Posted on 01/02/2007 9:34:18 AM PST by calcowgirl
If you're planning to fly to Mexico or Canada after Jan. 22, now would be a good time to submit passport applications to your local post office.
On Jan. 23, new security requirements will mean Americans no longer will be able to re-enter the country with only a driver's license and birth certificate.
The special relationship between the United States and its two North American neighbors is being phased out under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, first for U.S. citizens returning to their home country by air and then for all borders in a year or so.
Approximately 72 million of America's 300 million residents have U.S. passports, according to State Department figures, making the United States one of the few developed nations where a small minority bothers to apply for the internationally recognized travel identification.
But with the new rules, would-be travelers have been thronging Bay Area post offices to apply for passports in recent months, said Gus Ruiz, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service's Bay-Valley District.
To help accommodate the extra customers, the service over the past four months has offered rotating passport fairs on Saturdays at facilities in the region, Ruiz said.
"In Marina (near Monterey)," he said, "we had people lined out the door waiting to come in to apply to get a passport."
The postal service plans to offer continued Saturday hours at selected Bay Area post offices as the deadline approaches, Ruiz said.
Tightening requirements to enter the country was one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in its 2004 report on attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The commission outlined the story of Ahmed Ressam, who planned an attack on Los Angeles International Airport timed for the start of the new millennium. He sought political asylum in Canada with an admittedly forged French passport and was arrested four times by Canadian authorities but never detained or deported before he was caught trying to enter the United States to carry out his plot.
Getting in and out of Canada wasn't all that easy after Sept. 11, 2001, said 44-year-old contracting consultant Rob Chappell, who works out of an office in San Francisco.
"I got caught going back and forth going to Canada with my driver's license and birth certificate, but it was a hassle so I went ahead and got my passport just in case," Chappell said as he waited at Oakland International Airport to catch a flight to Long Beach for the holidays.
bump
I thought they were *reducing* the need for passports across these borders? Is this a new development?
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1703767/posts?page=2#2
Yep--the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative--a brand new development starting 2007. You can read more at the link below--I just snipped a snall portion:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1164210249468.shtm
Why is the U.S. government implementing the travel initiative?
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) mandated that the U.S. secretaries of Homeland Security and State develop and implement a plan to require U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to present a passport or other appropriate identity and citizenship documentation when entering the United States.
For many years, U.S. citizens, and some citizens of other countries in the Western Hemisphere including Canadians and Mexicans with Border Crossing Cards (BCCs or “Laser Visas”), have not been required to present a passport to enter the United States. Currently, a traveler may make a verbal declaration of citizenship, or present other forms of documents to enter the country that cannot currently be validated or verified in a timely manner, such as birth certificates and driver’s licenses.
This change in travel document requirements is also the result of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, which Congress subsequently passed into law in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
In light of the new security efforts, the United States proposal would require all travelers to present a passport or other accepted document for entry into the United States by air to determine the eligibility for entry of legitimate travelers without disrupting their movement.
Okay, I've been sleeping. I missed that provision of the Act.
Still, it's welcome news. Now I can hope that we'll stop waiving visas from every country on Earth.
Its "funny" that for all the screamingh about the CFR and the Bush administyration trying to make Mexico, Canada and the U.S. one country, the real problems go on - its now harder for Americans to have have free traval within and in and out of their own country while illegal immigration is unchecked.
Don't worry--it will all be solved with the National ID Act. /s
And internal passports when?
Suppose you had to flee the country in a hurry?
How does my showing a passport stop the invaders who simply bypass the entry points?
An excellent question. One worth asking, and why I consider this to be an excellent start but by no means the end of our security reforms.
Something like this is probably a good idea on national security grounds.
BUT:
It seems to me that there are serious constitutional problems involved when a citizen is not allowed to enter his own country merely because he lacks one particular piece of paper. So I doubt this policy will stand constitutional muster.
> How does my showing a passport stop the invaders who simply bypass the entry points? <
The same way that gun control prevents criminals from committing crimes with guns.
Actually that is one possible solution.
The other is to secure the border so that anyone here can be assumed to be here legally.
The first won't sit well with the "your papers please" paranoids.
The 2nd solution isn't liked by the invasion supporters in Congress and the White House.
The first won't sit well with the "your papers please" paranoids.
You don't have to be a "paranoid" to distrust the government.
A national ID card gives too much power to the federal government. Why should we have to justify our movements to the feds? And is there any evidence that they would use this new power to actually improve national security if they had it?
No expectation of legitimate benefit, and too much potential for abuse. That makes the national ID card a loser in my eyes.
Seems to me I remember some border agents going to jail for just this recently.
Shot an illegal in the butt and he was carrying drugs too I think.
I notice you didn't comment on the other solution.
I'd have to steal some gas.
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