New ID rules begin June 1 for Mexico, Canada trips

[sarcasmo]

Source: AP

Snip< BLAINE, Wash. – New rules requiring passports or new high-tech documents to cross the United States' northern and southern borders are taking effect Monday, as some rue the tightening of security and others hail it as long overdue.

The rules are being implemented nearly eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks and long after the 9/11 Commission recommended the changes. They were delayed by complaints from state officials who worried the restrictions would hinder the flow of people and commerce and affect border towns dependent on international crossings.

Snip< U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they're confident the transition will be smooth.

"Our research indicates approximately 80 percent of the individuals coming in now, U.S. and Canadians, are compliant," and are crossing with proof of citizenship, said Thomas Winkowski, assistant commissioner for field operations at Customs and Border Protection.

The higher noncompliance areas, he said, are primarily U.S. citizens in the southern border region.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090530/ap_on_re_us/us_border_crossing_rules

---

The wife and I are going to get our Enhanced Drivers License, Michigan just started the Enhanced license program this year. I think New York offers the same program, it's cheaper and easier to get than a passport.

[Towlie]

1. And government continues its ongoing project to make us all dread the word "enhanced".

[LakeSamish706]

2. The only thing with the Drivers License is if you plan to travel over seas...

you need a passport, so I think I will go the Passport route.

[sarcasmo]

3. Having friends in Toronto and living in Michigan the Enhanced license is an easier get.

[Retrograde]

4. It's a sop to people living along the border

the Buffalo region's been whining about this for several years now: until Bush very little documentation was needed to cross into Canada and back. When the US started talking about requiring passports they complained about how expensive it was (i.e., $9 a year if you spread out the cost) and how long it took to get one, so they went for the enhanced drivers' licenses.

Of course, they're only good for the US/Canada and maybe US/Mexico borders, so it you ever want to go anywhere else you need a passport. And of course people from the states that don't offer these licenses are going to need passports anyway.

[zalinda]

5. Of course, if you want to go any where else

you have to have MONEY to go, then you can afford a passport. I live in New York and my mother lives in Michigan, why would I spend over $80 to drive through Canada to visit her?

zalinda

[Berry Cool]

6. This article isn't entirely true.

Only if you were traveling by personal vehicle could you ever get into and out of Canada merely by an oral declaration of citizenship. For travel by bus or train, you needed documentation, and that's been the case for years. Not necessarily a passport, but a birth certificate. A driver's license or other form of ID was never good enough to cut it.

I cannot tell you how many trips I have made to Canada and back by bus. I can tell you I saw people on the Buffalo side marched right back across the border to Canada because they didn't have papers to enter the United States.

Of course, the interesting thing now is that there are parts of the United States you can't travel in anymore without being asked to "show your papers." And not just near Mexico, either, but near Canada. You can travel entirely within the borders of the USA and still have Customs agents stop your vehicle or board your bus and demand to know your citizenship. And if you don't have proof and they don't believe you, heaven help you. It's like some kind of totalitarian country.

[izquierdista]

7. Not just 'like'

It IS a totalitarian country. At least as far as DHS, ICE, and many local law enforcement agencies are concerned. They can make all sorts of requests that wouldn't hold up in a court case and they expect you to submissively comply or they will make your life hell.