New IDs to speed border crossings

With the Winter Olympics in British Columbia in 2010 and World Police and Fire Games next summer, the busy border crossings between Canada and Washington state are expected to get a lot busier.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security plans to unveil new technology to help increase security while speeding up crossings for those traveling from Canada into the U.S.

This technology, fully operational beginning today at border crossings in Blaine and Nogales, Ariz., will give agents a snapshot of select motorists as they queue up for inspection at the border.

Travelers with certain IDs embedded with radio chips will hold the cards up to a reader, which will immediately transmit a photo, biographic and biometric information and the results of criminal and terrorist checks to the officer's screen.

"The border folks came under extreme criticism about how the potential for further delays will have a negative impact on people who want to cross the border during these high-profile events," said Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. Customs & Border Protection.

"One of the things that we are doing ... is installing this new technology that allows us to process expeditiously those with secure documentation."

The new card readers are part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that takes effect June 1, 2009. That initiative requires all travelers returning to the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda — including those who go by land or sea — to have a passport or one of several federally approved IDs.

The new card readers being unveiled in Blaine today can't read traditional passport books — either U.S. or foreign. But the technology will be able to read information embedded in three separate ID cards.

They are:

• Enhanced driver's licenses (and a similarly enhanced Washington state ID card) are issued by the state only to U.S. citizens and can be used to cross U.S. land and sea borders only. About 35,000 of them have been issued in Washington state. Information is available at www.dol.wa.gov.

• The passport card, the size of a driver's license, is a cheaper alternative to the passport book but can be used only for land and sea travel, not for air travel. Since July, the U.S. has issued 523,000 of these. Get details and forms at www.travel.state.gov/passport.

• NEXUS, a trusted-traveler card, available to both Canadians and Americans who have been prescreened and deemed low-risk. Find information about trusted-traveler programs at http://www.cbp.gov.

British Columbia has issued some enhanced driver's licenses under a pilot program, and the Canadian government is considering such documents as an alternative to passports.

Milne said U.S. and Washington state officials anticipate large numbers of visitors will stay in the Bellingham area during the upcoming events in British Columbia.

"The ability of those folks to cross the border effectively and efficiently has been one of the concerns of Olympics officials," Milne said.

Within a few weeks, the new technology will spread to all Whatcom County points of entry and by early next year to 39 high-volume U.S. land ports.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com