I'm an American living in Britain, and the difference in border crossings looks the same from my perspective. I dread trips back to America at this point. That

I'm an American living in Britain, and the difference in border crossings looks the same from my perspective. I dread trips back to America at this point. That said, the border control on the Eurostar can occasionally reach American levels of paranoia for some reason. At the airports it's always very pleasant, although the queues can be astonishing. In fact a large part of the reason I left America is because I wanted to be able to participate in globally-networked businesses, and America's border policies were making that increasingly difficult. This doesn't just impact tourists -- it effects business travellers and academics even worse. Britain has always been much more open in that respect, but recent policy changes are sending it in a very American sort of direction, which I find quite distressing. I don't know what, if anything, America can do to reverse this. The Obama administration doesn't seem to be actively beating the drums of xenophobia the way the last administration did, and yet the growth of these kind of institutions continues unabated. Why?