Passport needed for U.S. borders
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — U.S. citizens will be required to show a passport to re-enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, Panama, Bermuda and the Caribbean by 2008, the departments of State and Homeland Security announced Tuesday.
The change, which will be phased in over the next three years, is part of an ongoing effort to tighten border security after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Canadians, who now are the only foreigners allowed to enter the United States with only driver's licenses, also will need passports to head south across the border.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with the Associated Press, said the United States has to take every precaution to screen out "people who want to come to hurt us."
Border agents must look at scores of different state driver's licenses and try to determine if they are real or fake. With passports as the main form of identification, "it's going to take a lot of the mystery out" of the process, said the State Department's Maura Harty.
One in five Americans — more than 60 million — have passports, the State Department says. Because the government doesn't know how many cross the borders without passports, officials don't know how many more people will need them. Nearly 1 million enter the United States from Canada and Mexico each day by car, truck, bus, train or on foot.
The State Department is hiring 500 more workers to process applications, a nearly 50% increase. It expects to handle about 2 million more applications each year.
The new system will begin at the end of this year in the Caribbean and Bermuda, then Mexico and Canada. It will be put in place at airports and seaports first, then spread to land crossings.
Some U.S. citizens, Canadians and Mexicans will be able to use other government travel documents that require a background check. That could apply to people who commute to work across the border or deliver goods. But most would need passports, instead of a driver's license or other photo ID now used by many to re-enter the United States. Ch*ldren now need only a birth certificate.
"Are they going to supply us with a grant?" said Lisa Monarez, an El Paso sales executive with a husband and three Ch*ldren. Her family travels to Mexico for occasional family gatherings. Monarez said she'll have to weigh her family obligations against the $440 in passport fees.
Cost is also a concern for Milwaukee-based Mark Travel Corporation, which sends 1 million Americans to Mexico every year. "Many of our passengers are cost-conscious budget travelers, and people may decide to go somewhere like Orlando instead," said spokeswoman Tammy Lee.
Some business travelers said the new rules won't affect them. Many who travel to the affected countries by air and sea already carry passports. Although the governments don't require them, some airlines and cruise ship lines do.
"Having only a birth certificate invites additional scrutiny," said frequent flier Betsy Roach of New York, who traveled back and forth between Mexico and Canada three times last month.
Sandra Stott of Middletown, Conn., flies to Canada several times a year for work and drives to vacation in the summer on Dotty Lake in Ontario. "The process definitely seems to go more smoothly in the airport where people have passports," she said.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/200 ... sits_x.htm
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What a crock of you-know-what.
Yippieeeee !!
Pura Vida 
