Passport Requirement at the Northern Border Will Be Nixed Until 2009 at the Earliest 

... Final Budget Bill Includes Leahy Mandate Delaying WHTI Rules until June 2009

Leahy Also Secures $33 M for Border Improvements at Derby Line 

·          Letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, criticizing
the birth certificate requirement and asking Chertoff to
cite his authority for imposing it. [pdf]

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Dec. 20) – Legislation authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to prevent the Bush Administration from requiring passports at the Northern Border and other U.S. checkpoints next year now has cleared Congress as part of a multi-agency budget bill.  The President is expected to sign the bill, despite the Bush Administration’s continuing opposition to the Leahy provisions. 

Leahy also secured $33 million in the budget bill for border crossing improvements at Derby Line, Vt. – one of New England’s busiest cargo points of entry. 

Leahy two years ago was the first in Congress to blow the whistle on problems in the Administration’s plans to implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) and has led efforts to fix them.  A senior member of the Appropriations Committee, Leahy – joined by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) – this summer added his latest legislation to the Senate’s version of the annual budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security.  A day later the House also passed it in a strong bipartisan vote.  The Leahy-Stevens amendment, which will become law when the President signs the budget bill, delays implementation of the land-crossing phase of WHTI until June 2009 and lays down seven conditions addressing the program’s most serious problems. 

“I’m glad that Vermonters now will have one less thing to worry about for awhile,” Leahy said.  “This buys breathing room to try to find better and more sensible answers for Northern Border security.  The passport requirement is the wrong answer to the wrong question.  It creates major hassles for law-abiding citizens and communities all across the longest peaceful border in the world.  It adds nothing to our security while costing Vermont and our national economy billions in lost commerce.  Instead, for only a fraction of that expense, we could and should be beefing up our intelligence and working with Canada to seek out potential terrorists long before they even get near our borders.” 

He continued, “Muddled thinking, poor planning and administrative hubris have plagued this program from the beginning.  They have rushed to implement passport checks before the necessary technology, infrastructure and training are in place at our border stations.  That’s a guarantee for long lines and lengthy delays.  We saw what happened earlier this year when they started requiring passports for airline flights, touching off massive passport processing backlogs -- and that involved only about a tenth of the population that will be affected by the next phase, at our land borders.” 

Leahy noted that instead of accepting this delay and using it to get kinks out of the WHTI program, the Administration now wants to start requiring birth certificates at the border next month.  “I’m challenging them on that, too.”  Leahy on Wednesday wrote to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, criticizing the birth certificate requirement and asking Chertoff to cite his authority for imposing it [the Leahy letter is posted on the Leahy website at leahy.senate.gov].  

Leahy Thursday also announced success in securing $33 million to build a new I-91 port of entry in Derby Line, Vt., to replace that checkpoint’s undersized and insufficient facilities.  Those funds will be combined with $6.5 million that Leahy and former Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) secured earlier, which the State of Vermont will use in upgrading I-91 leading to the improved port of entry.  “This will give us better facilities to speed things up at the Derby Line crossing,” he said. 

Leahy in October held a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Northern Border issues, including WHTI’s implications for Vermont, in Newport, Vt.

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(Leahy’s Congressional Record statement on the WHTI provisions follows:)

Statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on the Leahy-Stevens WHTI Provision in the Omnibus

December 18, 2007 

MR. LEAHY. Mr. President, one important issue I wish to highlight today is an international border issue with our friendly neighbors in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean that could have severe implications for the social and economic ways of life for communities all across our country.  

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Congress has enacted a number of new border security measures – all with the expressed goal of preventing another terrorist incident.  In this bill, we have worked hard to provide the needed resources for these programs in a fair and balanced manner.  Post 9/11, everyone recognizes that there are potential threats and security needs, but we must implement them sensibly and intelligently.   

Over the past few years, I have heard from many Vermonters about problems they have encountered at U.S. border crossings – from long traffic backups to invasive searches and questioning to inadequate communication from federal authorities about new facilities and procedures.  Such a top-down approach does not work well in interwoven communities along the border, where people cross daily from one side to the other for jobs, shopping, and cultural events.  We have hardened security around this Capitol and the White House and built fences near San Diego.  But those procedures do not work on Canusa Avenue in Beebe Plain, a two-lane road where one side of the street is the Vermont and the other side is Quebec, or at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the international border in Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec.  

That is why I am pleased that this bill includes a much-needed delay for full implementation of the so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require individuals from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean to present passports or other documents proving citizenship before entering the United States.  I was pleased to join with Senator Stevens and many other colleagues from both bodies in pushing for inclusion of this important provision because it is clear that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State are not ready for a full rollout of the new passport checks next summer.   

Muddled thinking, poor planning, and administrative hubris have plagued implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.  The Department of Homeland Security has rushed to implement the new passport checks before the necessary technology, infrastructure and training are in place at our border stations.  If these critical features of the deployment are not in place when the new program starts, we will see severe delays at our border and law-abiding citizens from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean will have great difficulty moving between our countries.  Most importantly, a hasty implementation will undermine the intended goals of the program.

The massive backlogs in processing passport applications we saw earlier this year when the Departments of Homeland Security and State started to require passports for air travel is just a taste of the chaos that is likely when they start enforcing citizenship checks at our nation’s land and sea borders in January.  There is another train wreck on the horizon if these federal agencies continue pushing forward with full implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative before the necessary policies and procedures are in place to handle the surge in applications and the lengthy border crossing delays that are sure to come. 

I appreciate the recognition by this Congress that premature implementation will recklessly risk the travel plans of millions of Americans and the economies of scores of U.S. states and communities.  The Departments of Homeland Security and State have shown that they need more time to establish a set of rules and procedures that will do more than just shut our borders down to legitimate travel and trade.   

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U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (Vermont); contact: Office of Senator Leahy, 202-224-4242