As part of the effort to tighten border security, the US government is now requiring all Americans who plan to travel within the Western Hemisphere – Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda (Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, or other territories are excluded) – to have a passport. This includes infants and children. The new passport rules will definitely affect millions of travelers. And to ensure people are “going across” for business and/or vacation, Big Brother will be able to monitor you because the new passport will be embedded with a “smart” chip. The new passport rule is being phased in, those who are required to have a passport are US citizens who are returning by air, and beginning in 2008, all American citizens who enter the country by land or sea are required to have one.
The argument can be made that most people ought to have a passport because they are considered to be useful other than being used for traveling, such as an alternative for proof of identity. However, this is not just a simple requirement; this is just one more efforts by the Bush Administration to politicize the so-called war on terror and another attempt to erode our civil liberties.
For years, Canadian and US citizens unfairly have crossed the northern border using documents such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates or in some cases without showing any documentation. And in the southern, only US citizens are allowed to re-enter the US from Mexico the same way, while Mexican citizens are required to present a valid visa and passport for admission to the US.
The new requirements will only affect US citizens entering or re-entering the US but, according to the State Department, “certain foreign nationals who currently are not required to present a passport to travel to the United States, namely most citizens of Canada and Bermuda.” Then question should be asked, if we are protecting our borders from foreign nationals from entering our relaxed borders, then how are our borders being protected if Americans not permitted from re-entering if we spontaneously decided to make a last-minute weekend trip to Canada or Mexico. Why are we required to show our papers to enter. Even Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cynically acknowledged that passports still can be forged.
“Could James Bond and Q come up with a fake passport?” Chertoff asked, referring to the fictional British spy and his espionage agency’s technical genius. Of course, he replied, because “nothing is completely perfect.”
The truth is, forging IDs is so easy today that there is not much that can be done. This is not a topic that is being discussed in the back allies, this happening in our schools. If not, why is alcoholism high among teenagers? All a computer savvy person has to do is type “fake ID” in Google, they will not only find sites that state they will provide them with one for a nominal fee, but Google will also list sites that will show you how to do it.
And if Chertoff thinks their new little RFID “smart” chip will deter ID thieves, that is a joke. The US will spend billions of taxpayers dollars on expensive RFID reader hardware and hard-to-use software to make people safe at night, knowing those chips are hackable.
When such tools become widely available, hackers and those with less pure motives could use a handheld device and the software to mark expensive goods as cheaper items and walk out through self checkout. Underage hackers could attempt to bypass age restrictions on alcoholic drinks and adult movies, and pranksters could create confusion by randomly swapping tags, requiring that a store do manual inventory.
Nevertheless, if one were to look at this in the global picture, it will be the border towns who will suffer. So, who needs to build a physical border wall, when an economic wall is being built? And looking closer, it will be Mexico and Canada who will suffer the most.
When it comes to passports, less than a quarter of Americans have one, and those who do are rich or their job requires they have one. And if you are not rich or saved up to vacation outside the Western Hemisphere, border crossings have become a commonplace. There will be an economic due to a major hit on the tourism industry at both borders. Because Mexican citizens already have to jump through hoops to come to the US, the northern border will be hit severely considering Canadians are not require to have a visa to enter the US, nor carry a passport. In 2005, it is estimated that 13 million US citizens have crossed the northern border and the number of US citizens crosses the southern border is ten fold.
In the nation’s pursuit of a sealed border, the Southern border is already feeling the economic impacts. Border cities such as San Diego and El Paso and Laredo, TX, already have lost millions. Most Americans don’t realize money in the borderlands is fluid. In the Southern borders, Mexicans come to the US to purchase items ranging from groceries to high-end fashions. According to J. Michael Patrick, director of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University, has stated now that the US-VISIT program has been fully implemented if the US experiences a 10 percent decline in northbound crossings, retail sales along the border cities would decline 2.2 percent. As for Americans, they are also contributing to the Mexican economy in other ways other than your college Spring Break “Girls Gone Wild” tequilafest. Many head south to purchase items ranging from medicine to souvenirs.
Canadian officials and some members of Congress from the Northern border states have expressed concern that the changes could interfere with travel and commerce. What are the chances that some of the congressional members where the same ones who had no problem building a wall on the Rio Grande. Yet, Congress refuses to punish corporate America who has made it clear that they will continue to hire immigrants, legally arrived or not.
But this is to be expected in the banana republic that refuses to support its own infrastructure and a nation that simultaneously rails against immigration.