Special RFID card needed for Canadian and Mexican travel by 2008

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

Key paragraph:

Officials said the document will be about the size of a credit card, carry a
picture of the holder and cost roughly $50, about half the price of a
passport. It will be equipped with radio frequency identification, allowing
it to be read from several yards away.

"Several yards away"?!?!

Richard

=================================================================

U.S. tweaks border re-entry rules
Americans who cross often to get special ID By Paul Richter Tribune
Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601180056jan18,1,2904223
.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

January 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Government officials announced Tuesday they will start issuing
a special ID card later this year allowing frequent U.S.
travelers to Mexico and Canada to continue crossing the border without a
passport.

The government, citing security concerns, last spring said that as of 2008,
travelers would be required to show passports when they re-enter the country
from Mexico and Canada. But business and travel groups and residents of
border communities said the plan could snarl traffic and discourage travel.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a news conference that
the government plans to begin issuing a card that "will be particularly
useful for citizens in border communities who regularly cross northern and
southern borders every day as an integral part of their daily lives."

Officials said the document will be about the size of a credit card, carry a
picture of the holder and cost roughly $50, about half the price of a
passport. It will be equipped with radio frequency identification, allowing
it to be read from several yards away.

To obtain the card, officials said citizens will be required to provide the
same kind of documentation that is used to obtain a passport.

Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business
Council, said her group was concerned about how the program would be
implemented. She suggested that a pilot program be launched.

The travel card plan was announced by Chertoff and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice as one of a series of border proposals.

Chertoff also said that beginning next year, the government will issue only
electronic passports, or "e-passports," which have a computer chip embedded
in the cover. The government has begun issuing the electronic passports in a
pilot program.


Copyright C 2006, Chicago Tribune 
 
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