U.S. Swamped with Passport Requests
March 17th, 2007Waiting for clarity on the brink of oblivion… in a passport line.
Via: Washington Post:
…Waiting games are being played out at passport processing sites across the country as the State Department wades through an unprecedented crush of passport applications. They are pouring in at more than 1 million per month.
Passport requests usually shoot up this time of year ahead of the busy spring and summer travel season. But the department has been really swamped since the government in late January started requiring U.S. airline passengers—including children—to show a passport upon their return from Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean.
Passport applications filed between October and March are up 44 percent from the same period a year ago, the department told lawmakers this week. In February alone, applications were up 25 percent.
Because of the glut, it could take 10 weeks instead of the usual six to process routine applications, according to the department. And expedited requests, which cost an extra $60 on top of the normal $97 fee, could take four weeks instead of two.
Now, if the government has stated that all American citizens will now be required to apply for and carry passports, then why in the world were they not prepared for the slew of applications? This is just like our administration; issue a mandate and then be surprised and unprepared for the response. Go figure!
I can’t even imagine not having a valid passport.. the thought of being confined in a single country without the freedom to get up and go somewhere else gives me shivers…
I already have 2 passports (2 different countries). Next one is probably going to be Panama, since you can practically buy that one 🙂
I imagine the extra demand for passports is the result of the new rules requiring passports for Mexico, Canada and various territories. It seems obvious that these rules should be postponed until the State Department can meet the extra demand created by these new rules. Americans who want to leave the country have a Constitutional right to do so without unreasonable delay.
They are not swamped and never have been. Just an excuse for our government to ask for extra money. Those people who work down there just sit around and believ me, I know.
A year ago, when I needed (and wanted) to get a passport for my 1-year-old for a European trip from the U.S., lines were no worse than I’ve seen them over the 25 years since I first stood in the passport line. But this year, after the new law that the travel industry had successfully delayed for nearly five years, a bunch of my American friends rushed to get passports for their very young kids for simple Canada or Mexico trips.Even the double-priced “expedited” service took months and months.
Why do this? It obviously has nothing to do with “terrorism.” Even if you believe the entire official 9/11 story, all those dudes flew commercially to the USA, often in business class, and had no troubles with expired visas, CIA watchlists, etc.
And what about this “North American Union” stuff, which is obviously real at least in the sense of unloading freighters in (cheap labor-union free) Mexican ports and trucking/training the crap through the American Heartland (also union-free). Open borders are a goal, right?
I think not. Open borders for goods and cheap distant labor are a goal. Open borders for an American population that is already so dumb and tied to home that less than 10% had passports before 2007 … that is not a goal for the Gov’t. People can’t think they can just run off and find another life.
May the fortunate get out before the attack on Iran:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/031507dnbusdefensespending.3796dff.html
[…] you don’t have a U.S. passport already, try to get one, just don’t hold your […]