Posted on: Monday, April 26, 2004

EDITORIAL
Air travel constraints could isolate Islands

Even Secretary of State Colin Powell admits it: Visa restrictions in the name of tightened security are creating unwelcome obstacles to travel to the United States.

We don't know about the rest of the country, but Hawai'i could use a loosening of those constraints.

The tighter restrictions have already posed substantial problems here. Universities have noticed a decline in the number of students from Asia coming here for both short-term and long-term studies.

And some conferences and meetings originally designed to take place in Hawai'i have been canceled or shifted to Asia because of the travel difficulties.

This anecdotal evidence was backed by Powell, who told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee that the number of foreign students in the United States is down, as are visits by scientists, businessmen and others.

Fortunately, Powell and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge are intent on reviewing these restrictions as a result of the unintended consequences.

Congress should respond to their concerns.

Meanwhile, however, Europe and the United States are looking to implement a global identity system in 2006 that would require all newly issued electronic passports to have space for additional biometric identifiers such as fingerprint and face scans.

And until that system is up and running, visitors from the 27 countries that have visa-waiver arrangements with the United States — including most E.U. nations, Japan and Singapore — will soon have to have their photograph and fingerprints taken on arrival.

That is likely to exacerbate airport delays.

The American Civil Liberties Union is concerned that the system will further diminish privacy rights while setting up a global surveillance infrastructure that could be accessed by governments across the world.

In this era, it is unlikely that we will return to the day when international travel was hassle-free and devoid of overlapping security systems. And to some degree, none of us would wish to return to that time.

A certain amount of inconvenience is the price we must pay for security.

But here's the point: As air travel becomes more complicated, Hawai'i is sure to suffer. It is in our best interests to uphold a system that balances our security needs with our economic survival.