The new regs were pubbed this morning by the state dept. Link in the title. According to the statement, land & sea travelers won't need passports until Jan. 2008. Supposedly, the gov't wants passports to let us back into our own country if we manage to escape I mean travel outside our borders. In other words, they'll let you out, but-like the dog on the wrong side of the door, you won't be allowed back in.
Last Wednesday Karen put up a post about Americans' apparent dearth of passport ownership. I admit the subject rarely came up here at Bookwormom Central, despite living in Washington DC. It surely must be odd to Anyone Else living on our little blue marble, but until this month we Americans didn't need to have a passport to travel just about anywhere on this entire continent. Canada, Mexico, numerous little Carribean idylls? All passport unnecessary.
Not only that, but the individual American states do not require passports as official documnetation for various legal purposes. It is an option, one of many, on lists of acceptable documents in situations where we might need to prove our identity. Until January 2007, passports haven't been a necessary expense.
According to the official State Department website, a passport for an Adult costs $97 as of March 2005. In other currencies- 75 Euros, 123 Australian dolars, 114 Canadian dollars or 49 pounds Sterling per passport.
As a child I grew up in northern New England, very near the Quebec border. Once upon a time, all you needed to drive into Canada & return home was a US driver's license. As recently as 1994 & 1995 I've driven into Mexico (via South Padre Island) without needing any documents to drive up & down the island. Two years ago we went to the Bahamas for a week. None of which required us to have passports.
Speaking strictly for myself- international travel is increasingly expensive & out of reach for your average Jane America. The exchange rates alone are a killer, especially for the UK! The cost of 2 passports would be $194 plus processing time. It's cheaper to remain in country and have that 'extra' $194 to spend on food, drinks, souvenirs, etc.
For example, if Mr. Bookwormom & I wanted to drive up to Niagara Falls NY & Canada, a mere 503 miles (809 kilometers) from my home, a hard day's drive if you do it right; we can't take a boat over to the Canadian side unless we have passports. Now, I don't know how strictly they enforce these things, but technically we'd need a passport to simply float over the border under the Falls. That added $194? Could be gas money. T shirts. Chips at an Atlantic City casino.
For myself it has less to do with xenophobia than simple economics. As made obvious in Hurricane Katrina, there are many, many Americans living on the knife's edge of economic survival. Yet we all need to get away. The new passport laws make even quick getaways more expensive even for those who live right on the border. We are a country deeply divided between the haves and the have nots. Travel is rapidly becoming another symbol of this divide.
