NYT: U.S. Announces Plan to Improve Border Security

[mcscajun]

Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said today that inexpensive identity documents would be developed for Americans whose routine takes them regularly across the Mexican or Canadian borders.

The announcement represents an easing of plans announced last spring, when the department said that all Americans would need passports to enter the United States from either country beginning in 2008.

That proposal had met sharp criticism, including from President Bush, who described himself as surprised by it.

(snip)

"This new People Access Security Service, or PASS system card, will be particularly useful for those citizens in border communities who regularly cross northern and southern borders every day as an integral part of their daily lives," Mr. Chertoff said. "We're talking about essentially like the kind of driver's license or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets day in and day out."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/national/nationalspecial3/17cnd-border.html?hp&ex=1137560400&en=543a1540ad692654&ei=5094&partner=homepage

People Access Security Service?

Does this phrase chill anybody else like it does me? :scared:

[Village Idiot]

1. Ausweiss, bitte! Ausweiss...

[maddezmom]

2. kick

[DeepModem Mom]

3. LAT: Less Onerous IDs Proposed for Travel to Canada, Mexico

Less Onerous IDs Proposed for Travel to Canada, Mexico
By Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration today announced plans to develop inexpensive identity documents for Americans to use when returning from Canada or Mexico, backing away from a previous proposal to require such travelers to show passports at border crossings.

The less onerous requirement was announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and appears to meet President Bush's earlier expressed concerns that the passport requirement would be unnecessarily burdensome.

Most Americans now may routinely re-enter the country by showing only a driver's license. But last year, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security announced the more restrictive, passport requirement, to be implemented by 2008....

***

Congress had ordered the tougher re-entry rules as a part of the intelligence reform act, which Bush signed into law in December, 2004.

The proposal to require passports drew an outcry from the travel industry and some immigration advocates....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-011706border_lat,0,4770684.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[tavalon]

4. Why is the passport thing a problem?

Just off the cuff, I don't see a problem with requiring a passport. Does France have exceptions for their neighbors? Does Germany for theirs and so on? If not, then why do we?

I could be persuaded that I am full of shit as this is very off the cuff.

[SoCalDem]

5. I think EVERY US CITIZEN should be issued a passport.

It would certainly put to rest the "voting issues" every few years...and it would pretty much ensure that benefits due citizen were given to only citizens..

It's funny really.. The most xenophobic repubes abhor immigrants "getting free stuff", but they fight against the passport issue because poor black people would finally have a PROPER ID that they could not deny when it came time to vote :evilgrin:

They cannot figure out which group they hate more..illegal mexicans who wash their cars, pick their veggies, babysit their kids, man their factories for $5 an hr...or the black people who are so far beneath them in earning power and status, that they feel like kings in their presence..

Someday they will have to choose..

[rodeodance]

6. I think it is overkill pure and simple.

[Luminous Animal]

7. It is expensive.

Growing up I lived a few minutes from the Canadian border and our family would travel freely from the U.S. and Canada to watch hockey games, or camp, or visit for a day. A family would have to pay $60 to $70 per passport, have their pictures taken which is another expense, and travel to where there is a passport office to make it all official.

As far as I know, there are no entry requirements from one EU country to another.

[SoCalDem]

8. There should be NO cost for the individual except for renewals.

I see this as a ONE-TIME thing..Every citizen gets a passport...NO CHARGE until time for renewal..

[Luminous Animal]

10. Huh?

What happens when you can't afford a renewal?

This is a fucking ridiculous discussion. This government is trying to isolate us from the rest of the world by throwing up barriers that would restrict travel. It is a ploy that allows our govenrment one more tool to follow our movements.

[SoCalDem]

11. paranoid, much?

People rpobably spend more on a video game than what a passport would cost,.. They are valid for a LONG time, and the renewal is not very costly..

Strawman argument says.. Big gubbmint wants to "keep track f us".. well hell-ooo they already are.. so why not at leats get a very good ID out of it and never risk a hassle at a polling place again.. and if a freebee tip comes by , you're good to go..

(We actually got a 10 day freebee trip to tahiti a while back., I we practically ran to the post office to get our passports )

[tavalon]

9. I forgot how much it cost

I got my second one over 5 years ago.

Yeah, that's a problem.