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August 18, 2006
Travel Industry Seeks Delay on New Passport Rules at U.S. Borders
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — The nation’s largest travel industry association urged the Bush administration on Thursday to delay until June 2009 putting into effect a law requiring Americans traveling from Canada, Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean islands to present passports to return to the United States.

Americans now typically present just driver’s licenses or birth certificates when returning from those areas. The law, going into effect in stages beginning in January, also applies to Canadians, Mexicans and Bermudians who can now enter the United States without passports.

The trade group, the Travel Industry Association of America, called for the new requirement to be delayed, warning that the present schedule would create chaos among Americans and deter many foreigners from visiting here.

Officials of the State and Homeland Security Departments defended the deadlines, noting that Congress had mandated the change to strengthen border security by streamlining the number of documents used to enter the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents now review hundreds of varied driver’s licenses and birth certificates. In some cases, agents have allowed undercover agents posing as travelers with fraudulent documents to enter.

The trade group said that it supported the new security measures, but that Washington had failed to organize an adequate campaign to alert travelers. The group said 40 percent of Canadians, who make up the largest number of foreign visitors, have passports. About 27 percent of Americans have passports, State Department officials say.

Representatives of the travel industry expressed particular concern about the effects on cruise lines that carry many Americans to the Caribbean. The industry fears that many travelers will cancel their plans because they do not have passports or cannot obtain them quickly enough.

“This is going to have a tremendous negative impact, potentially,” said Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association, which represents the nation’s largest airlines, hotels, cruise lines and car rental companies. “We’re going to have a chaotic situation upon us.”

Under the new requirements, Americans traveling to Canada, Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean by air or sea, as well as foreigners from Canada, Mexico and Bermuda traveling by air or sea, will have to have passports to enter the United States effective Jan. 8, 2007. The administration could extend the deadline one year without consulting Congress, officials said.

Travelers crossing land borders from those countries will have to carry passports by January 2008. Congress, which set that deadline, would have to approve that change.

Frank E. Moss, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the State Department, said the government had held hundreds of public forums to notify travelers of the changes. Mr. Moss said that the number of Americans applying for passports had surged in recent years and that his department had expanded to meet the increased demand.

“Americans, we do believe, are coming into compliance with this requirement,” Mr. Moss said.

Domestic security officials estimate that 6 million of the 22 million people expected to be affected by the law would need to obtain passports.

In gauging the potential consequences of the law, officials acknowledge that the figure represented a “most likely” situation and added that it was possible that up to 14 million people would need passports.

Such predictions did not ease the concerns of travel industry agencies.

A spokesman for the Cruise Lines International Association, Brian Major, said the Caribbean was the most popular cruise destination, accounting for 40 percent of itineraries. Last year, 20 percent to 30 percent of cruise passengers used passports as documentation, with the rest using birth certificates or driver’s licenses, Mr. Major said.

“The concern is that people will not have the proper documentation to cruise,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to make people aware.”