Thread: Hillary Clinton offers help on border

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... e_id=15294

Hillary Clinton offers help on border
Senator will ask Homeland Security officials to view situation

By David Iman II, M.B. Pell and Steve Virkler
Times Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will ask the Homeland Security Department to send representatives to the north country to see the effects on the region of an impending new requirement for passports for all people entering the United States from Canada.

Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y., addressed the concerns of residents Monday at Massena International Airport , where she told 250 people in attendance that she will meet with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday. Opponents say the rule will discourage border traffic.

The senator later made stops in Watertown and Lowville during a daylong north country swing.

Performers at Gotta Dance Studio on North Raquette River Road, just a few minutes from where Sen. Clinton spoke in Massena, travel around the state and the East Coast performing. Studio owner Jane E. Dubray said $100 passports for her 45 dancers and their family members would be burdensome. Before this proposal, they had considered performing in Montreal.

"If we have to have passports, we're just not going to go there," she said.

The new passport requirement says that American citizens entering the United States from Canada, Mexico, Caribbean nations, Bermuda, Central America and South America through airports and seaports must present a U.S. passport starting Dec. 31, 2006; and American citizens entering the United States from Canada and Mexico across land border crossings must present a U.S. passport starting Dec. 31, 2007.

Visitors from Canada, Mexico, and other nations in the Western Hemisphere also will be required to present their passports to enter the United States.

Sen. Clinton said she believes those proposing the rule do not understand how open the border is.

"It is not something that they can grasp, apparently. So that's the reason why I'm asking them that they come up and see for themselves," she said.

Pressure from the Bush administration has led the House of Representatives to undercut Senate efforts to stop the rule's implementation, Sen. Clinton said.

Officials from both sides of the border said the rule would stifle travel, hurting commerce and tourism. More importantly, it would break up communities that have become interdependent.

"My fear today is that the passport requirement will put a virtual wall up," said Mike A. Lalonde, executive manager of Cornwall & Seaway Valley Tourism.

The rule would create problems on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, which stretches across the border.

About 70 percent of border traffic in the area is composed of Mohawks, who often take several trips each day, Chief James W. Ransom said. The rule could interrupt the cross-border travel of 1,300 Mohawk students living on the Canadian side who attend the Salmon River and Massena school districts.

"The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino attracts over 600,000 visitors annually, with approximately 50 percent of them from Canada," Mr. Ransom said, adding that an informal poll of Mohawk business owners showed 20 percent of their customers were from the other side of the border.

The loss of those customers could cut the tribe's revenues in half, Mr. Ransom said.

Farmers ask for help

Jefferson County farmers and agriculture specialists are hoping that the squeaky cheese curd gets the grease. On Monday afternoon at the Best Western Carriage House Inn in Watertown, farming experts called for more money to maintain safety net programs, develop organic products and markets, research renewable energy resources and implement environmental regulations.

W. Edward Walldroff, owner of Homestead Fields Farm, LaFargeville, asked that Sen. Clinton work to extend the Milk Income Loss Contract, which expired Sept. 30 and paid farmers when milk prices fell below a federal target.

The senator said the program pumped $186.2 million into the state and $9 million into Jefferson County.

"So I think it had a dramatic impact in the county and across the state," she said. "We're going to keep working to get the milk program reauthorized."

Sen. Clinton also voiced support for providing farmers with money to meet the Clean Air and Clean Water Act.

"If we don't figure a way to empower you to meet those regulations, you won't be able to be good stewards, and that's a lose-lose," she said.

The senator spoke passionately on one issue that was not even discussed by local agricultural specialists, but elicited nods of agreement. She said her "big beef" with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development is that the agency has not enforced laws requiring food distributors to place country-of-origin labels on all products.

Sen. Clinton said if food producers in other countries have the competitive advantage of not having to conform to U.S. health regulations when growing and making food, U.S. consumers should have the advantage of being allowed to select healthier products.

"I think that is wrong, because I think a lot of New Yorkers and Americans would buy food products if they know it's from the United States," she said.

The senator said she will continue to work to provide research money to develop renewable sources of energy and organic products.

She said organic products could be particularly profitable for farmers in the state because New York and Los Angeles are the two fastest-growing markets for organic food.

"So if we can be the epicenter of organic products, we already have a built-in market," Sen. Clinton said.

Agriculture, schools touted

The senator also touched on agricultural issues during a late-afternoon stop at a Lewis County Chamber of Commerce forum at Lowville Academy and Central School, but she also tackled education, renewable energy, the environment and job growth.

"I know you've got more cows than people," Sen. Clinton said. "And they're happy cows."

However, she said, consumers in New York City and politicians in Washington, D.C., don't realize the scope of the agriculture industry in this state.

Over the past few years, Sen. Clinton said, she has tried to promote New York agricultural products and get "our fair share" of federal farming assistance dollars. She specifically cited Roxaina L. Hurlburt, marketing director of Mercer's Dairy Inc. of Boonville, as a "wonderful example of how we need to tell people in the rest of the world about New York agricultural products."

Mrs. Hurlburt and other area representatives, with assistance from Sen. Clinton's office, have showcased north country products at a variety of events throughout the Northeast in the past few years.

"Education is one of the best insurance policies we have," Sen. Clinton said, stating that Lewis County schools are "well-known for their results."

The senator, who on Monday afternoon toured the Maple Ridge Wind Farm project on Tug Hill, commended county landowners and officials for being "ahead of the curve."

