The 2000s were an amazing time to be alive. Flights were less expensive than ever, visa-free travel was common, and democratization expanded worldwide. 
Democratization has slowed down over the last decade. South America, Europe, Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia have mostly democratized. The world’s dictatorships are mostly in Northern and Central Africa and Asia. Only two countries in Europe are not democratic today.
The world has never been wealthier. The number of people living in poverty is at an all-time low, and global GDP per capita has never been better. The world has never been safer. The world has never been freer.
In reaction to this, the right-wing around the world has realized that they must reverse this trend or face political extinction. They do this through the following actions:
- Increased violence between Israel and Palestine
- The Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Right-wing politicians in NATO are reluctant to help our Ukrainian friends.
- More visa requirements.
- Increased surveillance.
- Auditing of public transit agencies is reduced, leading to waste not just in the US but around the developed world.
- We have increased police budgets in both the US and the European Union. Black Lives Matter failed in its objectives.
There are certainly more examples of this backlash against the global trend of increasing human rights.
What the right wing is doing is tightening the screws.
Aside from increasing surveillance and border police to catch refugees and restricting who counts as a refugee, the right wing is working on eliminating visa-free travel for as many people as possible. The United States already requires visas from all but four countries. We also have two classes of travel visas: the Electronic System for Travel Authorization and the B visa system. The Bush Administration moved almost all visa-exempt nationalities to ESTA days before Obama was sworn into office.
Canada implemented the Electronic Travel Authorization in December 2013 while Stephen Harper was Prime Minister. They excluded citizens of the United States since we have such strong economic ties. They also excluded ETA country’s citizens when traveling from the United States. I thought it was about security? If it is essential for security, why can ETA citizens bypass the ETA if they have already traveled to the United States? Does Canada trust America’s visa vetting process? I don’t trust my government on this, given how all the 9/11 terrorists were granted visas.
Unless there was no security benefit from visa requirements on citizens from democracies…
Europe is about to do the same by implementing the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. It was originally proposed in 2016 and has been postponed several times since then, not just because of COVID-19.
Brazil is also about to do an electronic visa, which they have postponed several times…
In all of these cases, right-wing governments in the US, Canada, Brazil, and Europe have claimed these visas are necessary for security. If these programs had a real security benefit, why are US citizens exempt from Canada but not Liechtensteiners? Why are Canadians exempt from the US but not Andorrans? Why have Europe and Brazil postponed these “necessary security measures” that were called for by the 9/11 Commission multiple times?
This must be because Danish tourists regularly turn into mass shooters when they travel.
But… that’s not a thing.
Visas between democracies do not provide a security benefit. They increase bureaucracy, hurt the economy, and waste government resources when real problems need to be solved.
Indonesia moved from visa-free access from most other democracies to eVisas. I cannot find any terrorist attacks against Indonesia from citizens of these countries because they did not happen.
That’s our current status, and I believe it is part of the right-wing’s general movement towards curtailing liberties, as we see with Project 2025 and other documents where they lay out their wish lists.
Project 2025 is Project 2001. It has been going on for at least a quarter century.
When the Republican Party is implementing projects like Project 2025, they need to ensure as few Americans meet people from abroad and as few Americans as possible can travel abroad so we cannot compare our current status to that of our allies.
That is why the United States and other democracies have increased visa restrictions over the last 20 years. It was never to fight terrorism. That was always baloney.
It was always so they could get away with their immoral crusade against freedom. That is why they increase visa restrictions against citizens of democracies, not citizens from states like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, which consistently violate international law. It was never about terrorism.
After the fall of the Third Reich, one of the fundamental freedoms laid out by Eleanor Roosevelt and other human rights advocates was the freedom to enter and exit your country. That freedom was the first one Hitler eroded when he came to power. So, we must remember this and defend democracy.
Conversations between citizens of different democracies are essential for our mutual survival. Some demagogues and governments are working to make our systems fail. We must defeat them. We are stronger together.
Since attacks on democracy started by eroding free travel, defending democracy starts with defending visa-free travel.