quickly and securely issue
visas to legitimate applicants. The new DS-160 has had some hiccups, but
overall it has helped us become more efficient, and we are looking to make it
more user-friendly. I also believe that despite 9-11, we have become an
even more transparent organization, and our outreach activities have
significantly increased in the last decade. Many posts are doing some
very innovative things with outreach, including the use of social media.
The smart consular section chiefs know that when applicants understand the visa
process, know what to expect and come prepared for their interviews, it makes
for a quicker transaction at the window, regardless of the decision. And
that’s a win for everyone.
Tom
Holladay
I guess there are some things we can’t
change, but it [should] be as cheerful and gentle as we can make it once they
are in our hands. Less invasive building security and better waiting space
would be nice too.
Anne W.
Simon
It is my own, very personal opinion that
the NIV application process is effective and works and it even worked before
9/11. The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act sets out a presumption
that all persons shall be considered intending immigrants. Sad to say,
the 9/11 terrorists were not economic migrants. They had ties and
economic solvency in their home countries, but hatred in their hearts.
There is no way an interviewing officer can see into the hearts and minds of
the applicants, although we try. But I think the post-9/11 cooperation
and data sharing between USG agencies in the name of homeland security is appropriate,
necessary and helps prevent future attacks. We all share the same
goal, making it harder for terrorists to succeed again. It’s a brave, new
world.
Paul
Mayer
Absolutely yes, but it is only going to
happen when there is a fair, effective, and transparent partnership across all
parts of the NIV adjudication process. I will quickly tire of people who
just keep whining about how the State Department doesn’t work hard
enough/doesn’t have enough officers/doesn’t have enough NIV windows, but never
stop to think about business models, staffing needs, etc.
Somebody much smarter than me once said,
“The greatest advertisement for the U.S. is the U.S.” It’s
true.
*Liam Schwartz is a principal in Liam Schwartz
& Associates, a corporate immigration and consular law firm. He can be
reached on Facebook, and at Liam@lsa-law.com
All rights
reserved to the author.
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