Dear Department of Homeland Security:
Before we get started, did you guys ever find out who sent those envelopes filled with anthrax back in 2002? Hmm.
I’m writing to you from a little place called Buffalo, New York. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? We’ve got some of your employees working here in the FBI, Border Patrol, Customs & Immigration, and other agencies. The region actually has no fewer than five road and rail crossings into a foreign country called “Canada”. It’s commonly thought of as being North of the US, but here it’s actually to the West.
What happens a lot is that people from our part of New York State go into this “Canada” pretty regularly for such things as Phantom of the Opera at a Mirvish theater, a Yankees vs. Blue Jays game, hockey or concerts at the Air Canada Centre, or sometimes just for plain old shopping. “Canadians”, on the other hand, many of whom speak our own English language, come to the Buffalo area to see the Bills play football, the Sabres play hockey, to go to the museum or a show on Main Street, and sometimes just for plain old shopping. While they also use money called a “dollar”, theirs is actually different from ours, and it is currently worth almost as much as our own. That means that Canadians like to come to our shops and malls and spend their “dollars” in our stores, chiefly because the prices are good, and our 8.75% sales tax is much lower than their 14% GST/PST combination. 
Until now, Americans and Canadians have had to show proof of citizenship and photo ID at the border. Nine times out of ten, a driver’s license will suffice. Sometimes, a social security card or a voter’s registration gives you that added, “I’m a citizen” cache. Never before has it been a requirement that people hold a passport to cross the border.
But you guys have been pretty adamant about requiring us to use passports starting in 2008. These have a dual purpose of being both a photo ID and proof of citizenship.
The problem is that it costs an adult almost $100 to get one.
Now, I know you have the NEXUS program which is available for $50.
But in order to get NEXUS, you need to hold a passport. So, that’s $150.
I don’t know if you guys know, but Western New York isn’t a particularly wealthy area, and requiring octogenarian bingo players and blue-collar hockey fans to pony up $100 might be a blip for the federal government’s coffers, but is a hardship for many people who just want to cross a local bridge to maybe get some Ming Teh. On the other hand, the vast majority of Americans who don’t live within 50 miles of an international border crossing won’t be affected by this proposal in the slightest, except when they try to go down to Tijuana to get hammered and are turned away.
For some reason, you guys think that passports are better security than any other form of citizenship document. Well, I certainly agree that it’s better than a certified birth certificate, which currently differs from jurisdiction from jurisdiction, but what about just stamping our drivers’ licenses with “US CITIZEN” or “NON-US CITIZEN”?
If the fear is security, a passport doesn’t substitute for a vigilant guard’s training and instinct. Passports don’t come stamped with “al Qaeda member” in them.
If the issue is citizenship status, then follow Schumer’s lead:
[Schumer’s] legislation would require a pilot program to test the use of an enhanced driver’s license as an alternative to a passport. It also would force the Department of Homeland Security to certify by Jan. 1, 2009, that it met strict guidelines for security and the efficiency of commerce and limit the cost of identification cards.
Or maybe Louise Slaughter’s:
Her proposal calls for the Department of Homeland Security to complete a pilot program in Washington State and British Columbia with an enhanced driver’s license, exempt children 16 or younger, cap the cost of the pass card at $20 and expand existing frequent traveler programs.
$20 is a far cry from $100 or $150. Also, you guys are talking about exempting kids under 15 from the passport requirement, as if that were some sort of “concession”. Kids’ birth certificates come in just as varied shapes and sizes as adults’. Furthermore, it’s not the kids who are spending the money here and in Ontario. It’s the parents. If the parents don’t feel like shelling out $200 to get a passport, then chances are that junior isn’t going, either.
Seriously, any rational person can tell you that this region doesn’t need a hit like the one that would come with a passport requirement for US-Canadian road and rail travel. Just when things are starting to look up, this would devastate us. Furthermore, there are many alternatives out there, and I can’t understand why you won’t consider implementing them. I know you’re busy figuring out whether Ted Kennedy should be on the no-fly list or not, but this is dramatically important to Western New York.
Please listen to our elected representatives, listen to our people, and act accordingly in a way that maintains security while not devastating our economy.
Love, BP
peter scott Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I can’t find them right now…but there were some articles yesterday about provincial ministers laying into washington about this and offering their own driver’s license proposals…
This fight isn’t over…and I’d assume a delay by Congress will push this until at least ‘09…and if any Dem is in office come 1/20/09 (or 20/01/09 for our friends, eh!) this whole proposal is dead…
Paul Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
A couple of misnomers. A drivers license is not proof of citizenship. My housemate is a Canadian citizen lives here in Buffalo, yet he has a NYS drivers license. I have been scolded numerous times for only having a license. Immigration does not consider a voters registration a valid proof of citizenship. Why I don’t know but they don’t.
