Caribbean: Island Nations May Ban U.S. Citizens without Passports
By Larry Habegger | Permalink |
2 comments | October 10th, 2006 | Trackback
Caribbean island nations are considering banning Americans without passports in response to recent amendments to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative passed by the U.S. Congress. The initiative requires all Americans traveling to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to have a valid U.S. passport and goes into effect Jan. 8, 2007. The recent amendments, however, delay implementation of the rules for land crossings from Mexico and Canada and for cruise passengers until June 1, 2009. The Caribbean governments are upset because they derive 90 percent of their tourism revenue from tourists who arrive by air, and they feel the amendments were made to appease cruise companies. They fear tourism will drop significantly because of the initiative, and feel their only leverage is to push back on cruise companies to force all American tourists to get their passports. The clear solution is just that, for U.S. citizens to get passports, but some may balk at the expense and effort required.
Comments
You’re mostly correct, but you miss the point that the island nations are upset with the U.S. for extending the deadline to 2009 for cruise passengers, which means they won’t need to have passports until then, while anyone flying into the islands will need passports in January. Most of the islands’ tourism comes from tourists arriving by air, and these governments feel the extension for cruise passengers only benefits the cruise companies while ignoring potential economic damage from a drop in visitors flying in.
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My understanding is that the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requires all persons entering the US from the Western Hemisphere, even US citizens, to show an approved, secure document establishing identity and citizenship. It does not apply just to Americans.
I understand the fear that Americans may wish to avoid the irritation of getting a passport and hence stay home, but banning Americans without passports is sort of empty, since Americans will required to have passports when traveling to the Caribbean.
See the State Department’s page at
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html for more information.