WASHINGTON – By 2008, Americans will need to show a passport when traveling to and from Mexico, Canada and other countries in the Western Hemisphere, federal officials announced Tuesday.
This new security initiative, which will be phased in over the next three years, will implement a border security requirement included in the intelligence reform bill Congress passed late last year. The bill was the federal government’s response to the Sept. 11 commission report.
“For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons,” the commission report, issued last summer, concluded.
“We want folks to think about their travel to and from Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Bermuda as equivalent to taking a trip to Europe or Asia,” Elaine Dezenski, acting assistant secretary for border and transportation, said during a briefing Tuesday.
Currently, Americans returning from Mexico or Canada are supposed to present a driver’s license or other photo ID and a birth certificate when they cross back into the United States. But homeland security officials acknowledged Tuesday that such checks are not always thorough.
Sometimes travelers are just asked to make an oral declaration that they are American citizens and get waved through.
“One of the purposes of this whole initiative is to make sure everything is actually being done,” said DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen. “Now there will be a singular document.”
But Rep. Christopher Cox, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that he plans to hold hearings on this proposal, adding that he has some concerns about the measure’s impact on commerce.
Cox, R-Calif., said he would prefer federal officials turn to a system that uses biometrics, such as fingerprints, to verify identities.
“What you want is a system that is automated, that takes away discretion, that checks and verifies each person is who they say they are but doesn’t slow down entry and exit from the country,” said Cox. “Any proposal to substitute one paper document for another doesn’t accomplish that.”
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