January 2, 2007
The date keeps getting pushed back but this time, the feds say it's for real: Beginning January 23, you will need a passport to enter -- or re-enter -- the United States from Mexico, Canada and other nearby countries. Many cruise lines started requiring passports Jan. 1.
As part of the effort to tighten border security, all arriving international passengers at U.S. airports will be required to show passports as the only acceptable proof of citizenship. The rule applies to American citizens too, even though only about one in four has a valid passport.
Travel agents around the country have been trying to get the word out but many travelers are still expected to be caught unawares. Many agents are advising all their customers to apply for passports, even if they don't travel internationally.
"I think everybody should have a passport," said Sue Quasebarth of Monticello Travel & Cruise in Monticello, Indiana. "I think it's eventually going to come that even if you're traveling even within the United States you're going to have a passport. It's just going to be the way of life anymore," she told the Monticello Herald Journal.
Passports are also a convenient and widely accepted form of identification within the U.S. and can be used when applying for items ranging from a driver's license to a voter registration card.
The United States Postal Service has increased the number of its offices that process passport applications nationwide.
Better Security
According to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, strengthening the rules reduces the chances of a terrorist entering the country.
"We're always better off when we build higher levels of security," he said. "The ability to misuse travel documents to enter this country opens the door for a terrorist.
"None of these steps is foolproof and none of them is perfect. But each of them raises the bar to an attack."
Chertoff said more than 8,000 different state and local agencies issue birth certificates and driver's licenses -- the forms of personal ID most prevalent in travel today. Deciphering each one, and determining which ones could be fraudulent, has placed an enormous burden on customs, immigration, and border officials, he said.
Land and sea arrivals will be covered by a separate program, Chertoff noted. Starting in January 2008, they will also have to show passports or proposed alternative security identity cards.
The new passport rules will not apply to Americans returning from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or other territories. But the North American Travel Journalists Association, whose members fly often, recommends that passengers carry them anyway to avoid potential airport problems.
Several members of Congress have long urged tougher implementation of rules regarding security documents -- a recommendation of the Sept. 11 Commission created in the wake of terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
