pasport-o por favor.

[Malachy]

well, it was announced to help with immigration that those wishing to come back into the united states from canada or mexico will have to show a passport.

pasport, eh?

i live near the quebec border, my friends and i go to Montreal as often as we go on party trips to burlington vermont. many of us dont have passports. and they are expensive. now we wont be going to canada as much because we can't even afford to get there and back. we can't get passports.

i personally have one. but many of my friends wont be getting one any time soon. but if they keep their normal plans of travel, they may soon have to.

[Proud-Jew]

At 4/7/05 09:25 PM, MALforPope wrote: well, it was announced to help with immigration that those wishing to come back into the united states from canada or mexico will have to show a passport.

pasport, eh?

i live near the quebec border, my friends and i go to Montreal as often as we go on party trips to burlington vermont. many of us dont have passports. and they are expensive. now we wont be going to canada as much because we can't even afford to get there and back. we can't get passports.

i personally have one. but many of my friends wont be getting one any time soon. but if they keep their normal plans of travel, they may soon have to.

While your discontent is understandable, there is a very legitimate reason behind this decision. Mexicans have snuck past the boarder in disturbing numbers for several decades, and it has only been growing. And Canada has far too lax an immigration policy, so not requiring the displaying of a passport is a massive security risk. So yes, it may meen that you won't be able to cross the boarder as often to party, but it will increase border (and overall national) security, so in my mind it is completely worth it.

[Ted-Easton]

I had thought the U.S. was requiring them of Canadians but Canada was not yet asking them of Americans.
The Canadian Minister of Immigration (Anne McLellan?) said a few days ago they may retaliate with the same measure for U.S. citizens. It's ridiculous. "Let's encourage tourism by making it both expensive and difficult to cross the border!"

What we should do, as Canadians, is ignore the U.S. regulation, continue to follow the procedures we currently have in place and move on with our lives as we did before. It's only compounding the problem by making both sides participate.

[Malachy]

At 4/7/05 09:31 PM, Ted_Easton wrote: What we should do, as Canadians, is ignore the U.S. regulation, continue to follow the procedures we currently have in place and move on with our lives as we did before. It's only compounding the problem by making both sides participate.

it doesnt really matter. either way, a canadian going to the US will still have to show a passport. and any american who is coming home from canada will still have to show a passport.

so no matter what at this point, you're going to need a passport to get into the US.

and i dont think its going to help the border jumping problem. if anything, it's just going to make it worse. and now with volenteers with guns on arazona's mexico border is just asking for trouble....