Administration to tighten rules for Americans visiting Canada

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. passport: It may get tougher to return home without it.

Starting in 2008, Americans traveling from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Panama will be required to show their passports to re-enter the United States under regulations proposed Tuesday by the Bush administration.

The border-tightening effort, designed to keep terrorists out, will also apply to citizens from those countries who want to enter the United States -- prompting Canadian officials to announce that they might reciprocate.

The regulations mark a dramatic shift from a North American borders policy that allows Americans to merely declare their citizenry to enter the United States. They also raise the potential of hampering tourism and commercial traffic with the United States' two immediate neighbors.

An estimated 60 million Americans -- about 20 percent of the national population -- have passports.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. officials have been working with their international counterparts "for some time" to shore up security measures without crimping the flow of commerce across borders. The new rules were called for in intelligence legislation Congress passed last year.

Guard against terrorism

"There's a very strong awareness that these are tremendous commercial borders and that you don't want to hinder the commercial activity," Rice said.

"But at the same time, you've got to have some controls that help you prevent people who are trying to come in and hurt us."

She added: "It's part of the recognition that in 2001, when Sept. 11 happened -- and frankly before that, when you think about the millennium plot in 1999 -- these were borders that I think no one could call secure."

Canada was deeply embarrassed by the millennium terrorist plot, when U.S. customs caught a man with explosives trying to enter Washington state from Canada in December 1999.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said American citizens may need passports to cross the northern border if the U.S. follows through with its regulations.

"Our system has really always worked on the basis of reciprocity," McLellan told reporters outside the House of Commons in Ottawa. "And therefore we will review our requirements for American citizens and we're going to do that in collaboration with the United States."

The new requirements would take effect on Dec. 31, 2007, for travelers entering the United States from Mexico and Canada by land, and on Dec. 31, 2006, by air or sea.

The deadline is a year earlier -- Dec. 31, 2005 -- for travel from Bermuda, the Caribbean and Panama.

Proposed changes

The proposed rules are scheduled to be finalized this fall. Until then, the government will solicit comments from the public.

Currently, Americans generally need to show a driver's license or other government-issued photo identification to cross the border from Canada.

Customs officials usually require more proof from Americans returning from the other countries affected by the new rules, including both government-issued photo IDs like a driver's license plus proof of citizenship like a birth certificate.

On occasion, Americans returning from these countries are allowed back after only verbally declaring their citizenship, said Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Elaine K. Dezenski.

Once the new system takes effect, people entering the United States from Mexico will continue to be able to use a border crossing card or SENTRI card instead of passports. These cards are obtained after background checks and other security measures.

On the northern border, the NEXUS card for preapproved, low-risk travelers; and the FAST card for commercial workers will be acceptable instead of a passport.

More than 1.1 million people enter the United States every day, said Dezenski.

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