Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - April 2009
Despite some very vocal criticism from a powerful U.S. politician, the Obama administration has just announced that there are no plans to delay new border-crossing regulations.
The new regulations in question are among several the measures taken to increase American security since 9/11. People who wish to cross the Canada-U.S. border will now be required to carry passports, rather than simply any government-issued identification as previous.
Though the policy has already been implemented for air border-crossings, the process for land-crossings along what was formerly the largest open border in the world has proven to be more complicated.
Louise Slaughter, who is a democratic member of U.S. Congress, has been among the most vocal of critics regarding the U.S. government�s lack of preparation for the new policy.
She led a previous charge that successfully delayed the new policy from January 1, 2008 to June 1, 2009 and argues that the infrastructure is still lacking enough to produce �chaos� when the rules change this summer.
�I remain unconvinced that [the plan] is ready to be implemented in a way that will not harm the cross-border trade and travel so critical to our border communities,� Slaughter recently said to the press.
She said that the technology for the new electronic fast-pass cards is not ready to run. She added that the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver will likely attract more cross-border traffic than can be handled by a new system.
Despite government claims to be fully prepared for the policy change, Slaughter said she is planning to introduce legislation to delay the passport rule change for another year, until June 1, 2010.
Source: National Post
