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U.S. to Collect Data on Travelers
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U.S. to Collect Data on Travelers
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WASHINGTON—The U.S. government wants detailed information about every person who comes to or leaves the country by plane or boat, and for the first time will require American citizens to fill out forms detailing their comings and goings.
Now, for the first time, U.S. citizens traveling abroad will be required to reveal their identities and travel plans.
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Rules proposed yesterday by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) seek more information from travelers than under current law and extend the requirements to U.S. citizens and others previously exempted. They also include a system to allow quicker cross-checking databases and matching records of arrivals and departures.
The rule, which will require tracking data for millions of travelers, extends to all passengers and crew on all commercial airlines, cruise ships, and cargo flights and vessels, with the exception of most ferries.
Commercial buses and trains are not affected, nor is private transportation, which accounts for much of the non-commercial Canada-U.S. border traffic.After a 30-day public comment period, the INS plans to quickly finalize the latest rule and, once computer databases are done, put it in place later this year.Last month, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley said a border security system that covers all U.S. and Canadian citizens would be unworkable, choking vital trade and traffic across the border. Manley said this matter was the top issue to be resolved between Canada and the United States.
The information collected under the proposed rules will be sent electronically to the INS and to the U.S. Customs Service before a traveler arrives in the United States or departs from it.
"It's another way to enhance security for travelers," said INS spokesperson Kimberly Weismann. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has criticized many of the administration's anti-terrorism information-gathering efforts, said these rules should not impinge on people's privacy. "We don't see a huge downside," said spokeswoman Emily Whitfield.
But others reacted more cautiously."You need to see this in the larger context of vastly expanded government information collection and data-mining," said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a U.S. civil liberties watchdog group.
"We are unfortunately quickly moving to a situation where the government is going to be maintaining a vast database of personal information that is going to be widely accessible to various agencies. In that environment, you do have to be concerned about potential violations of privacy," Sobel said. In the INS rule, U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft has added a proposed "passenger name record" that will be matched against "appropriate security databases" prior to the travelers arrival. Anyone who raises a red flag regarding terrorism or other law enforcement concern could be met by officials when the ship or plane arrives in the United States.
Canadian carriers have been required since January, 2002 to collect five pieces of information from all U.S.-bound travelers, Air Canada spokesperson Renee Smith-Valede told The Star's Allan Woods yesterday. That information — name, nationality, date of birth, gender and passport — is submitted to the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration for security purposes.
Since Oct. 1, she said, airlines have been providing information to the U.S. government on all passengers leaving the country on Canadian flights. One week later, they began providing the same information to the Canadian government on passengers entering Canada.And on Jan. 1 this year, the Australian government began requiring information on passengers landing in its country.Smith-Valede said all of these actions have been in response to laws enacted by the governments of the three countries.The U.S. changes were mandated by broad border security legislation that passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law last May 14 by President George W. Bush. The law also tightened rules regarding issuance of visas to visitors and students. Expansion of INS monitoring is a first step toward a long-delayed automated entry/exit system for tracking visitors at U.S. ports of entry. Currently, the immigration agency has no systematic way to monitor foreign visitors or to know whether they have overstayed their visas or whether they have left.
For years, international travelers have been required to fill out forms detailing their arrival and departure from countries around the world. Now, for the first time, U.S. citizens traveling abroad will be required to reveal their identities and travel plans. Canadians, permanent resident aliens and certain other people who were also exempted in the past will also be included. "It will just be another step to allow immigration officials to know everyone who comes into or goes from the United States as part of an overall strategy to enhance national security," said INS spokesman Chris Bentley.
"We want to know who is departing the United States, especially temporary visitors," he said. "We want information about everyone seeking admission, to verify who they are."The proposed INS rule would require all passengers, as well as crew members, to provide name, date of birth, citizenship, gender, passport number and country of issuance, country of residence, U.S. visa number and other details of its issuance, address while in the United States and, where it applies, alien registration number. Not all information is required in every case. For example, a Canadian would not necessarily need to provide passport information because one isn't required for a visit to the U.S. Manley went to Washington in early December to discuss the border issue with U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge. In an interview afterward, Manley said there was no technology available that could provide the kind of background being sought without clogging up the Canada-U.S. border. "It would turn cities like Detroit into a parking lot," he said. "Quite frankly, we don't know how we're going to work this one out ... a system that tries to list every U.S. and Canadian citizen crossing the border in both directions, I don't believe it can be done," Manley said. Ridge acknowledged that Washington and Ottawa still have quite a lot of work to do on the matter but "we think we can get it done." The INS estimates the proposed rules will affect 108 large commercial air carriers and shipping lines, as well as more than 14,400 smaller carriers of both kinds. Initial costs to the private sector in complying with the rules are pegged at $166 million (U.S.) More than 29 million passengers flew to the United States in the first nine months of 2002, according to the Commerce Department. The cruise industry estimates that about eight million U.S. passengers will embark in 2003. Officials in the cruise and airline industries say the changes will be costly and could result in some initial delays and inconveniences for passengers. "It'll be a little tricky at first but I don't see any major problems," said David O'Connor, U.S. director for the International Air Transport Association.
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