One thing that everyone who travels in and out of the United States needs to know about is passport rules and regulations. While the previous laws allowed US citizens to travel to border countries with nothing more than a birth certificate or driver’s license, that is no longer the case. Today, a American passport card to Canada or Mexico is necessary whenever traveling.
Prior to 2009, entering and exiting the country to border countries was pretty easy. If the traveler had a drivers license or birth certificate, they could pretty much come and go as they pleased. Circumstances have changed and travelers now need passports for destinations that never required it before.
The new laws that went into effect in June 2009 make it mandatory for any traveler, even those going to border countries or cruises will now need US passport card documentation to get back into the country. The events of September 11th have changed the world forever. It may have taken a while for the actual law to go into place, but make no mistake that those terrorist events were the inspiration for travel laws like this.
According to the U.S State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, the new border laws are part of a widespread attempt to tighten border security and curb illegal immigration. Since it is often times easier to illegally enter border nations like Mexico and Canada, it would be conceivably possibly for a terrorist or otherwise unsavory character to enter a boarder nation and then cross into America with a fraudulent driver’s license. Passports are more difficult than drivers licenses to counterfeit and are therefore better for security.
Although the law would seem to make perfect sense, many of the citizens on the bordering states are up in arms about the inconvenience that has been posed to them. There are outcries that it is ridiculous to have to carry a passport to Canada when we have traveled so freely in the past. These same people are not taking the time to consider that these border countries are the very means by which terrorists have previously entered our country.
The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security maintain that these new regulations are the best way to curb the flow of dangerous illegal immigrants. Although the new law is certainly inconvenient to some, the benefits of the added security outweigh any personal inconvenience. Still, the Department of State is offering some new innovations to make the transition a bit smoother.
One such innovation is the new passport card. The passport card is a wallet-sized card that displays a persons relevant passport information without the large passport stamp book. A passport card is a valid passport to Canada, Mexico and certain Caribbean Islands for land and sea travel. Passport cards are available to current passport holders for $20.
It should be apparent to everyone that these measures are in place for our safety. We may not like having to carry a American passport card to Canada, but it beats the alternative of having our borders being completely open. Instead, a small inconvenience adds a heightened level of security and a little piece of mind to everyone that lives in the United States. Research passports today!