 |
|
|
 Editorials | Issues | November 2007 
North-South Divide on Border ID
 Ellen Creager - Detroit Free Press
go to original
| Which ID?
U.S. citizens driving from Canada and Mexico to the United States can enter via:
• Oral declaration: Declare that you are a citizen; if the agent is satisfied, you enter. Ends Jan. 31.
• Birth certificate and driver's license: Mandatory after Jan. 31 unless you have a passport.
• Passport: Best ID, never goes out of style. Required after June 1; exceptions exist
• Enhanced driver's license: ID you can use in place of a passport at the border after June 1. Not offered in Michigan yet.
• Check real-time wait times at land borders for vehicles coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico at http://apps.cbp.gov/bwt/. |
I don't know how to tell you this, but we've been duped.
While we in Michigan have been dutifully toting birth certificates, driver's licenses and even passports for tough scrutiny at the U.S. border as we drive home from Canada, Americans down south are still waltzing back and forth to Mexico as easy as pie. Even with no ID.
All they have to do is announce they are American citizens, and they're across in a jif. It's called an "oral declaration." And it's legal.
And guess what? It's still legal at the U.S.-Canadian border, too, only the border protection folks don't tell you.
"We don't want to come out and tell everyone that an oral declaration can suffice," says Brett Sturgeon, spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection field office in Chicago. "We don't want you to just come in with nothing."
If you're confused, you're going to be even more confused when you keep reading.
New rules sound old here
In October, the State Department announced new rules. As of Jan. 31, 2008, U.S. citizens at inbound land borders from Canada and Mexico will have to show proof of identity (a driver's license) and citizenship (a birth certificate) to re-enter the United States.
Apparently, this is a new and awful development to people down on the U.S. border with Mexico.
They are grumbling that it will mean long wait times, the loss of America's special relationship with Mexico, more inconvenience for families and friends, interference with lunch, commerce and tourism, blah, blah blah.
Meanwhile, everyone up in Detroit is thinking, hold on, isn't that the law already?
It's not.
Apparently, while U.S. border patrol agents have halted grandmas and toddlers to demand their papers at the U.S. border from Canada lo these six long years since 9/11, the U.S.-Mexican border has been a lot more laid back. Apparently the security there is:
"You a citizen?"
"Yep."
"Come on in."
A few days ago, I called the Detroit customs office and asked if I could cross the border with no ID. They said, no way, it's the law that you have to have at least a driver's license.
"Otherwise, how will we know who you are?" the agent said.
Good point. Might want to ask your co-workers down on the border with Mexico how they do it.
Sturgeon says the new law Jan. 31 will make sure everyone at both borders is treated exactly the same way.
At that point, what happens to travelers with no documents?
"We are still working on how it will be enforced," he says.
The border with Canada likely will see fewer delays than the Mexican border Jan. 31.
"The southern border is a sleeping bear," says Ron Smith, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection's Detroit field office. "They are just waking up to these new rules."
Forget lunch in Mexico
I hate to break it to our friends in the southern border states, but up here in Detroit we know what's coming for you.
Since 9/11, our easy passage between countries - for lunch, for shopping, for whatever - ended. That's the moment that a simple Saturday night dinner turned into the third degree. That's the moment that things started getting worse and worse.
It now routinely takes two or three hours to cross the wretched Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario. It used to take two or three minutes.
Cross-border U.S.-Canada tourism is dying on the vine, and nobody seems to care.
That lunch you like across the Mexican border? Six years ago, I could easily pop over to Windsor for lunch and be back at my desk in Detroit in a trice.
Now it could take either 10 minutes or 2 hours. No more Windsor lunches.
And here is the coda: Sometime next summer, the Big Daddy of border restrictions is supposed to go into effect - passports for everyone at all borders. That means you.
But as usual, there are loopholes. Gee, maybe it will be another type of card. Or something with your driver's license.
Whatever the rule, it had better apply to everyone - at both land borders.
Because up here at the goodie-two-shoes Michigan-Canadian border, we're steamed.
Contact Ellen Creager at ecreager@freepress.com. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us