US intends to create climate of fear by visa restrictions: Analyst

Washington’s decision to tighten visa-free traveling to the United States is aimed at creating a climate of fear and provide support for the anti-terrorism program, says an international lawyer and political analyst.

Edward Corrigan, a specialist in citizenship and immigration and refugee law, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV when asked about the European Union’s warning to the US against a visa restrictions plan.

Diplomats from the 28-member group on Monday warned they could respond in kind if the US implemented plans to end visa-free entry for some EU nationals.

The EU ambassador to the US described the imminent approval of tightening Visa Waiver Program as an indiscriminate action against over 13 million European citizens who travel to the US annually.

Last week, the US House of Representatives voted in support of the program under the pretext of preventing likely terror attacks.

The measure, which is yet to be approved by the Senate and the White House, would prevent nationals from 38 countries who have visited Iran, Syria, Sudan or Iraq in the past five years from entering the US without a visa.

Corrigan said “a lot of this really is just to scare-mongering and tactics to sort of support foreign policy objectives and also to support money being taken for so-called terrorism.”

“If they really want to safeguard borders, at one time they were talking about having safer borders …there is like maybe 3,000 to 4,000 miles border from Canada down to Mexico and they had two security agents to guard that whole area, so if somebody really wants to get into the United States, they are not going to get through the bridge at Detroit or…some big cities, they are going to go across, we have probably 5,000 mile border between Canada and the United States and you can cross many places there without any interference with the government,” Corrigan said.

“So a lot of this is really a fiction, it is used to create this climate of fear which in turn justifies military expenditures and make some people rich and of course it also justifies, oh if we don’t attack them, they are going to attack us,” the lawyer noted.

“The practical ability to implement this I think is almost zero and there are ways of getting around it and the people who are intent on getting into the United States and causing damage are of course capable of doing that,” he added.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk