INS may charge fees to cruise ships

The cruise line industry may no longer get a free ride from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which announced last week that it wants to begin charging international passenger inspection fees at U.S. ports of entry.

INS inspections are a security measure designed to prevent illegal entry into the United States. INS inspectors perform them at land, air and seaports.

But while all cruise ship passengers entering the United States are required to undergo inspection upon entry, most are exempt from paying the INS inspection user fee.

That is a sore point for airline and airport interests. All airline passengers--U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike--leaving from a foreign country and traveling to a U.S. port of entry are required to pay a $6 user fee as part of their fare.

Airport officials argue that the fees assessed to their customers are being used to "subsidize" INS cruise ship inspections, and the diversion of resources from airports has contributed to long lines, congested runways, missed connections and general gridlock.

"Equity arguments make sense here, and you shouldn't allow for this revenue diversion from air passengers to ships--we don't think that's right, fair or equitable," said Todd Hauptli, senior vice president for legislative affairs for the American Association of Airport Executives/Airports Council International of North America.

It is unclear why cruise passengers were exempted from payment when the immigration user fees law passed in 1986. Justice Department inspectors surmised two years ago that Congress might have approved the exemption in an attempt to reverse financial hardships experienced by the cruise industry during the 1980s.

While the INS has sought unsuccessfully for years to remove the cruise ship exemption, some observers believe the tide could turn this session, as a result of a reinvigorated lobbying campaign by airport interests and a new crew of congressional leaders.

For instance, House Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf, R-Va., whose panel oversees INS funding, previously chaired the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee. At a hearing last week before Wolf's panel, Acting INS Commissioner Kevin Rooney said the agency was seeking to replace the cruise line exemption with a $3 per customer fee.

Concurrently, the agency is requesting an increase from $6 to $7 in the current airport inspections fee. By the agency's estimates, these actions would add an additional $50 million annually in user fees, which would be funneled back into its inspection program.

Cruise line industry representatives are expected to vigorously defend their safe harbor from the user fee. But observers said the request by the INS that sea passengers be charged only $3 for their inspections may prove politically more saleable than previous efforts to achieve parity between air and sea port-of-entry fees.

Officials with the International Council of Cruiselines, comprising the 16 largest passenger cruise lines that call on major ports in the United States and abroad, were unavailable for comment.