Washington – Facing an unexpected backlash from angry travelers and lawmakers, the Bush administration said Tuesday it would be flexible in enforcing new passport requirements beginning January for Americans who return by land or sea from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
In signaling a partial retreat from strict implementation of new security rules, State Department officials acknowledged mismanaging an initial phase-in for air travelers that produced crippling passport application backlogs.
“We simply did not anticipate Americans’ willingness to comply so quickly with the new law,” Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, said in a written statement to a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee.
In January, the United States began requiring Americans to present passports when returning by air from North American destinations. The new requirement is intended to prevent terrorist suspects from crossing U.S. borders by requiring travelers to present a single, standardized document that can be automatically checked against government databases.
The State and Homeland Security departments last week temporarily waived a requirement for an actual passport until Sept. 30 for travelers who can show proof they applied for a passport. The agencies said the new requirement triggered a backlog of almost 3 million passport applications and quadrupled waiting time from three weeks to three months.
Harty said the department issued 12.1 million passports last year, and it projected receiving 16.2 million applications this year. Instead, it is on track to issue 17.7 million passports, with forecasts for 23 million in 2008 and up to 30 million by 2010.
Americans are increasingly applying for passports to use as identity documents, Harty said, noting that only 20 out of 200 applicants whose files she examined had travel plans.
