The last time I was flying from Mexico to somewhere in Asia, I had no choice but to go through either Texas are Los Angeles and while Texas is definitely better than LAX, the airport I consider to the be the absolute worst in the world for a developed country, Texas isn't much better.
This isn't necessarily because Texas airports are badly designed it is because the entire system about traveling through the United States is just ridiculous.
but before we move on I am going to pick on LAX for a bit more because they totally deserve it. LAX is repeatedly referred to by many sources as being one of, if the number one, worst international airport in the world. There is a distinct combination of antiquated equipment, uncaring staff, and just an absolute mess of a layout that makes the place a practical maze. They KNOW this too. Despite all of this and the fact that if you are ever in the international terminal of LAX the administration doesn't seem to care and you will always see a ton of people walking around completely confused. It seems to me as though perhaps a map or some helpful people whose job it is to help you would be a solution but they don't do any of this. They don't even have some sort of online QR code sort of solution that would likely be very easy and inexpensive to implement.
They simply don't care.
But getting back to the policies of the United States and ONLY the United States, is a reason why whenever possible, I will pay more to go with a flight that completely bypasses the USA. Unfortunately for me and other people that are in Central and South America, if you are traveling over the Pacific sometimes it is not an option and you must suffer through the incredible pain in the backside that is USA policies for travelers.
In every single other airport I have ever been in the 80+ countries I have visited in the world, there is an international transfer area that is meant for people that are not actually visiting that country at all, but are simply in transit there. For reasons that are only vaguely explained you must go through customs and immigration in the USA even if you have no intention of ever leaving the airport to visit the United States.
This is because the U.S. government needs to verify the identity and purpose of all travelers entering the country, regardless of their final destination.
Ok, this is fairly normal for immigration all over the world if the person is actually visiting that country but for those of us that are merely being subjected to traveling through the terrible international section of the USA airports, why do we have to do it?
The United States offers no logical answer to this but I have a feeling it is related to the fact that USA wants to have biometric data on every single person that the possibly can.
If you've been through immigration centers anywhere in the world in the past 5 years you have probably been subjected to some level of biometric ID in one form or another. Other countries will say that this is because they want to streamline the process and make it so that people can enter and exit the country faster without involving a human element to the process and ok, that seems fair enough but is that really what they are doing?
It all is very Orwellian to me and I don't like it. I don't want to be tracked everywhere I go and with everything that I do and this is why I still will use cash almost anywhere that I can. Speaking of which, many of the places that I go to in USA international airports in the transit areas don't even accept cash and this is really irritating to me.
Before any Americans try to dogpile in me and tell me "if you don't like it you can not come here" understand that I am American but that doesn't mean that I am going to agree with everything that they do. I see no objective reason for forcing people who have no intention of so much as setting foot outside of the airport should be forced to go through biometric scanning and standing in long lines to be asked about what the purpose of my travel to the United States is when the answer is "to leave it as soon as possible."
The USA seriously has this sort of arrogance where they seem to want to be the "big brother" of the world and I absolutely hate it.
To make matters worse, at the moment there is some sort of TSA funding issue because of politics that I don't care to get into that is making this take EVEN LONGER than it did in the past.
Airport travel is already a miserable experience for most people but to be forced to go through the worst parts of it when you don't even intend to visit that country is something that needs to go.
I bring this up because the World Cup is coming up soon and there are going to be a lot of people that are traveling to North American.
Politico once referred to the TSA as an "abominable failure" and I completely agree with this. Now that they have had their funding cut because of some anti-Trump bullcrap, it is even worse.
If you are one of the people that is excited about going to the world cup, Well buckle up buttercup, because you are going to have some of the worst travel experiences in your life coming up. These airports are woefully unprepared for this and it is going to absolutely suck.
While I find my transit in other international airports to be a pleasant experience in almost anywhere I have been, I absolutely loathe when I have to travel through my own country.