We’ve all watched reports on the nightly news about immigration debates, new passport requirements, long wait times through airport security, and construction of a border fence… Since 9/11, we’ve understandingly been extra vigilant on issues relating to homeland security efforts. But have we really made progress with all the new initiatives we hear about… are we really more secure?
Consider the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires all U.S. citizens to show a passport when entering the country from countries like Canada and Mexico where this has historically not been the case. In 2006, U.S. visitors to Mexico and Canada were down 3% year over year, yet these two countries remained the top two international destinations for U.S. travelers with a total of 33.6 million annual travelers.
Total foreign visitation to the U.S. for the first five months of 2007 was up almost 8% from the same period in 2006 to 3.8 million, and international visitors spent $47.6 billion during that period.
The massive number of people affected by our travel policies and the huge economic impact to our country- by tourism alone- can not be ignored. We have invested enormous amounts of dollars, man hours, and resources to develop programs like the WHTI passport initiative, the SENTRI program to provide expedited border crossing for pre-approved, low-risk travelers, and the US-VISIT program to verify document security for foreign visitors entering/leaving the United States.
These are well-intentioned programs designed to both increase our national security and expedite the flow of cross-border traffic. We must follow through to make sure programs like these are not only designed with good intentions, but also implemented in a way that fulfills those well-meaning intentions.
According to a spokesman, the State Department is now receiving more than 1 million passport applications a month and holds a backlog of about 500,000 that have been pending more than 10 weeks. The quick-fix solution? Beginning Jan. 30, 2008, you can instead present a birth certificate and driver’s license in lieu of a passport. The problem? There are 8,000 different types of birth certificates available for citizens of the U.S., Bermuda, Canada and Mexico, and a border patrol agent only has a few seconds to distinguish a valid document from a fraudulent one.
The BTA contends that we can’t approach these large and complex issues with quick-fix solutions- this only defeats goals we originally set out to accomplish. We must work together to find the support and resources to make these programs viable from start to completion. We need to work with our political candidates and federal leaders to make sure our trade, travel and security initiatives have the support they need to function as intended.
To learn more about secure travel and freight along our 6,000 miles of border, please join us at the BTA International Conference on Sept. 24-25 in Austin, TX.
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The BTA reserves the right to post comments it feels are appropriate to creating a dialog around border issues. We are interested in hearing from all points of view and encourage those with unique, constructive perspectives to contribute their view points to help shape the future of our borders. BTA is a tri-national organization and will not accept posts that contain derogatory comments made towards citizens, groups, or organizations of any kind.