DHS chief says border crossing rules are on track

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Tuesday said new U.S. border crossing requirements will go into effect June 1 and acknowledged she has not decided whether more fencing should be built along the nation's boundary with Mexico.

Napolitano said her department is on track to implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative June 1, which will require U.S. citizens to have a passport or other U.S.-approved document to enter the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

"The deadline is there. It is real," Napolitano told the Border Trade Alliance, a pro-trade nonprofit group that advocates for commerce between the United States and its immediate neighbors. "The plain fact of the matter is these are real borders, this is a real law and I am really charged with implementing it and I take that charge very seriously."

The rule was originally supposed to go into effect in January 2008, but Congress pushed it back because U.S. citizens encountered significant delays obtaining passports or new, passport-like cards from the State Department. Lawmakers feared implementing the rule would create massive delays in trade and travel, primarily along the U.S.-Canadian border.

Napolitano declared that she and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have signed documents verifying that the June 1 deadline can be met. "Preliminary data can always be wrong but I'm going to report to you anyway," she said. "[The data] indicates that roughly 80 percent of United States and Canadian citizens queried are already using WHTI-compliant documents." She added, "We are staffing up to make sure that if there is a surge right around the deadline time or right afterwards we can handle that surge so we don't get the passport backlog that occurred several years ago."

Like officials in the Bush administration, Napolitano said she wants to strike a balance between security and commerce. "Our goal is to have a modern border, an efficient border and a safe and secure border for both people and for commerce," she said. But it remains to be seen exactly what U.S. border officials will do if Americans show up at a border crossing without an approved document in the days and weeks after the rule goes into effect. "We know that with all deadlines a little common sense and flexibility needs to be applied and we are prepared to use common sense ... should the need arise," Napolitano said.

On another front, Napolitano said the Homeland Security Department will finish building about 700 miles of vehicle barriers and fencing along the Southwest border, as directed by Congress. But she said fencing alone is not a solution to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the United States.

"Fencing should be used in certain places in combination with technology and manpower," she said. "In the future, we will look at fencing but only in conjunction with a system in certain designated places that make sense. Whether we need more fencing or not, I cannot say today ... That I haven't made the decision on."