WHTI and Enhanced Drivers Licenses - Buffalo Niagara Partnership

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WHTI and Enhanced Driver's Licenses

November 16, 2007

This is yet another update on the ever-evolving issue of required personal identification at CanAm border crossings. The Partnership continues aggressively to pursue this issue under the NOW Campaign umbrella – and regularly seek your involvement in it – because we firmly believe “an expedited, safe and uncomplicated flow of goods and people across the Canadian/US border at Buffalo Niagara is vital to the growth of the region’s economy.”

Here’s a summary of recent events:

The Spitzer administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an agreement allowing New York State to offer a WHTI-compliant ‘Enhanced Driver’s License.’ This is a major victory for our community. This enhanced driver’s license will be DHS-accepted border documentation allowing New Yorkers to cross the CanAm border without a passport; with such documentation being necessary as early as next summer if language delaying such a requirement is not adopted by Congress this session.
At the beginning of the week, the governor announced the withdrawal of his proposal to issue licenses to undocumented immigrants. This will have no impact on the NYS-DHS plan to issue enhanced driver’s licenses by the summer of 2008.

New York State’s announcement to issue a WHTI-compliant enhanced driver’s license does not diminish the need for delaying WHTI implementation. If New York begins issuing such licenses in the summer of 2008 and DHS begins requiring passports or WHTI-compliant licenses in the summer of 2008, as is the agency’s stated intent, it will be virtually impossible for a significant number of New Yorkers who cross the border regularly to obtain the license by the time it is required. At best, there would be chaos for some months.

In short, if Congress does not take action to delay WHTI implementation, the following will happen:

Starting in January 2008, a government-issued photo ID and birth certificate will be required to enter the US from Canada via land crossings.
Sometime in the summer of 2008, the new requirement for passport, PASS card, WHTI-compliant driver's license or trusted traveler ID (NEXUS, FAST cards, etc.) will be implemented.

Congressional delay of WHTI implementation is the Partnership’s current top federal policy priority. If there is time to implement WHTI “right,” we believe that a viable, secure identification system can be implemented without increasing the economic distress of Upstate border regions such as ours. The federal government is nowhere near that point and will not be in the near future. So, plain and simple – what we need is time.

Please click here to send a VoterVoice message to our congressional delegation about the importance of delaying WHTI implementation.

Also, Rep. Louise Slaughter, who has been our region’s most vocal advocate in Congress on WHTI and other border issues, will be at the Partnership at noon on November 29 as part of our Congressional Briefings Series. Please join us to help emphasize the importance of securing a delay in WHTI implementation to our regional economy!