What concerns are being voiced? You're crossing international boarders and
the US wants you to have a passport to reenter instead of some easily
forged documents. Sounds like a prudent measure to me. You can just
imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a terrorist crossed
the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

-- Geoff

Glenn Ashmore wrote in
news:BY%Kc.29113$Sh.12520@lakeread06:

Just heard from a friend who returned from a fishing trip to the
Bahamas Sunday. Traveled with drivers licence and birth certificate.
C&I at West Palm is cautioning everyone that effective January 1, 2005
US citizens MUST have a passport for re-entry. Photo ID and birth
certificate will no longer be accepted. It supposedly applies to all
countries not just the Bahamas.

Seems to be big news on the sport fishing forums but I don't find
anything about it on the State Department sites and the New Orleans
Passport office doesn't have a clue. Can anyone find a way to verify
this?

It's not like a passport is hard to get. It is just prudent
to have one when traveling outside the US.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote in message
. 16...
What concerns are being voiced? You're crossing international boarders
and
the US wants you to have a passport to reenter instead of some easily
forged documents. Sounds like a prudent measure to me. You can just
imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a terrorist crossed
the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

-- Geoff

Glenn Ashmore wrote in
news:BY%Kc.29113$Sh.12520@lakeread06:

Just heard from a friend who returned from a fishing trip to the
Bahamas Sunday. Traveled with drivers licence and birth certificate.
C&I at West Palm is cautioning everyone that effective January 1, 2005
US citizens MUST have a passport for re-entry. Photo ID and birth
certificate will no longer be accepted. It supposedly applies to all
countries not just the Bahamas.

Seems to be big news on the sport fishing forums but I don't find
anything about it on the State Department sites and the New Orleans
Passport office doesn't have a clue. Can anyone find a way to verify
this?

Yeah, let's make it REAL tough like making them have a student visa! Do you
ever wonder how the US got so many recent immigrants? Do you know that any
of these people who are under refugee status are issued a US passport upon
arrival into the US and have all the rights of a citizen born here? Except
the "right" to actually pay into Social Security in order to receive SS.
Watch Lou Dobbs (CNN) about our "holy" borders. I don't have any idea why a
terrorist would even bother forging documents.
I travel a lot and have seen a huge discrepancy in our knee jerk reaction to
9/11: political correctness. When leaving New York's JFK on a commuter
flight to FL, myself and 8-9 others, Americans and Brits where given the
full treatment, while a couple people carrying passports from Middle Eastern
and South American countries were waved right through. On another flight I
got to see a 2 year old crying, hiding behind her daddy because the genius
TSA rep wanted to search her. These people were born here Americans. Sure
made me feel safer!
When we know the people who want to do us harm are from a certain
geographical location AND are usually easily physically identifiable as
such, what's wrong with racial profiling?
But then, what if in WW2, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, we would have
invaded, say, Mexico? Same kind of thinking, I'm sorry to say.
MMC
"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote in message
. 16...
What concerns are being voiced? You're crossing international boarders
and
the US wants you to have a passport to reenter instead of some easily
forged documents. Sounds like a prudent measure to me. You can just
imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a terrorist crossed
the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

-- Geoff

Glenn Ashmore wrote in
news:BY%Kc.29113$Sh.12520@lakeread06:

Just heard from a friend who returned from a fishing trip to the
Bahamas Sunday. Traveled with drivers licence and birth certificate.
C&I at West Palm is cautioning everyone that effective January 1, 2005
US citizens MUST have a passport for re-entry. Photo ID and birth
certificate will no longer be accepted. It supposedly applies to all
countries not just the Bahamas.

Seems to be big news on the sport fishing forums but I don't find
anything about it on the State Department sites and the New Orleans
Passport office doesn't have a clue. Can anyone find a way to verify
this?

"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote
...... Sounds like a prudent measure to me. You can just
imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a terrorist crossed
the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

Only one flaw in that logic. What does it take to get a passport? Why a
birth certificate and apicture ID (license) of course.

BTW my grandmother ran a boarding house - crossing one of her boarders could
get you shot.

So what would the passport do to increase security?
I just got a US passort using my birth certificate and
driver's license.


In article
, "Geoffrey
W. Schultz" wrote:
What concerns are being voiced? You're crossing international boarders and
the US wants you to have a passport to reenter instead of some easily
forged documents. Sounds like a prudent measure to me. You can just
imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a terrorist crossed
the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

-- Geoff

I doubt that anyone in this news group can speak with definitive knowledge
as to what kind of checks are done when you apply for a passport. If there
are problems with authenticating the validity of the passport application,
then that's a separate issue which is not at the heart of the discussion
here. Don't confuse/mix the subjects.

And it still comes down to: What's the problem with requiring a passport
for international travel? I'm a cruiser who has had to get additional
pages added into my passport to handle all of the stamps from various
countries that we've visited while sailing. This is just a standard
document that's needed everywhere in the world for international travel.
To imply that the US government is doing something wrong by requiring a
passport for people entering the US from foreign countries is folley.

-- Geoff

(Scott McQ) wrote in
:

So what would the passport do to increase security?
I just got a US passort using my birth certificate and
driver's license.


In article
, "Geoffrey
W. Schultz" wrote:
What concerns are being voiced? You're crossing international
boarders and the US wants you to have a passport to reenter instead of
some easily forged documents. Sounds like a prudent measure to me.
You can just imagine the heat that Immigrations would be under if a
terrorist crossed the boarder using a birth certificate and a license.

-- Geoff