Border Patrol: internal checkpoints and new passport schemes

The U.S. Border Patrol's activities are in the news again. NCPR played a feature on the internal checkpoints this morning. You can listen to it there, and read the LPNY's background page on the U.S.B.P. checkpoints, like the one in Essex County, which are inside our borders.

In related news, there was a recent Newswatch 50 story on the new PASS (People Access Security Service) IDs, which will be required of travellers going between the U.S and Canada starting in 2008. "Chertoff says the PASS program will eventually feed into what he calls a 'global security network.'" The PASS cards would eventually be able to carry biometric data, such as fingerprints or iris scans, according to The Detroit News, and the system should be up and running by the end of this year.

This PASS plan seems to replace the prior plan to require passports to go between Canada and the U.S. (and Mexico, the Caribbean). There was a lot of unhappiness on both sides of the northern border from law-abiding businesses, business people, and tourists over that plan. The government's new hype is that the PASS cards (about $50 each) will be cheaper than passports (about $100 each), but would it change the mind of a family of four in St Lawrence COunty to make a day trip up to Montreal? How about taking your Girl Scout troop up to Montreal or Quebec city, as I recall doing as a teen?

Having the PASSes will also be cheaper than upgrading all of NY's licenses to be "secure documents," as Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen implies in the Detroit News article. He says they will "keep costs down for the enhanced driver's licenses for people not wanting to cross borders," yet "allow Homeland Security to meet the January 2008 deadline set by Congress for tougher documentation." Bloomberg Canada reports that "U.S. citizens who travel to and from Canada and Mexico by plane or boat would still be required to have passports by the beginning of next year."

On the passport side, we getting e-Passports, which are being tested currently in San Francisco, Singapore, and Sydney, Australia in a special program going until April 15. Slashdot had a post back in November on RFIDs use in passports. You can read more about ePassports from Scoop.co.nz, 2006: “ePassports” will lead way for biometrics or get the latest from Google on ePassports.

bonnie on 01.20.06 @ 01:21 PM ET [link] [1 Comment]