Homeland Security

MR. BOUCHER: I do not know specifically which governments we have heard from. We have heard from a lot of governments.

QUESTION: These were just done yesterday.

MR. BOUCHER: I know. These are the new five.

There have been questions raised in various places, sometimes by governments, sometimes by individuals, frankly, by, you know, American companies and others about the whole "where we are now in terms of the visa process, where we are in terms of the registration process that we are instituting," which -- as we have explained before -- is intended to be that many, many countries in the world have -- countries where you report every night which hotel you're staying in. Actually, it will not be quite that much. But there are many countries around the world that, when people come into their borders, they like to know every now and then where they are. That is what we are instituting here.

So we have explained it to governments. We have tried and will try further to explain it to visa applicants and people to know that we, indeed, need secure borders for the sake of the people of America and all the people who come here to visit, and we do want to keep out the people who might intend us all harm, but we also have open doors and that we will go through this process and try to ensure that it is done as smoothly as possible.

QUESTION: But you're not aware of any protests in the last 24 hours from --

MR. BOUCHER: I am not. I do not have anything specific on individual governments who may have raised it in the last 24 hours or previously because we do know that the governments of the countries affected have raised things with us. Many times they have talked directly with the Immigration Service who is handling the program inside the United States.