Air traveler passport rule begins on Jan. 23

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 21, 2006

WASHINGTON – Nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. will be required to show passports beginning Jan. 23, including returning Americans and people from Canada and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The date was disclosed Tuesday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The Homeland Security Department plans to announce the change today.

Until now, the department had not set a specific date for instituting the passport requirement for air travelers, though the start had been expected to be around the beginning of the year. Setting the date on Jan. 23 pushes the start past the holiday season.

The requirement marks a change for Americans, Canadians, Bermudans and some Mexicans.

Currently, U.S. citizens returning from other countries in the hemisphere are not required to present passports but must show other proof of citizenship such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates.

Visitors from most countries in the hemisphere are required to show passports. However, people from Canada, Bermuda – and those from Mexico who enter the U.S. frequently and have special border-crossing cards – have been allowed to use other forms of identification, including driver’s licenses.

“Right now, there are 8,000 different state and local entities in the U.S. issuing birth certificates and driver’s licenses,” Chertoff said. Having to distinguish phony from real in so many different documents “puts an enormous burden on our Customs and Border inspectors,” he said.

The Homeland Security Department estimates that about one in four Americans has a passport. Some people have balked at the $97 price tag.