Change in Plans at U.S. Borders

President Bush Seeks Change in Plans at U.S. Borders

WASHINGTON DC - President Bush has ordered State Department and immigration officials to look for a less burdensome way to secure the nation's borders than requiring U.S. citizens to show passports when reentering the country from Mexico or Canada. Bush disclosed his action during a Thursday appearance before the American Society of Newspapers Editors convention here. He suggested fingerprint imaging as an alternative. Many Americans can reenter the country now by showing only a driver's license. The president evidently was caught off-guard when officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department announced the more restrictive rules April 5, to be implemented by 2008.

"When I first read that in the newspaper," Bush told the journalists, "I said, 'What's going on here?' I thought there was a better way to expedite legal flow of traffic and people." Congress ordered tougher reentry rules as a part of the intelligence reform act, which Bush signed last December. The planned rules would no longer allow Americans seeking reentry from Mexico or Canada to show only a driver's license or other government-issued photo ID card. Instead, they would need a passport or other specialized, secure document. Similarly, Canadians who have been able to enter the United States with driver's licenses would need a passport. The proposals drew an outcry from the travel industry and others, who said the tougher restrictions would inhibit travel.

Since he learned of the proposed rule changes, Bush said, "I've told [Secretary of State] Condi [Rice] and the Homeland Security people about . seeing if there's some flexibility in the law that will allow, for example, finger imaging to serve as the so-called passport for daily traffic." If the passport requirement were to stand, the president said, "it's going to disrupt honest flow of traffic."

Source: Los Angeles Times
Photo: Associated Press