Thread: Passport aplications at county decline

Passport applications at county decline
By Darren Meritz / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/25/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


Amalio Cano propped his daughter, Dania Ofelia Cano, 3, on his knee so her passport photo could be taken Thursday at the District Clerk's Office at the County Courthouse. Cano filled out passport applications for himself, his daughter and son Amalo Cano Jr. 2, left. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)A sharp drop in passport applications at the El Paso County District Clerk's Office has prompted local officials to speculate about whether travel across the U.S.-Mexico border has diminished because of violence in Juárez, long bridge waits or even seasonal patterns.
The drop in passport applications at the District Clerk's Office last month has come as customs officers in El Paso are expressing signs of dissatisfaction with the Department of Homeland Security, which in 2003 became the umbrella agency for customs and immigration sectors of the federal government.

According to the District Clerk's Office, a high of 3,444 passport applications in December 2007 had dropped to 1,290 by May.

"The volume has changed dramatically, and I think it has a lot to do with what is happening in Mexico at this time," said District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez. "A lot of individuals are afraid of crossing over."

Other factors could also be at play. The Department of Homeland Security began requiring passports with a few exceptions to cross the border in January this year, but is allowing a period of transition until June 2009. Border crossers without passports or other acceptable documentation, such as a border-crossing card, can still make their way into the United States with a government issued photo ID card and proof of permission to enter the United States, such as a birth certificate.

The transition period, customs officials said, may prompt border crossers to put off getting a
passport until they absolutely need one.
"It would serve people well to act now rather than wait until the last minute because you don't want to get caught up in a rush. The documents may be slow to come," said Roger Maier, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in El Paso. "The more people we have moving toward a single document, that will expedite their entry because it'll just be a quicker inspection process."

Amalio Cano heeded that advice last week. With his wife and children, he went to the County Courthouseto get passports for himself and his two children, 3-year-old Dania Ofelia Cano and 2-year-old Amalio Cano Jr. His wife, Angelica Maria Tapia, is not able to receive a U.S. passport because she is not yet a U.S. citizen.

"Our families both reside in Mexico, so we make frequent trips over there," Cano said. ... Next year we won't be able to come back in without it."

Officers currently are depending on more than 8,000 forms of accepted identification -- including passports, birth certificates from each state, naturalization documents and other papers -- that make the jobs of customs officials complicated, Maier said.

"This really reduces the potential for fraud and abuse," Maier said. "The more people we have moving toward a single document, that will expedite about everything because it'll just be a quicker inspection process."

Maier also expects the new passport requirements to ease strains on customs officers, who earlier this month picketed next to the Paso del Norte Bridge to raise awareness about what they called unfavorable working conditions. At the demonstration, customs officers said pressure to reduce bridge wait times and high attrition have left customs short-staffed.

Others are less optimistic. Joe Vasquez Sr., who was a customs officer for nearly 30 years until retiring about 10 years ago, described what he called systemic problems in the Department of Homeland Security that are prompting a loss of talented officers.

Problems such as the one that led to the labor picket earlier this month have been prompted by the merger of immigration and customs functions that now fall within the Department of Homeland Security, Vasquez said.

Customs officers, he said, feel demeaned and demoralized because they must now answer to supervisors who come from immigration backgrounds.

"The brain drain on customs is such that I venture to say that right now, on any port, they've lost a lot of their experience and it's not being replaced," Vasquez said. "Now they're under immigration, and immigration is completely different than customs. The mentality is so much different. While customs was more into enforcement -- arrests and drugs -- immigration was not."


Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.








http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9372868

Why not simply walk back across the border like thieves in the night. They do not bother worrying about our laws, why should they worry about Mexico's?