Escaping the Watch List
The feds say they're trying to make it easier for travelers
"Detained." A new DHS website, DHS Trip (www.dhs.gov/trip), which launches on February 20, allows people to submit some data online and track the status of their case. The site is also designed to handle foreigners who believe they were incorrectly denied a U.S. travel visa or others being pulled aside for secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A dummy version shown to U.S. News last week featured a page listing such major travel problems as being "detained," or being "denied entry to the United States," next to more typical woes.
But some critics say the improvements are hype. "TSA still hasn't created a redress policy that actually means anything," says Melissa Ngo with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog group. That's because TSA won't definitively inform travelers that they've been cleared-only that their case has been reviewed. And airlines don't always have the technology to process the most recent lists.
Although the 9/11 commission recommended that TSA do the name checks itself, the effort got repeatedly scuttled by privacy worries. TSA says those concerns have now been addressed, and TSA is supposed to take over the function in 2008.
Congress, meanwhile, has its own ideas. Concern about the 17 percent drop in overseas travel to the United States in the wake of 9/11 has sparked discussions in the Senate about all sorts of changes to the screening process. The House, meanwhile, passed a measure in January that would ensure that passengers could begin the redress process with TSA officials at major airports. "The [appeals] process has become so laborious," says Rep. Bennie Thompson, who's behind the idea, "the average person can't navigate the minefield without extra help." Just ask David Taylor.
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