Wick News Service
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At the end of the workday, she crosses back over the border to fetch the kids. Later, she might go back to the Mexican side again to visit with family or friends, or to pick up her father for errands in Bisbee.
Karin crosses back and forth across the border at Naco at least three times a day, she says, and she's been doing so for her entire life without having to provide anything more than an oral declaration or a photo ID to re-enter the United States.
But beginning sometime in 2008, in accordance with the federal government's security-boosting Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Karin, her three children and all other Americans will have to show proof of citizenship before they can enter the United States at a land port of entry from Mexico or Canada.
This pending disruption in decades-long crossing patterns is causing confusion and frustration in border communities like Naco. Gone are the days when, according to local legend, a woman from Bisbee who forgot to bring her driver's license with her to Naco, Sonora, was able to cross back in to the U.S. with no more ID than a Victoria's Secret gift card printed with her name and address.
Adding to the anxiety about the new land-crossing rules are the vagueness of the guidelines and the shifting timetables that have been presented by the U.S. State Department and Office of Homeland Security, the agencies working to implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI.
Last Nov. 22, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that as of Jan. 23, Americans visiting Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, would have to present a valid passport when returning to the U.S. by air. In a second phase of the WHTI program starting in January 2008, Americans would have to show passports or alternative security identity cards when returning by land.
But backlogs in the processing of passport applications forced the government to postpone implementation of the air travel phase until Sept. 30. That reprieve, along with delays in the creation of an alternative "passport card" for land crossings, has helped to push back phase two as well.
"The proposal from Secretary Chertoff now has Jan. 31 as the date to begin showing at least some supporting documentation, like a birth certificate, (at land crossings)," said Kelly Klundt, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the division of Homeland Security that operates U.S. ports of entry.
Provided that the State Department can begin issuing the passport card by the spring, the rules requiring passports or other security IDs at land crossings will be fully implemented starting sometime in the summer of 2008, Klundt said.
The passport card
The passport card as an alternative to a full-fledged passport has been both an appealing and an elusive concept to border residents like Karin Saavedra.
Its appeal stems largely from its price: according to spokespeople from the State Department and Homeland Security, the card, in its currently proposed form, would cost approximately $45 for adults and $35 for children under 16, including processing fees.
By comparison, passports cost $97 for adults and $82 for children.
Like a passport, a passport card would be valid for 10 years for adults and five years for children. However, unlike a passport, the card could be used only to re-enter the U.S. by land from Mexico and Canada, and not for other international travel.
The problem is that the passport card does not yet exist, and that leaves some border residents with a dilemma: Do they go with the costlier, more certain passport option now, or do they wait for the cheaper alternative, risking not having the document by the time the new rules go into effect?
"I was waiting for word on the crossing cards, but I haven't heard anything, so I'm going to apply for the passports," Saavedra said. "Because what if the card doesn't come? Then I'm stuck."
Passport applications for Saavedra and her three children, aged 2, 6 and 10, will cost her $343, plus potential additional costs for supporting documents like passport photos ($12 at Bisbee Office Supply) and original birth certificates ($10 apiece from the Arizona Department of Health Services for those born in the state).
It's a significant expenditure for a middle-class family.
"I know people in Naco who are getting one passport at a time - one this month, one next month - because of the cost," Saavedra said. "It's hard for people."
Even so, said State Department spokeswoman Leslie Phillips, Saavedra and her neighbors in Naco are making the right choice by getting their passports now rather than waiting for the passport card.
"For our part, our message to folks is, let's just go ahead and apply for a passport," Phillips said. "We've got kind of a long line right now, so you might want to get in the queue."
But Klundt, the Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, insisted that people who wait for the passport card do not run the risk of being shut out at border crossings - the card will be available well before new rules begin.
While the ultimate goal of the WHTI is to improve national security, she said, the government also wants to make the new rules as painless as possible for border residents.
"We recognize that this is a cultural change," Klundt said. "We are really committed to implementing this in a pragmatic way."
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who represents the border communities of Naco, Bisbee and Douglas in Washington, said the passport card "makes sense for a lot of different reasons," and vowed to advocate for her constituents on the issue.
Giffords said she had already called the State Department to urge it to move quickly on the passport card, and she noted that the department has begun soliciting bids from vendors to manufacture the ID.
"It is happening," she said of the card, "and we should have some proposals to us by next month."
Applications, questions mounting
After Chertoff announced the new travel regulations last November, passport applications at Cochise County Superior Court jumped significantly.
According to Clerk of the Superior Court Denise Lundin, her office accepted 925 applications between Dec. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007 - a 33 percent increase over the same time period in 2005-2006.
And while many of the applications came from people rushing to meet the air travel requirement, staff at the clerk's office believe that an increasing number of applicants are motivated by the pending land-crossing rules.
"We're getting lots of families and a lot of people who only speak Spanish," said Court Assistant Candece Hardt. "And more elderly people as well."
Some of the more common questions from customers include: "Is there a senior citizen discount?" and "I only walk across the border to get cigarettes, so why do I need a passport?" Mexican nationals whose children are U.S. citizens come to the clerk's office to ask if their child will be denied a passport for having non-citizen parents, Hardt said,
while naturalized citizens become anxious when they learn they have to submit their original naturalization documents with their passport application.
"My grandmother is waiting until the very last minute because she doesn't want to let go of her naturalization papers," Saavedra said.
And while clerk's office personnel feel confident about answering passport-related questions and assuaging fears about the process, they say they are stumped when it comes to the ever-increasing questions about the passport card and other specifics of the pending WHTI land-crossing requirements.
"We just haven't been getting much information from the State Department," Lundin said.
Phillips, the State Department spokeswoman, promised that details on the passport card would be produced shortly, and Klundt said that Customs and Border Protection is considering a high-profile public education campaign once all the details of the land-crossing rules are worked out.
"We're not going to implement it tomorrow and not tell anyone," Klundt said. "However, there are still a few moving pieces so we kind of have to roll with the punches. But it is in everyone's best interest that the public be fully informed on this."
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