Thread: Bring more ID when crossing the borders

Bring more ID when crossing the borders

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 28, 2008

By Kristin Jackson

The Seattle Times

If you’re planning a driving trip to Canada or Mexico, you’ll need to pack more identification in the New Year, thanks to a new U.S. law.

Starting Jan. 31, 2008, U.S. citizens — both adults and children — returning to the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean must carry a document that shows their citizenship. Those who don’t have a passport must carry a birth certificate plus government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or school ID for young students, to show at border inspection stations. The new rule affects all vehicle and train travelers, cruise and ferry passengers, and private boaters.

In recent years, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has urged travelers to carry a birth certificate and photo ID when traveling to those areas. The ID wasn’t a strict legal requirement, even though many travelers complied, but it will be law from Jan. 31 as the U.S. ramps up its border screening through what’s called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (which grew out of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks).

U.S. travelers who don’t have proof of citizenship — either a birth certificate or passport — will face secondary screening and delays at border stations while their citizenship is checked, said Mike Milne, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Non-U.S. citizens who live in the U.S. should carry proof of legal residency and their citizenship documents. Canadians trying to enter the U.S. without proof of their citizenship could be turned away.

Earlier this year, U.S. air travelers returning to the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean were required to carry passports under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The passport requirement eventually will be extended to land and sea travelers returning from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, perhaps as early as summer 2008. (For details on the ID law taking effect on Jan. 31 and the eventual land/sea traveler passport requirement, go to the Department of Homeland Security Web site, www.dhs.gov, and search for Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Anyone planning to travel abroad who needs a first or renewed passport should apply now to beat the rush. The Passport Services Office gets busy each spring and could be swamped if the land/sea traveler passport requirement goes into effect next summer. Go to www.travel.state.gov/ passport/ or phone (877) 487-2778.

http://www.projo.com/travel/content/TRV ... 0396f.html

In my travels requiring a passport I slept on it and kept it as close to me as possible at all times. US passports are still gold in identity theft. Carrying a birth certificate abroad: never!

Great Citizens are the only ones that have to prove they live here legally

Originally Posted by fmrjarhead

Great Citizens are the only ones that have to prove they live here legally

Yes, I like the way DHS shows us that they are really doing something to protect us. Keep making it harder and harder on the honest so we will think that they are doing something to the criminals too. Its like a HUGE FACADE.

I remember back in the 80's how disgusted I was that after several generation of Americans I had to show my social security card which I lost and never replaced at 17, just to get a job. I could not even get paid until I sent to get a replacement for my birth certificate so I could get new social security card. That was shortly after the 1st amnesty debacle. Today, still illegals come and go when they want and work and get paid.

I guess now American Citizens are forced to have a US Passport. Then we read the now and find out how many times those are being forged too.

Got to ask, why in the world would an illegal alien try to go across a legal entry point and risk getting caught when they can enter anywhere else and not have much of a chance getting caught?

Meanwhile 5,000 to 10,000 illegally cross our border every week......This government makes it harder for legal citizens to live in this country as they take more of our wealth and redistribute it to those illegally here and allow them to violate our laws with impunity while prosecuting Americans for the same offenses. What an absolute farce!!!!!!!