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WASHINGTON — Americans will be safer next month after tougher document requirements are imposed at Canada-U.S. land-border crossings, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.
As of Feb. 1, Canadians and returning Americans will need both an official document bearing a photograph, such as a driver's licence, in addition to proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, at all land crossings.
“It is going to contribute to making America safer,” Mr. Chertoff said in an interview yesterday. The terrorist threat is real, he said, and U.S. agents at Canadian land crossings “turn away a significant number of people at the border because they appear on watch lists.”
Mr. Chertoff conceded that the new rules wouldn't deter terrorists who had acquired Canadian identity documents, such as Ahmed Ressam, the so-called Millennium Bomber. “We are worried that al-Qaeda is deliberately trying to recruit people who appear to have or actually have, legitimate paperwork from Western European countries or Canada,” he said.
Mr. Chertoff's decision to toughen requirements at land crossings comes less than a month after Congress delayed – until summer of 2009 – the deadline when Americans and Canadians will need passports to cross the land border.
While the passport requirement “may be postponed, our need to tighten border security is not,” Mr. Chertoff said in letters to Congress defending his unilateral decision to toughen requirements next month.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr. Chertoff said the new rules aren't onerous, rejecting suggestions that they would hurt trade, and said they could prevent a backlash against Canada if the next major terrorist attack in the United States is traced back to al-Qaeda cells in Canada.
“By putting in reasonable security now … if an event happens that is traceable to somebody coming in over the border [from Canada] there will not be an overreaction with an outcry … and a demand that we shut the border down,” Mr. Chertoff said.
But some ministers in the Harper government already accuse the Bush administration of undermining the world's biggest trading relationship for the sake of security concerns.
“We see ‘security' trumping all else in ways that are now hurting cross-border trade, and the legitimate and beneficial movement of people,” Trade Minister David Emerson said last month in Miami.
Others have voiced a variety of concerns ranging from worries that tougher document requirements will end a long history of children making trans border trips for hockey games to souring the special relationship across what has long been called the world's longest-undefended border.
“We are not asking everyone to be strip searched at the border or to go through magnetometers,” Mr. Chertoff said. “Is it unreasonable to say; ‘Show me your driver's licence and your birth certificate?' ” he said, adding, “Those are very common documents.”
The new rules requiring both a photo ID and proof of citizenship will apply only to those 19 and older. Younger Canadians and Americans will be able to enter the United States at land borders with only proof of citizenship. Citizens of other countries, including landed immigrants in Canada already require passports, and sometimes visas, to enter the United States.
For those already crossing with passports or the various pre-approved border-crossing cards in the Nexus, SENTRI or FAST programs, the new rules have no impact.
“It shouldn't be terribly inconvenient,” Mr. Chertoff said. “The documents we are talking about are widely held … I don't know of many people who don't have a driver's licence and a birth certificate … so unless you have no identification on you and just figure you are going to stroll across the border like taking a walk down to the grocery store, the only inconvenience is that you have to remember to take your wallet.”
Border agents will show some flexibility. Returning Americans without proper documentation may be delayed until they can satisfy immigration agents of their identity. Canadians who try to cross with just a driver's licence may be turned back, or admitted with a warning, Mr. Chertoff said.
The latest rule change seems certain to create new round of confusion, coming only weeks after what seemed to be a delay ordered by Congress in tougher crossing requirements.
“Requiring travellers to carry a birth certificate is onerous in the absence of robust, advanced outreach to travellers,” the Travel Industry Association said yesterday.
