(Host) Senator Patrick Leahy says the federal government is encroaching on Vermonters rights to travel freely. On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff testified before Leahy’s committee.
Matt Laslo reports from Washington:
(Laslo) The Homeland Security Department is under fire from states across the U.S.
The agency is trying to implement a congressionally mandated security measure called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. It requires everyone entering the U.S. to have either a passport or other government approved ID, even U.S. citizens. It will cost states billions of dollars to implement. The new rule was supposed to kick in this year, but has been pushed back until June of 2009.
Leahy says the department has a lot to do in the mean time.
(Leahy) "The Department must now make good use of the time Congress has given to make sure the implementation goes smoothly, to minimize disruptions in Americans lives and in our relations with our good neighbors to the north and south."
(Laslo) Leahy says Chertoff’s agency doesn’t have the technology or the people to handle the new rules. He says Homeland Security’s computers aren’t even compatible with State Department computers.
Chertoff disagrees with some of Leahy’s claims. He says ID scanners are now in place at every place of entry along both northern and southern borders. Chertoff also says parts of the new initiative are already working. Border agents no longer accept verbal declarations of citizenship, and Chertoff says it has been effective.
(Chertoff) "Literally every week, maybe even every day, we are using this tightened procedure to catch people at the ports of entry."
(Laslo) Leahy told Chertoff he doesn’t like the additional security measures he has seen on Vermont’s northern border.
(Leahy) "Were all sort of presumed guilty until we prove ourselves innocent?
(Chertoff) "No, no I’m saying…"
(Leahy) "It sounds like Big Brother gone awry."
(Laslo) Leahy says his office gets complaints from Vermonters stopped at random check points on Interstate 91, while they were miles away from the Canadian border.
(Leahy) "I mean we have dozens and dozens of roads you can take from the Canadian border to get down to either New York or Massachusetts. Why don’t you just put a road block at all of them and just federalize Vermont!"
(Chertoff) "Well, we’re limited by law to the hundred miles closest to the border."
(Laslo) Chertoff says the roadblocks are needed to catch people entering the U.S. illegally. There are similar ones used on the U.S. Mexican border and they are used to catch drunk drivers.
Leahy still wasn’t convinced. He says Vermonters should be able to travel without having to be stopped by the federal government.
For VPR News, I’m Matt Laslo on Capitol Hill.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci