Buenos Aires via USA?

[sesamosinsal]

And here we have my point,they continued to allow domestic flights, although now with some security, but stopped the international flights where all the passengers had passed through airport security.

I'm confused by this statement. Are you talking about on the day of September 11? If that's the case, the only plane in the air in the U.S. was Air Force One. All flights were ordered to land. I don't think this was your point, and I apologize that I'm not understanding...

But I'm still not understanding why travelers must clear US customs if they are not leaving the airport or entering the US. At the very least, if they have to clear some type of screening process, it seems onerous to require transit passengers to pay a $130 visa fee if they are not actually intending to spend any time in the US.

As I said above, it really has to do with the U.S. controlling who's coming into the country. That's the bottom line. I'm not sure, but I think the transitory visa is post-9/11. My guess is that the U.S. government wants to be able to check the backgrounds of people coming into the U.S. thoroughly before they get to the U.S., regardless of whether they're in transit or not.

Even citizens of countries in the Visa Waiver Program still have to register before flying to the U.S. with "ESTA" and await approval.

I agree with you, though. I think our immigration policies are really just too extreme. It's just really quite unbelievable to me that we Americans, who benefited many years ago from fair and just immigration policies, are so hellbent on making them so discriminatory and unjust today. If the same rules and fees had been in place when my ancestors came to the U.S., I know we would still be in Germany.

 

[tangobob]

I think we are all violently agreeing here, I take the point about the Israelis, of course they have good reason for their strict security. (that is not saying that the rest of us now don't).
In the days following 9/11 it was the domestic flights they allowed first and it was some time (my memory fails as to how long) before they allowed international flights or foreign carriers.

So again where my detail may be vague, what I am trying to point out is that American security seems to border on the lunatic (to us outsiders). Maybe it is just the way we see it but it all looks a bit Team America to us brits.