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GAO-08-274R 1 (2007-12-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptavsn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: tAcountablIty * Integrity * Reiability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 December 20, 2007 The Honorable Loretta Sanchez Chairwoman Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Committee on Homeland Security House of Representatives The Honorable John M. McHugh The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter House of Representatives Subject: Observations on Implementing the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Securing the nation's borders has taken on added importance since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. For years, millions of citizens of the United States, Canada, and Bermuda could enter the United States from certain parts of the Western Hemisphere using a wide variety of documents, including a driver's license issued by a state motor vehicle administration or a birth certificate, or in some cases for U.S. and Canadian citizens, without showing any documents. In the heightened national security environment following 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.' To help provide better assurance that border officials have the tools and resources to establish that people are who they say they are, as called for in the 9/11 Commission report,2 section 7209 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, as amended, 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 Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) and the Department of State's (State) effort to specify acceptable documents and implement document requirements at 326 air, 1 GAO, Counterfeit Documents Used to Enter the United States from Certain Western Hemisphere Countries Not Detected, GA() -0- 71 31 (Washington, D.C.: May 13, 2003). ' U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9111 Commission Report (Washington: GPO, 2004). 3 Pub. L. No. 108-458, § 7209, 118 Stat. 3638, 3823 (2004), amended by Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007, Pub. L. No. 109-295, § 546, 120 Stat. 1355, 1386-87 (2006). This provision applies to citizens of Bermuda, Canada, and Mexico entering the United States as nonimmigrant visitors. GAO-08-274R Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative

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