What is the point of the I-94W (Immigration) Form ?

[Kellanved]

That is the form travelers from Visa-Waiver countries have to fill in during the flight to the US. It does ask for name and home address in triplicate (+ once more for customs).
Also it includes fields for the US address and a declaration that signing the form will waive all legal rights against the INS.
As icing there are yes/no questions asking for:
- transmissible diseases
- drug addictions
- involvement into espionage, sabotage or terrorism
- involvement into Nazi war crimes
- intent to immigrate illegally
- existing lawsuits concerning child custody
- past problems with US immigration
- legal immunity


So what is the point of this? All the informations needed to answer the questions are transmitted in advance by the airline and is additionally stored digitally on the passport- no need to fill in a form in a shaking airplane. Also, nobody would be so stupid to answer "yes" to one of the yes/no question - except a few innocent jokers.





</rant>

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Back in the 1960s

I saw an application for admission to the University of California-Berkeley, and it had a question, "Are you a member of any of the following subversive organizations?"

It must have been a relic of the McCarthy era, because one of the "subversive organizations" listed was the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which was the group of mostly leftist volunteers who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Loyalists in the 1930s.

[sweetheart]

2. Wecome to the prison state

You've heard how prisoners in guantanamo have been "inspired"
(read: coerced) in to signing forms indemnifying the services for
their imprisonment.

Similarly, you are signing a legal waiver so that the INS can
imprison you indefinitely at their whim, or ship you off to a
country to be tortured. When you get your lawyer and try to fight
for legal justice, they'll pull out this form you signed and say
you waived your human rights.