Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff Wednesday said new border-crossing requirements will continue to stay into effect as scheduled, despite opposition from Congress and concerns from state officials that commerce and tourism will be disrupted.  As reported by The Congress Daily, Chertoff said that DHS plans to begin phasing in new requirements under the proposed Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).  

Chertoff, in a speech made last month to a border security advisory panel in Washington , said that the new rules will apply to travelers coming to the U.S. at land crossings from Canada and Mexico and by water from the Caribbean .  Border inspectors will no longer accept oral declarations of citizenship, meaning U.S. citizens will have to present documentation proving they reside in the country, Chertoff said.  In addition, he says DHS will also begin preparations to limit the types of documents that can be used to prove citizenship.  Currently, border inspectors accept about 8,000 different documents.  

Beginning last year, DHS requires people coming into the U.S. by air from Canada , Mexico and the Caribbean to present a passport or other government-approved identification.  Though Chertoff says the compliance rates for the air rules are near 99%, he hasn’t acknowledged the problems and delays that U.S. citizens had obtaining passports from the State Department last year, with delays becoming so problematic that DHS had to delay implementation of the air rules by six months.  

Another problem that DHS’ program must contend with is the response from Congress.  Last session, both the House and Senate expressed their opposition, passing legislation that prohibits DHS from implementing all aspects of the program until June 2009.   

"Congress has mandated a delay for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative … but [DHS] will nevertheless, in the intervening time, take some reasonable and very important measures to eliminate what I consider to be unacceptable vulnerabilities at our land border," Chertoff said.  Due to the congressional restrictions, border inspectors "will still accept many of the documents that are currently available, Chertoff said, adding, "we are not implementing WHTI but we are certainly rationalizing the existing system."