PORT ANGELES — Try again. That’s the message a local ferry operator and the director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce are sending to the federal Department of Homeland Security concerning its plan to create border crossing cards for Americans re-entering the country from Canada and Mexico.
Federal officials hope to start issuing the PASS –People Access Security Service — cards by the end of 2006, but will not require them to cross the border via land for an additional year.
But Jack Harmon, owner of Victoria Express ferry, said that the new plan does not address ferry passengers and doesn’t come close to solving the problem of creating a single, affordable and convenient identification card that won’t strangle the tourist industry in towns like Port Angeles.
“This PASS program will be the spotted owl of tourism on the northern border,” Harmon said.
Currently, U.S. citizens who travel to and from Canada and Mexico by plane or boat still will be required to have passports by the beginning of 2007 to re-enter the country.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the PASS, aimed at people crossing the border on land, may one day carry driver’s license and other identification information, like DNA and fingerprints.
Currently, U.S. residents coming into the country via land from Mexico or Canada only need to show a driver’s license or birth certificate that proves nationality.
The proposal still would require passports or other secure documents from Canadians, Mexicans and other foreign citizens entering the United States.
Improve driver’s licenses
Harmon said he would like to see licensing departments in all 50 states coordinate with the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and State to allow residents the option of including secure information on their driver’s licenses.
Canadian officials have criticized both the passport plan and PASS cards as costly and cumbersome requirements that will thwart cross-border traffic and hurt the economy in border towns.
The PASS cards are expected to cost half the price of a $97 passport.
Chertoff downplayed the likelihood that the card would amount to a national ID card, which civil libertarians fear could violate privacy rights.
The PASS card is a less expensive alternative to post-Sept. 11 requirements that U.S. residents traveling via land show their passports to re-enter from Canada and Mexico by the end of 2007.
Contradictions exist
But Harmon said that there are currently contradictions in the kinds of ID expected at border crossings.
Along with Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Russ Veenema, Harmon advocates secure information on driver’s licenses and state-issued ID cards.
That way, Harmon and Veenema said, the required ID will be easier for people to obtain.
And when people already have the required information in their back pocket or purse when they find themselves in a town like Port Angeles, it won’t be an inconvenience to jump on the ferry for a day trip to Victoria.