Are Your Papers in Order, Comrade?

Only extraordinarily sanguine and trusting people could fail to be alarmed by the Bush administration's new passport regulations, which recently began to go into effect. They represent a tightening of governmental scrutiny of a population already being watched, monitored, and spied upon to an unprecedented degree.

According to the State Department's website, the so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative "will require all travelers to and from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to present a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer’s identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States. The goal is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for U.S. citizens and legitimate international travelers."

Why is such a new policy necessary? The State Department explains that "The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 mandated that the U.S. Secretaries of Homeland Security and State develop and implement a plan to require U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to present a passport or other appropriate identity and citizenship documentation when entering the United States."

Right. War on Terror. Gotcha.

Starting last month, passports, merchant marine docs, or NEXUS Air cards are now required for all air travel within the Western Hemisphere, for citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda.

The remainder of the regulations required by the anti-terrorism act cited above will be in effect by January first of next year. They specify that "U.S. citizens traveling between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda by land or sea (including ferries), may be required to present a valid U.S. passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland Security."

Besides being subjected to new and unprecedented levels of monitoring, checking, and general eyeballing by Big Brother's minions, Americans traveling abroad will also now be liable for the steep costs of documenting themselves in conformity with the new regulations. The fee for acquiring a new passport is $97 for adults and $82 for children under 16. It would cost a family of five traveling to Mexico for a week's vacation $440 just in passport fees, and the State Department estimates that 73 percent of Americans currently do not hold passports.

The new rules will also throw a monkey wrench into some people's travel plans. Although the State Department says that the wait for a passport is typically six weeks, it may take up to twelve weeks after you've had your picture taken and filled out your form for the document to arrive -- unless you want to pay an extra $60 for expedited service.

According to a story in the New York Times, the travel industry, fearing a dropoff in business, has been lobbying for a delay in the implementation of the new rules, but to no avail. "For now, cruise companies and travel agencies are urging travelers not to wait to get their passports," the Times says, and quotes one California travel agent who pointed out that even on cruises to Hawaii or Alaska, passengers may need passports, because many of those ships make foreign stopovers. "The Alaska cruises from Seattle all touch base in Vancouver, and that’s a foreign port," she said.

In addition to being ominous and spooky on their own, the new passport regulations work in tandem with the Real ID Act of 2005. This little-remarked law was signed by President Bush in 2005 as part of a military appropriations bill, and would require all Americans to carry a "federally approved" identification card by May, 2008 in order to "travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service. States will have to conduct checks of their citizens' identification papers, and driver's licenses likely will be reissued to comply with Homeland Security requirements," according to a January 30 story at DailyKos. Most state driver's licenses fitted with magnetic strips would be "federally approved," as would passports.

However, there is some indication that the Real ID act is not going to fly. Maine has already flatly rejected the Department of Homeland Security's demands that states be required to supply an identification mechanism that meets a federal specification, but without any federal funding. This would lay an uncompensated burden on the states, and there are some indications that other states will soon follow Maine's example.

So while Americans may be able to dodge the Real ID law, and avoid being asked to show their papers so as to prove they're not terrorists trying to open a terrorist bank account, there is no remedy on the horizon for the new passport regulations. Starting now, we can't travel unless our papers are in order, comrades.