It's not an unwelcome mat, it's a go away mat. As an American who travels a lot the biggest hassle I've ever had to deal with when entering another country was putting my bag through an x-ray machine and filling out a form about fruits and vegetables. Whenever I get back to the states I see hours long lines of non citizens waiting to get through customs with way too few customs officers stamping passports. That alone would be an unwelcome mat, but put on everything else we make people go through and we're pretty much just saying "Go Away".

Along with the fee and abusive questionnaire at this site https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ we've also got this lovely informational site http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html and tons of other fees http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1263.html . Then of course after you've paid all your fees and told the US government all about your diseases, mental illness, and intention to spy on them, you still have to give them your fingerprints, photo, submit to a search, wait in line for 2 hours, and answer many more questions about the same stuff.

It's not xenophobia. It's full on we think we're better than you and you pathetic humans get to deal with us 'cos we said so. The whole system wreaks of 'cos we said so. Every citizen and border patrol agent knows it's excessive and ineffective, but we keep on truckin' cos hey, they're all just doing their, trained to be overly aggressive, jobs.