Collins joins campaign to amend passport rules
The Maine senator says the requirement for land travel remains a concern
May 29, 2007
WASHINGTON — Key lawmakers will try to change a program requiring passports for travel from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean because of concerns from residents in border states such as Maine about the cost and inconvenience.
Air travelers have been required since January to show passports when flying into the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Before that, U.S. citizens could use a driver's license or a baptismal record to get back into the country when flying from one of those three locations.
Beginning next year, however, travelers who cross the border between the countries on land also will need a passport. Mainers have complained about the requirement because the $97 cost of a passport is considered onerous and prohibitive for large families used to traveling routinely among border communities.
In an interview last week, however, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would pursue legislation because of complaints about travel, particularly to and from Caribbean islands.
He didn't detail how he would change the program. "Too many people have said they are not satisfied with it," Thompson said.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said she doesn't consider the passport requirement for air travel onerous, but she said passports for land travel remain a concern.
She seeks to amend pending immigration legislation to require a study of allowing better driver's licenses to satisfy the passport requirement.
"It's possible to improve our border security without imposing an expensive, onerous burden on legitimate travelers," Collins said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said progress has been made toward addressing concerns from residents of border states. Experiments with secure documents could yield something less expensive and easier to obtain than a passport, he said.
He was unyielding on improving border security, however, arguing that easily forged papers could open the door to a terrorist attack.
"I can tell you, because I see the threats that come in every single day, that if we go back to the old system where 8,000 kinds of documents can be used to get into the country, then someone will come in with a document that will be easily faked and they will blow up and kill Americans," Chertoff said. "Then what will happen is the American public will rise up in outrage."
Because of complaints about the cost, the department will accept birth certificates for children up to 15 years old and for children in groups, such as sports teams with up to 18 members.
The State Department is developing a card intended to provide the same security as a passport booklet at half the price. If the plan is successful, passports will be required by next January for land travel. Otherwise, the requirement would begin next June.
Also, an experimental program is testing secure driver's licenses in Washington state.
Chertoff acknowledged business complaints about the passport requirement, but he argued that the travel industry is savvy enough to cope.
"Once the travel industry saw we were serious about the Caribbean rule, they began to encourage people to get passports and they actually had refunds on the passports," Chertoff said. "These guys know how to market and they know how to absorb the cost if they think it necessary."
Collins praised the secretary's waiver for children and the experimental program in Washington state, but she said Chertoff might not be familiar with the expectation that Mainers have of easy travel with Canada.
"Those of us who grew up in border communities in northern and eastern Maine know full well, and perhaps better than the secretary does, that being able to cross the border to Canada easily is a way of life," Collins said.
Thompson's and Chertoff's comments were made last week during interviews with 15 reporters, including one from the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, participating in the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. The project was sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation.
Copyright © 2007 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.