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GAO-06-741R 1 (2006-05-25)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptatns0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 May 25, 2006 The Honorable Loretta Sanchez Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity Committee on Homeland Security House of Representatives The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter The Honorable John M. McHugh House of Representatives Subject: Observations on Efforts to Implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative on the U.S. Border with Canada Securing the U.S. border has received increasing attention since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. For years, U.S. and Canadian citizens have crossed the northern border using documents such as driver's licenses or birth certificates or in some cases without showing any documentation. Border crossings are commonplace; in 2005, for example, an estimated 13 million U.S. citizens crossed the northern border. In the heightened national security environment after September 11, we have previously reported that documents like driver's licenses and birth certificates can easily be obtained, altered, or counterfeited and used by terrorists to travel into and out of the country.' The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to develop and implement a plan that requires a passport or other document or combination of documents that the Secretary of Homeland Security deems sufficient to show identity and citizenship for U.S. citizens and citizens of Bermuda, Canada, and Mexico when entering the United States from certain countries in North, Central, or South America! The act requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State (State) to implement this requirement by January 2008, and the effort to do so is called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (Travel Initiative). While requiring passports for all border crossings would meet the requirements of the law, the possibility that DHS and State would do so has been highly controversial, and it centers attention on the difficult task of improving border security while still 1GAO, Counterfeit Documents Used to Enter the United States from Certain Western Hemisphere Countries Not Detected, GAO-03-713T (Washington, D.C.: May 13, 2003). 2Pub. L. No. 108-458, § 7209, 118 Stat. 3638, 3823 (2004).

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