Border Trade Alliance

BTA is an influential,
tri-national organization with a proven record of affecting
change in all three NAFTA nations. The expertise of our members
in border-trade related topics, combined with the organization’s
aggressive advocacy agenda, has garnered the BTA significant
credibility in all levels of government. Our case studies
highlight ways in which the BTA has influenced public policy
and delivered concrete
results to the border communities it represents.

First
Phase Implementation of US-VISIT

Laser
Visa/Border Crossing Card Reform

 

First
Phase Implementation of US-VISIT

Challenges

• 
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced
a United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology
(US-VISIT) concept in May 2003.

 

• 
Plans called for the implementation of an entry
and exit system at the 50 largest land border ports of entry
by the end of 2004, and at all land border ports of entry
by year end 2005.

 

•  The
concept of an integrated border entry and exit control program
was first broached via legislation in 1996 and later in 2000.

Strategies

• 
BTA was a member of the Data Management Improvement
Act (DMIA) Task Force in 2002 and 2003, one of 17 organizations
charged by Congress to make recommendations on ways to improve
the flow of commercial and non-commercial traffic at ports
of entry.

• 
In September 2003, the BTA board of directors
unanimously approved a resolution outlining the organizationís
guiding principles when approaching US-VISIT. †

 

• 
BTA rallied border communities and gained endorsements
from fifteen organization across the U.S.- Mexico border supporting
its US-VISIT resolution.

 

• 
BTA hosted numerous forums coordinated to foster
a productive dialogue between DHS officials and border communities.
†

 

BTA issued a letter of
response to the Federal Registerís interim rule on US-VISIT
land border implementation in November 2004.

 

Results

 

• 
The DMIA Task Force published annual reports
to Congress in 2002 and 2003, in each detailing recommendations
on entry and exit controls along the Southern and Northern
borders.

 

• 
In 2004, DHS announced that the department
would implement US-VISIT in the programís first phase in such
a manner so as not to affect routine travel across the U.S.-Canada
and U.S.-Mexico borders. †

 

• 
DHS decided that US-VISIT processing, which
requires electronic fingerprinting and a digital photograph
of the traveler to be taken, would be conducted in the secondary
inspection area at the land borders.

 

• 
On the U.S.-Mexico border, those Mexican nationals
with a valid border crossing card, for which an I-94 was not
necessary due to the nature of their visit to the U.S., would
not need to be processed in US-VISIT. †

 

• 
For the vast majority of travelers across the
land borders, this implementation phase of US-VISIT did not
affect their passage across the border at all, a direct result
of the BTAís insistence that the program do no cause harm
to border communities.

 

• 
BTA was invited by DHS to provide input during
US-VISTís pilot projects, which will be testing the next stage
of the program.

 

Laser
Visa/Border Crossing Card Reform

 

Challenges

 

• 
The economies of the U.S. communities of the
U.S.-Mexico border greatly depend on the ability of millions
of legitimate Mexican travelers to cross the border with minimal
hassle.

 

• 
Mexican nationals staying in the United States
longer than 72 hours and/or traveling 25 miles beyond the
border were required to secure an I-94 and pay a fee of $6
U.S.

 

Strategies

 

• 
BTA wrote the Secretary of Homeland Security,
Tom Ridge, in October 2003, urging the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) to reform regulations surrounding the use of
the Laser Visa Border Crossing Card (BCC).

 

• 
BTA met with the Under Secretary for Border
and Transportation Security, Asa Hutchinson, with Assistant
Secretary for Policy, Stuart Verdery, and other key DHS officials
to explain the benefits of changing the 72-hour limitation
and increasing a geographic extension of the card.

 

• 
BTA endorsed legislation by Senator John Cornyn
(R-TX) and Congressman Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) that would permit
Mexican holders of the BCC to remain in the U.S. for up to
six months. †

 

• 
BTA met with Members of Congress and their
staff urging them for their support of bills S. 1908 and H.R.
3488.

 

• 
A group of representatives led by Congressman
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) wrote Secretary Tom Ridge urging his
office to review the 72 hour/25-mile rule that governed the
use of the BCC.

 

• 
Led by the efforts of the Immigration Committee,
the BTA advocacy efforts were consistent with the September
2003 resolution that the BTA board of directors adopted addressing
US-VISIT and other border inspection protocols.

 

Results

 

• 
BTA rallied border communities on this issue
and gained endorsements from fifteen organization across the
U.S.- Mexico border supporting its resolution.

 

• 
BTA successfully swayed DHS to extend the permissible
period of entry a Mexican national with a BCC may remain in
the U.S. border zone for a time period of 30 days without
being required to secure form I-94 and pay a $6 fee. †

 

 

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