This is just a political tennis match and we are the ball. None of us wants (or needs, given the extensive documentation of our licenses, medicals and passports) the hassle of obtaining visas for our work.
The U.S. in a post-9/11 frenzy $h!t on everyone--friend or foe in a vain attempt to secure its borders (funny, thousands of Mexicans seem to have no problem entering without a visa each year...
).
If both parties were concerned about crew security, we all could submit to a security screening process and get a valid crew visa that would be good for several years and easily renewable (unless found drinking Budweiser in Europe!
).
It's clear that the U.S. Government is not the slightest bit concerned about REAL security or making the lives of aircrew less complicated.
Now, if we could just get SAFA checks banned at the end of the KLAX-LEMD flight...
TC