Why is taking so long for U.S. Immigration to enforce the much needed requirements for Canadian visitors at border crossings and other entry points?

U.S. says it will be enforced in 2008, and maybe later! Why then, or later? This should have been done years ago, following the disastrous 9/11 atrocity.

Today's news from The Toronto Sun (www.torontosun.com) reports in part:

" Indiana Republican John Hostettler, who held a hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill, also said the U.S. House of Representatives shouldn't agree to delay strict new border identification measures in light of Canada's anti-terror arrests last week.

"" We do not want to have to worry about a neighbour that has a very different attitude than we do about terrorism "" Hostettler said after the meeting.

Americans, he added, would demand the Canada-U.S. border be shut down in the event of another terrorist attack like the one on Sept. 11, 2001.

And Hostettler, who chairs a judiciary subcommittee, had nothing but praise for the views of security analyst David Harris, who used to be with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.


Harris told the legislators [that] Canada's immigration system is a big part of its terrorist problem, noting the country takes in double the number of immigrants and three or four times as many refugees as the United States."

Kudos to both of them. Harris's view has been my long held opinion - dating a long time for other reasons even before the terror began - as well as the view of many, if not all, other veterans and members of my local Royal Canadian Legion branch - it has and still is because of very recent events a recurring subject of discussion at out "Bull-****' (a.k.a., as topical discussions) table.

I am not and never have been, anti good hardworking and well vetted immigrants, but in the last few years, the proliferation of Muslim operated small businesses ( corner food stores, for example,) has had we wondering if Bin Laden's money laundering operations hasn't created finacial cells - strange thought? Yes, but think about it, if you were Bin Laden with his finacial resources, how would you go about creating western world-wide based cells?

Wake up, America ! ( and Canada ) and move that essential piece of legislation on a fast-forward priority basis.

That's how I see it, anyway!

__________________
1984 300SD TURBO DIESEL

Considering how many underage college students obtain fake IDs to drink . . . any sense of security via the gestapo-like "Show me your papers . . ." is foolhardy at best.

How else are you supposed to prove identity?

The legislation is going to work both ways, isn't it? US citizens will need Passports to cross into Canada too. Seeing as less than 25% of citizens in both countries have Passports, that is going to be a lot of processing over the next two years, especially when you consider the convoluted, complex process involved.

No, that's not correct. The US Congress is not in a position to legislate entry requirements into Canada. However, US citizens will be require to present a passport upon their return to the US. So it does affect US citizens who wish to travel abroad.

I thought that I had read that 40% of Canadian's have a passport, while the number of US citizens was closer to 25%. I could be wrong about that.