Posted on 06/07/2007 2:31:50 PM PDT by processing please hold
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration may suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.
A proposal under consideration would temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada and Mexico, provided the traveler can prove he or she has applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.
The proposed six-month suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to a crawl, they said.
But the plan has run into opposition from the Homeland Security Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Gee didn't foggy bottom think they would be needing more passports?
ping
Was the problem at the State Dept getting those
other passports to the Terrorists whom the State
Dept supports, and wants here, now?
“The proposed six-month suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of passport applications.”
And they wonder why we don’t trust them to process immigrants on a 24 hr. time limit from application????
They don't think any further ahead than yesterday.
I think Bush has lost his mind.
The same State Department that will do thorough and expeditious background checks on prospective citizens with Z visas?
My mother in law waited 11 weeks, she was born in 1919 in South Dakota, and couldn’t get a passport to visit us in Mexico. ENDED UP HAVING TO MAKE A SPECIAL TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO, GET HASSLED BY PELOSI’S HOMELESS. Something needs to be done, maybe they could OUTSOURCE this work for the fine people of Jamaica, or India, or maybe get some illegals to work in these offices and get papers moving. In Mexico you apply at 8 in the morning, and at 4 pm, you pick up your passport. WHY does it take so long in America with computers, fax and systems that can check background. Same problems with the INS and the applications for people geting married to U.S. citizens...BACKLOGGED. Maybe putting workers on a night shift would help get some passports into the hands of those who have applied.
Yep, the very same State Department.
Yes. The Dems shouldn't make their constituency wait like that.
I’ve had a passport since I was a kid, but I don’t understand why they cost so much and take so long to be made.
Careful, they could be reading this and it'll give them the idea.
Hmmmm. They've had the last 10 years to apply for a passport that would be good right now. Why should national security be threatened by people who fail to plan?
Rest assured one of our fine upstanding Republican Senators will have deadline extended to 48 hours before the Z-Visa must be granted. That will fix it!
Just because.....that should be enough reason,....right?
I’ve never had the need for a passport, so I don’t know the particulars in getting one, but this scheme sounds absolutely insane.
I don't see why they just can't sneak back across the border like everybody else!
However, the do need to find a way to speed up passport processing.
I lost my passport this spring, and with even expedited passport applications taking 3 weeks right now, there was no way I could replace it before my trip which was 2 weeks away.
Fortunately for me, a passport isn't currently required for traveling to Mexico by car, so I was able to travel using my DL and an original birth certificate for that one trip.
I have of course filed the paperwork for my lost passport and applied for a replacement. Since I didn't expedite it I should have it in a little under 3 months time.
I have no problems with the government requiring a passport for international travel. I do however think our State department should have been prepared for the deluge of applications, and should have been working to decrease passport application times long before this.
It's a good idea, but as usual our government is failing pitifully in the execution of it.
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