Canada Watch: Travelers Entering the United States from Canada Win a Reprieve

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2nd R) and Public Safety Minster Stockwell Day (L) arrive at the Canadian and U.S. border crossing in Cloverdale, west of Vancouver, British Columbia August 31, 2006. Harper announced on Thursday that Canadian border guards will be armed like their U.S. counterparts beginning in September of 2007.

Reuters: U.S. Congress poised to delay border check program

Travelers entering the United States from Canada will win a reprieve from a post-September 11 border security program requiring passports or other high-tech IDs, under a bill set to pass Congress this week.

Congressional negotiators have embraced a delay of up to 17 months for the program, which was supposed to have been fully activated by December 31, 2007.

The language has been attached to a fiscal 2007 domestic security funding bill the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate plan to approve before going on a recess ahead of November mid-term elections.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress strengthened border security, including checks on some of the millions of people who travel by land into the country.

With only 15 months before the new program was to have started, Bush administration officials recently told Congress of difficulties readying identity cards and equipment to read those cards at border stations.

The Bush Administration yet again demonstrates its lack of resolve for border security.

And why couldn’t the United States government implement this program on time?

Americans are less SAFE……

Technorati Tags: Canada, BorderCheck, border_security