Passport Rules Eased For Kids

U.S., Canadian Children Under 15 Will Just Need Birth Certificates At U.S. Land And Sea Borders

(CBS/AP)  U.S. and Canadian children will be exempt from new rules that will require travelers to show passports when entering the U.S. at land or sea borders, a move the Bush administration said Thursday is aimed at helping families and school groups.

The new passport requirements will take effect as soon as January 2008. In a change from earlier plans, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the relaxation in rules at a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club before touring the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a link with Windsor, Ontario under the Detroit River.

"This is going to make it a lot easier for kids to cross the border without having to get passports and passcards," Chertoff said. "By the way, it's specifically designed to make it cheaper for families."

Meanwhile, Canadian news reports say provincial governments hope new, high-tech driver's licences could serve as an alternative to passports for Canadians visiting the U.S. Provincial premiers plan to make their case in Washington next week.

U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 16 through 18 traveling with school, religious, cultural or athletic groups and under adult supervision will also be allowed to travel with only their birth certificates.

The rule is designed, for example, to allow hockey teams and other groups to go back and forth without disrupting their schedule, provided they are chaperoned, Chertoff said.

That will help teams that cross the border, reports Tom Puckett of CBS radio affiliate WBEN(audio) in Buffalo. Some parents might have pulled their children from the teams rather than pay for passports.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a longtime critic of the overall passport requirements because of the potential impact on the economy of border states, said he was pleased by the exemption for those under age 15.

"That's a great first step and now we're going to have to make sure they do it for everyone over 15 as well," Schumer said.

Schumer said he would introduce legislation that would delay implementation of the passport requirement until at least June 2009. The bill also would require studies on the economic impact of the initiative on each border state, and to test an enhanced driver's license program as an alternative to passports in at least one location.

Any alternative to passports would have to cost adults no more than $20 and be free for children, under the bill.

Beginning last Jan. 23, nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. who are citizens of Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean — as well as returning American citizens — have been required to display passports. Children entering the United States by air will still be required to show passports.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the easing of rules for children entering by land or sea was in part the result of talks between the department and Canadians and interested state officials. Canada and U.S. border states have been concerned that the passport requirements would hurt legitimate travel and commerce.

When the new requirements for travelers crossing land and sea borders take effect, it will bring residents of Western Hemisphere nations under the same rules as travelers from the rest of the world.

The rules were mandated by Congress in 2004 as a response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the recommendations by the Sept. 11 commission that border security be tightened.

Last October, Congress passed an amendment sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, that would postpone the day the land and sea rules take effect for as long as 17 months, till June 2009, if certain conditions have not been met.

One of those conditions was to develop an alternative procedure for groups of children traveling across the border under adult supervision and with parental consent.

Chertoff met with local officials in Detroit and planned to travel to Ottawa, Canada, for meetings Friday with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts.

In Detroit, Chertoff met with Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, who has offered a proposal where state driver's licenses and identification cards, which are being revamped to meet federal standards, also could serve as a passport. She said the plan would be simple and cut costs.

"It eases the burden of these new laws on our citizens with a commonsense, workable solution," she said. "It also protects our economy while achieving everyone's goal of combating terrorism."

[randalds]

I have been against this law since it was introduced. It will harm tourism back and forth between the US, Mexico and Canada. In the case of Mexico if we stifle tourism going South then that will damage one of the few successful industries they have. Mexican income from tourism is 2nd only to the amount of money being sent back to Mexico by migrant workers and if we cause more Mexicans to be unemployed because we inadvertently harm their tourism it will mean even more coming North looking for jobs. besides every terrorist act committed in the US was carried out by either an American or someone who entered the country legally with a passport. Get the bill passed Chuck!

[standlee5]

emhawks, that would explain the utter disregard for immigration law the last six years. Illegals come here get an ITIN number then claim every relative they have in Mexico. Why would we let them get away with this, then it was brought to my attention that the govt. just wants them in the system. It is the beginning of the assimilation of Mexico. But we have no say in this acquisition we have ceased to be a country and are only a corporate entity.

[emhawks]

Tonight on Lou Dobbs, a large part of his show was about the meeting between Secretary Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff & Commerce Sec. Gutierrez with their Mexican & Canadian counterparts in Ottawa today. They're discussing the Security & Prosperity Partnership, which could lead to a "North American Union". All this comes without the consent of Congress or the American people (the voters). It's being done quietly & many large corporations are in favor of this.
The plan to create a NAU by 2010 as a regional government ( US, Mexico, Canada) is directly stated only in the May 2005 task force report "Building a North American Community" by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Bush & Cheney are pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union by 2010 which will erase our borders with both Mexico & Canada. This will dissolve the United States of America into the North American Union.
I find this not only alarming, but infuriating! I believe the American people should demand an end to any further expansion of the NAU until we are allowed to vote on this.
There are many websites available; use Google for North American Union.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."- Wendell Phillips.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."- Thomas Jefferson.
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."- Unknown.

[kinich74]

And what about locals?

Mexican, C.A. and Caribbean tourists need a visa and a passport takes less than a week to obtain in Mexico.
It takes as much as 2 months to get a US passport, if you never had a day in court or had a speeding ticket.
A lot of US citizens work or study in Mexico, plus a lot of families which have been for over a 100 years (such as those that were there in 1848) have family in both sides. Most of these families aren't exactly wealthy or even middle class, some for reasons beyond their power (racism and the fact nobody respected the G.Hidalgo clause regarding the right of settlers that gave them right to their existing property at the same time it made them American citizens) and which to this day family and their identity is all they got left.
Plus, were are cities like McAllen, TX gonna get their income since they depend solely on hordes of rich Mexican tourists hoarding La Plaza Mall and downtown, the same can be said of Laredo, Del Rio and downtown Brownsville (Brownsville does have a big port though, but again half their clients are Mexican who use the cheaper port rates)!

[y0wmama]

I think they should lower the age limit to 7. It is a known fact that in Srilanka, and certain other countries that children under 15 are trained in the use of firearms for the purpose of inciting civil unrest and violence.

[musty2u]

Okay, instead of a passport the youth only need two documents; a certified copy of their birth certificate, and a parental permission slip. Hmm, seems like we are whimping out on our border rules already.