"What's happening here in Lewis County is so profoundly important," she said. "We have to end our addiction to foreign oil."

Sen. Clinton commended local efforts to clean up the Black River watershed, noting that water may soon be a global commodity. She also touted recent initiatives she has introduced to bring more investment to upstate New York and to market local goods on eBay.

Sen. Clinton commended the work of her north country liaison, Susan R. Merrell, a Lowville resident. "She doesn't ever let us forget Lewis County," the senator said.

While a few protesters greeted Sen. Clinton outside Lowville Academy with signs stating "Hillary Aborts Babies" and "Life Yes. Hillary No," attendees in the packed school auditorium gave her a standing ovation.

The LACS Jazz Ensemble and Select Chorus entertained the crowd until Sen. Clinton arrived. Lowville Superintendent Kenneth J. McAuliffe, wind farm project Manager of Development William M. Moore, Tug Hill Commission Executive Director John K. Bartow Jr., Lowville Farmers Co-op General Manager Brian R. Sheley and Lewis County Opportunities Executive Director Karl Reutling also spoke at the Lowville forum.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... e_id=15429

Homeland Security may visit
Clinton pushing review of passport requirement
By Marc Heller
Times Washington Correspondent
Thursday, October 06, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff appears open to having someone from his agency visit Northern New York to learn how requiring passports at the Canadian border could affect business and tourism, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said after meeting with him Wednesday.

Mrs. Clinton, D-N.Y., invited Mr. Chertoff to the region, saying officials must see the border along the St. Lawrence River to appreciate both the logistical aspects of controlling travel and the myriad of ways commerce could be affected if passports or other expensive forms of documentation become necessary.

"I do fear people in Washington only understand one border, namely the southern border," Mrs. Clinton said in a conference call with reporters after meeting with Chertoff. Mrs. Clinton said she and Mr. Chertoff discussed several other issues related to homeland security, including her and other lawmakers' proposal to add a northern border coordinator to the Department of Homeland Security.

"A decrease in travel could be absolutely devastating," Mrs. Clinton said.

Mrs. Clinton and Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, have been urging DHS officials for months to visit the region. Mr. McHugh met most recently with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official last week; he said officials have appeared to him to be interested in visiting the Canadian border but that "whether it's the New York-Canadian border remains to be seen."

Both lawmakers have told officials that passports, as well as NEXUS and FAST passes, are too expensive for the occasional or impulse traveler and for Canadian families that plan a vacation in the Thousand Islands. FAST and NEXUS passes cost $50 for five years. A new Canadian passport costs either $87 or $92 for those 16 years and older, $37 for those from 3 to 15 and $22 for children under 3.

For American citizens to travel to Canada and then return, a new passport costs $97 for those 16 years and older, $82 for those younger than 16.

In addition, in a letter to Mr. Chertoff, Mrs. Clinton cited the challenges facing the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, which covers both sides of the border.

"Perhaps most disturbing, the Initiative could interrupt the cross-border travel of 1,300 Mohawk students living on the Canadian side of the border who attend the Salmon River and Massena school districts located on the U.S. side," Mrs. Clinton said, referring to the program's official name, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Gov. George E. Pataki also spoke out Wednesday against requiring passports, urging federal officials to consider allowing driver's licenses similar to those issued in New York. The licenses are imbedded with identifiers that could be scanned by border officials, the governor told reporters at a press conference in Albany, the Associated Press reported.

A DHS spokesman, Jarrod P. Agen, said the department continues to examine lower-cost forms of identification that could substitute for a passport. But the agency never intended to make passports the only accepted form of identification, he said.

Mr. Agen said the department is, in fact, following the direction of Congress, which required that passports or alternative forms of identification be required at all ports of entry by January 2008. He said the agency is working within the confines of the law to devise a "viable, less expensive alternative" and that President Bush does not want the initiative to stifle commerce.

He said the identification would have to be easy to carry and would be tailored specifically to land border crossings, rather than airports, for instance.

He said he did not know whether DHS officials were considering traveling to the New York-Canadian border.

Mr. McHugh said Wednesday that a DHS visit to the region, perhaps for a public hearing on the proposal, would help convince the department that people complaining about it are "not just a bunch of hyperextended legislators."

In general, Mr. McHugh said, DHS officials have responded to his concerns about the proposal by "nodding politely but not really responding."

Alexandria Bay Mayor Patrick J. Simpson welcomed the possibility of border officials visiting the area.

"I think that would be a positive because they need to know we're dealing with people who travel all over the country and then all of a sudden they find out about a regulation they didn't know existed and for the people who live here it's an added expense," Mr. Simpson said. "Let's say you have three or four kids who play minor hockey or figure skate, you usually have to go to Canada for that and that's really an added expense for a family on a budget."

One form of identification that could be developed is a biometric driver's license. Mr. McHugh has supported legislation to create universal driver's licenses that could serve the same purpose as a passport at the border, but the administration did not work that proposal into the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

"Ultimately we've got to no doubt have a solution that relies on biometrics, but that's years away," Mr. McHugh said.

Congress put additional pressure on DHS in this year's spending bill for the department. In a House-Senate conference committee's report accompanying the bill, lawmakers directed the agency to develop alternatives to the NEXUS and FAST passes specifically targeted at small rural communities on the U.S.-Canadian border. Mr. McHugh and Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, crafted that language, said Mr. McHugh's spokeswoman, Brynn A. Barnett.