[Quote] "...to be finger printed upon arrival in another country. Just not a big deal..." [end quote]
You obviously never have been finger printed by US immigration officers...
You get out of your plane after a long flight, tired or excited to be arrived at your destination. The process of taking finger prints may take only a few seconds, but the hunderts of other immigrants before you in the queue may last it a little longer...!
And if the scanner process is not working (which happens all the time), you are forced to slap your finger in that ugly grease box where everyone else already had its fingers (do we talk about spreading deseases already?), and when you look in that camera and don't look the way they want, its another reason to let you wait some more time. I know crews that waited for hours in front of those immigration desks, and they are not just miserable exceptions.
The "police state's" procedure in "old Europe" likewise is best practise: You go quickly through customs, you let the hotel make a photo copy of your passport (that's what they are doing with it, not giving it to the police - they are not interested in it, they are not stupid and know that crews most of the time are no terrorists), while you sleep in your bed.
Let's face the facts: These prohitive immigration procedures are worth nothing (because no terrorist will walk in that way), are planned and executed in a purely schematic way and harm the US economy the most.
Dani