You do not need a passport to get Nexxus. My own family has Nexxus without a passport.
The city of Buffalo now offers a laminated, wallet sized birth certificate with your photo, a finger print, hologram, and encrypted information. All for $25. It took me 5 minutes to get it on the 13th floor of City Hall. It is proof of citizenship, durable, portable, and because of the security features very difficult to forge. Seems like a great solution to me.
BuffaloPundit Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm
You’re right. I read that bit too fast.
peter scott Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
paul…the point you make about the licenses is correct…but the fact is that citizenship can be put on licenses, not only in the us, but in canada too…
there is a two letter country code for every country in the world,
cob: us
cit: us
thats all you’d need to add to the license…plus whatever bioinformatics are necessary…
peter scott Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
paul…the point you make about the licenses is correct…but the fact is that citizenship can be put on licenses, not only in the us, but in canada too…
there is a two letter country code for every country in the world,
cob: us
cit: us
thats all you’d need to add to the license…plus whatever bioinformatics are necessary…
lulu Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I believe the current plan is only for “land travel” over the US/Canada border (not Mexico) so the Tijuana comment may need to be crossed out as well.
BuffaloPundit Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 7:07 pm
lulu: From the State Dept:
Bullsh*t Detector (aka Keyboard Warrior & Buffalo Hater) Says:February 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Waaa waa waaa. Just get the damn passports you big babies. It’s usefull for more than just “goin ta keeee-yanada.”
Maybe fewer lap-dances, fewer cases of shitty Labeeee-yatts, fewer trips “ta da cas-eee-no,” or fewer “fish-frays” for a few weeks and maybe you’ll be able to afford that terribly large sum of $100. Buffaloons are nothing special just because they live on the border with Kanada. And if $100 for an important document (which is valid for 10 years) is a “hardship,” then Barfallo is far more pathetic than even I thought.
elaine Says:February 24th, 2007 at 8:53 am
A lot of “Blue Collar” Buffalonians - and Canadians - seem able to pony up the cost of tickets to the Sabres and Bills games, so surely they can afford a passport, which is good for 10 years or just $10 a year. What’s the big deal? I am happy that the feds have dropped the requirement for children 15 and younger.
peter scott Says:February 24th, 2007 at 9:54 am
to me its not the cost that is the major issue…
its that people are lazy and won’t get one at all…which will seriously hurt the cross border economy…
its an unfair burden on border towns…it should be obvious
hank kaczmarek Says:February 24th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
As someone who grew up in Buffalo, I have the same vantage point that those who are anti-passport do. All of our lives, Driver’s License was enough. Add in the natural human resistance to change, plus a fee, and everyone’s hackles are up.
If any of you enjoy Cruise Vacations as I do, you now need a passport to board any cruise ship which docks in the US, and I believe also in San Juan, P.R. This policy has been adopted by all the major cruise lines.
Oddly enough, the only people this affects is of course, Americans and Canadians, who have been able to get over with a photo ID and a certified copy of their Birth Certificate for many years. Everyone else on the planet has needed a Passport or some type of Identity Papers to leave their own country for many years.
And if you’re ever in your life planning on visiting Europe, Asia, the Holy Lands before they glow from Nuclear War, etc…. you’re going to need one anyway.
Believe me, I understand the “Stink” being raised on this issue, and the anticipated whack to an already hurtin’ economy. But outside border areas, which many in WNY don’t venture away from much, you’re not going to get much empathy.
Special Priviliges for people in border towns? Nice if it can get worked out.
People who lived in the old D.D.R. had special papers they had to carry because they lived within 15 miles of the frontier. If you didn’t have them, of course you were a suspect defector. But the special effort was made to identify all those people in a special class.
Jeff Says:February 24th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
This is a big initiative with the Bi-national tourism alliance, i attended their conference last year as a tourism/hospitality student…many major players in attendance; all against the proposed legislation.
BuffaloBloviator.wnymedia.net Says:February 25th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I hope the government settles for the cheapest, easiest solution that effectively strengthens border security. I’m glad to see that the solution is getting lots of input and attention. I will go through the expense and inconvenience without complaining because unfortunately, the first blown up city will be even worse for commerce than the fall out from the new ID requirements.
I would like to see parties on both sides of the debate, while debating the issue, attempt to instill a sense of duty upon the public to cooperate with the future policy when this is all settled and decided. The debate has unfortunately raised the levels of cynicism in the public and if the public does not cooperate in the process and get the new ID then commerce will suffer more than it would otherwise have to.
realist Says:February 25th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Bloviator posts ; “the first blown up city will be even worse for commerce than the fall out from the new ID requirements.”
Passports didn’t stop the 9/11 murderers, so what would be any different ? Much like having a firearm - only the law-abiding among us would truly be affected, monetarily or otherwise. It is a “feel-good” bandaid to a serious problem.