Can President Obama PLEASE revoke the "no travel to/from Canada without a passport" policy?

[Ken Burch]

There was never a justification for it.

It was a Bush thing.

The public wouldn't hold it against our president that he made travel easier.

And the 9/11 guys HAD passports anyway.

Is there ANY good reason not to get rid of this policy?

[billyoc]

1. I know! Like a terrorist is going to forget his passport!

:rofl:

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Yeah, but Napolitano already came out and said she...

loves the whole restricted access thing.

Well, maybe not loves it so much, but she thinks it's not such a bad idea-- and so speaks the Administration.

I suspect that this is yet another stupid idea that nobody has the guts to kill off and then be accused of being "soft on terrorists."

[Ken Burch]

4. No amount of "security" can justify things like THIS happening

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/590540

(a Canadian family, whose prematurely born child was unable to get admitted to a Canadian hospital, was forced to stay behind and leave the child alone in a hospital in Buffalo, because THEY didn't happen to have passports. And the fascists in our immigration service refused to make a humane exception).

[Oregone]

6. She also said its because the 9/11 terrorists came in from Canada

So, she has little to add to the conversation

[Ken Burch]

8. And they had passports, IIRC.

So this policy wouldn't have kept them out.

We should NEVER do anything just to look "tough".

[Oregone]

9. And just to clarify, they DID NOT come in from Canada

They all had legal visa's issued from the US

[kestrel91316]

3. When corporations complain enough about it cutting into their profits,

the policy will suddenly become unnecessary. Just watch.

[invictus]

5. How hard is it to get a passport? Canada is a foreign country. It is common sense policy. nt

[Ken Burch]

7. We had passport-free travel between the U.S, and Canada for 140 years

Was there ever ANY real reason to change that?

We both know this policy wouldn't have prevented 9/11.

[invictus]

14. Q: Was there ever ANY real reason to change that? A: Yes, illegal immigration.

nt

[Ken Burch]

16. If you're an anti-immigration crazy, you're on the RIGHT.

n/t.

[lindisfarne]

17. Canadians & Americans could cross without passports. Others couldn't. So much illegal immigration fr

from Canada. You still had to produce ID if asked.

[quakerboy]

26. I know, right

How better to protect those unsuspecting Canadians from a flood of under-educated, disease bearing cheap labor from the south?

[Better Believe It]

10. That will stop fake passports from being made by government spies and terrorists?

[lindisfarne]

18. GAO says fake passports easy to get.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/14/passport.security/index.html

[demmiblue]

11. I agree... it was just a fear mongering measure.

[invictus]

13. Yeah, getting a passport is such a terrifying prospect. Oh the humanity!

nt

[Ken Burch]

19. Canada isn't an enemy country, for God's sake.

And they weren't to blame for 9/11.

Why are you defending a right-wing policy that has no positive effects?

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[prairierose]

12. I was thinking about passports last week....

I had to get one recently because I wanted to go back to my dentist in Mexico, which is also part of this change. While I was there, my friends in Mexico kept telling me that we were not very free here in the US.

But does it occur to you that the reality today is that you can not leave this country without a passport anymore? Because if you do not have one, you can not get back into the US. Mexico does not ask for any identification when I cross the border. I think Canada is the same. I have to tell you, this does not make me feel very free.

I remember talking to a lady who was a refugee from Romania when it was still a closed country. We were driving in my car and she asked me where I could go with the car. It took me a while to figure out that she thought there was a restriction on how far I could drive from my home. I proudly told her that there were no restrictions on my car. I could go any where I wanted to in the US. How things have changed. I am no longer proud of my country and while I can still drive my car anywhere I want in the country, I can not cross the border without my passport in my pocket.

The whole thing with passports is about fear mongering and control.

[lindisfarne]

15. And have they closed up the border areas, esp. in New England, where your neighbor's house 200 feet

away is in Canada, and you're in VT?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/24/11119

[zulchzulu]

20. I've travelled to Calgary/Edmonton several times recenting...

...for a client and going into Canada is generally pretty easy unless you start acting like an asshole. Coming back, however, to the US is always a game where security guys with a lot of time on their hands seem to revel in making it difficult to get back into my own country.

Being kind of tall with a dark complexion (due to having a tan) and wearing a pony-tail, I could look like the Shoe Bomber if you squint really hard. And the big bag with tech toys makes security noobs really want to get busy.

I think they should still have a passport check, only without the drama.

[amandabeech]

23. They've always been assholes.

I had trouble getting home in 1974 because one of the dolts found a couple of pills under my driver's seat. They backed off when I told them that the pills were Midol for menstrual cramps.

[jberryhill]

27. The drama level is up to you

I travel abroad frequently, and simply don't talk to chatty officers on the way in. I am entering the US with a valid US passport, and don't have to answer extraneous questions about whether I had a good time, etc., so I simply don't answer them.

[lindisfarne]

21. Imagine needing a passport to go from your house to your driveway. - or living room to bedroom.

Residents along the south side of Canusa Avenue (get the pun in the name? HA!) live in the USA, while residents of the north side live in Canada. Doesn’t look like one needs to go through an International checkpoint just to cross the street, although I wonder if there’s one just south of the village.

According to the Wikipedia entry of the Quebec side, Canusa Avenue lies entirely in Canada, and the border runs through the front lawns of the houses along the south side. So, these houses are in the USA and most of their driveways are in Canada.

The border even runs through a tool-and-die factory and at least one house. Imagine cooking a meal in one country, walking down the hall, and serving it in another country! Let’s hope that family doesn’t need to go through an International checkpoint just to get something from upstairs.



http://blog.proud-geek.com/2009/03/03/strange-maps-beebe-plain-vermont-no-quebec-uh/

[cemaphonic]

22. There's also Point Roberts, WA

It's a small peninsula off the British Columbia mainland that is beneath the 49th parallel, thus part of the US despite having no mainland connection to the rest of the country.

[PassingFair]

24. This will be a deathblow to Windsor.

I shudder to think what this is doing
to their economy.

[earth mom]

28. We wanted to take a short trip to Canada this summer-but no passports

and a helluva lot of paperwork to do first-namely we need a couple of birth certificates.

I can believe that we can't go now because of *'s terra terra terra bullshit! :argh: :grr: :mad: