2:00 P.M. EST 
Real Audio of Briefing
MODERATOR: (In progress.) -- Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security and Frank Moss from the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. They will both begin with an opening statement and then be happy to answer your questions.
Bob.
MR. JACKSTA: Good afternoon. This is an excellent opportunity to spend a little time with you today to explain a little bit what we're doing with the WHTI, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, and how it relates to air travelers starting on January 23rd, 2007.
As you know, the 9/11 Commission came out with a number of recommendations. Congress put them into the Intel Reform Act and Border Security Act. And as a result, over the last year, we have been working very carefully to move forward with a plan to increase security at our airports as well as ensure that the individuals that are crossing our borders, we know who they are, their identity as well as their citizenship.
In the summer of 2006, we issued a Notice of Proposed Rule. In that Notice of Proposed Rule, we outlined the various requirements that we felt were necessary to move forward to enhance that security at our ports of entry. In November, we issued the final rule, which gave 60 days before implementation, and on January 23, 2007, we are going to implement that rule.
That rule is going to require individuals who are traveling by air, whether private aircraft or commercial, to have a passport for the most part. That includes U.S. citizens, Canadians, Bermudians, and every other type of traveler coming to the United States -- will be required to have that passport.
There are certain exceptions that we're going to have to that requirement. We are going to utilize our Air NEXUS Card. That is a card that we currently have being used in Vancouver Airport. It's a joint program with the Canadians. And if someone arrives with that card at one of our Air Nexus locations, we will accept it. We will continue to accept the Lawful Permanent Resident Card for residents of the United States, and we
will also accept the Merchant Marine Card, the card that is issued to U.S. citizens who are Merchant Mariners.
We think that by identifying specific documents that are going to be utilized it will allow us to ensure that we can have better security in our ports of entry as well as facilitate low risk travels. We think it's going to be an enhancement to our efforts.
Over the last four months we have been very proactive in going out to a number of organizations to make sure that the message is getting out there, and I can tell you that a lot of good news is coming in with the fact that we have seen people get into compliance. First of all, we have been using the internet as a method to get the message out to the traveling public. We have also been working very carefully with the carriers, the air carrier associations as well as specific carriers to make sure that they have the information and have the connectivity to our web pages.
In addition to that, we have been working with travel organizations, hotels other types of organizations that we can utilize to get that message out -- a number of examples of where various organizations have outreached and given actually benefits to people who have made that effort to get their passport. In addition, we have issued a number of different brochures and guidance to our people within CBP to ensure that on January 23rd we have a very good enforcement plan that's consistent across all our ports of entry.
We have also given guidance to air carriers, and you might have seen it on some of their web pages, on what type of documents will be required and what they look like, so that the travel agencies as well as the air carriers will have an understanding of what documents will be required and what documents their employees should be looking for when an individual approaches the actual ticket gate.
With that, the rate right now is fairly high. For the Canadians coming into the United States, we see a compliance rate right now, this week, of about 96 percent. For Mexico, we're at 99 percent. And for U.S. citizens who are traveling overseas under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, we're seeing a rate of about 90 percent. Hopefully we'll see continued growth in that and so we'll be able to have full compliance on January 23rd.
Our officers have been given guidance on exactly how to enforce the requirements. We are going to be using a phased approach, and our first phase will be to make sure that we can identify an individual both for identity as well as citizenship at the time that they arrive. If individuals don't have their documents, it's up to the discretion of the officer and the supervisor on duty to allow them to go on. We don't want to disrupt travel, but we clearly want to make sure everyone knows that we encourage them to arrive at our ports of entry with the proper documentation.
With that, one of the reasons why we put in this, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, is we felt it was important to our enforcement effort. On a daily basis, we stop a number of individuals that arrive at our ports of entry with fraudulent documents. We think this is going to enhance that effort. In the next couple of weeks, we'll be continuing to evaluate the compliance to ensure that people are in compliance, and hopefully we'll be able to identify areas that -- we might see some problem areas, make sure that we can get the message out to them.
So over the next couple of weeks we will clearly be looking at all the data that we can get to make sure that people are in compliance and taking appropriate action to address that issue where we see the opportunity. With that, that's my opening statement, so I'll turn it over to Frank Moss from the Department of State.
MR. MOSS: Good afternoon. I'm Frank Moss, and I manage the U.S. Department of State's passport system. What I would like to talk with you today about is really the question of how Americans are coming into compliance with WHTI and, more importantly, what the State Department has done to facilitate that process, including by fundamentally changing our business processes.
Let me, if I could, give you a little bit of background. About 10 years ago, only about 33 million Americans had passports, a relatively low percentage of about 15 percent of our eligible population of American citizens. Since that time, passport demands grew slowly in the 1997 through 2003 period, and then the rate of increase took off as people began to hear, for the first time, about WHTI.
In fiscal year 2003, that's the U.S. fiscal year, the State Department adjudicated and then issued about 7 million passports. A year later, 2004, that number went up to 8.8 million. In 2005, it was over 10 million. Last year, last fiscal year, it was over 12 million. And right now, we're looking at a demand this year of between 16 and 18 million passports.
To give you a term of reference, for example, last week was the -- saw the greatest number of receipts in the history of the U.S. passport system, about 360,000, but we also turned around and issued about 320,000, so we're still meeting our commitment of service, which is about a five to six week turnaround time from the time someone drops it in the mail to us until they get it back in the mail. And of course, if there are needs to expedite that process, we can.
Today about 73 million Americans have valid tourist passports. That's a tremendous audience right there, a tremendous marketing opportunity for any country to target. And of course that number is also going up by a rate of about 1 million a month. Moreover, during the last four years we have made a number of changes to our process so that we could actually accommodate this growth without essentially inconveniencing the American travelers and making them either have to wait an excessive period of time or, God forbid, not even be able to make their trip because we could not provide them a passport.
So here are some of the things we've done I'd just like to run through for you quickly. One, the State Department has hired and trained a net of about 250 more passport examiners. These are actually the people who work for the State Department who make the critical decision, is someone a U.S. citizen. Tied into that, we have also increased our contractor staff because we have abundant staff in our agencies where contractors provide support services and functions like book processing and personalization. They depend upon the State Department personnel however to make the decision as to identity and nationality.
We've also gone to 24-hour day operations in one of our facilities, our largest facility in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We're operating 20-hours-a-day right now at our second largest facility in Charleston, South Carolina, and we have also increased the size of other facilities, especially in Houston as well as New Orleans. And in fact in New Orleans what we, of course, had to deal with was not only increase the size of the facility but recover from the damages done to our staff, their housing and somewhat to the facility because of Hurricane Katrina.
We've opened a new passport agency in Denver, Colorado. We've also expanded the network of facilities through which Americans can apply for a passport. An American citizen does not have to go to our passport agency like the one over here on 19th Street to get a passport. We have over 9,000 Post Offices, clerks of courts, some libraries, some colleges and universities, for example, where people can apply for passports. That number is about double what it was four years ago.
We also, and this mimics some of the things that Bob was talking about from the CBP side, we've expanded greatly our use of our call center as well as the internet to help people facilitate their applications, and in fact, even through the internet for example, you can now track the progress of your passport application.
Also, we have a passport appointment system we use for people who need to go into our agencies so that we can focus our resources on the people who have to travel most urgently. Now you can make an appointment for those services twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
And just as CBP has done, we've worked hand in glove with the U.S. travel industry, America Society of Travel Agents, airlines, the cruise lines, what have you, to get the message out about WHTI. And we think that the numbers I talked about before about demand for passport services reflect that that message has gotten out there.
Finally, and this starts actually in April, we're opening and entirely new facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas to further increase our demand for -- our ability to meet the demand for passports by letting passports be adjudicated in one place by U.S. government personnel but actually be physically personalized in another location. That will be in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It comes online in mid-April. That will give us yet another boost in productivity.
And we did all this while also introducing the U.S. e-passport. So it was not just a question of doing one major task. We were also doing two things at the same time.
Finally, we are well on our way towards issuing a request for proposal, that is, a U.S. government tendering document for our passport card, which is seen as a means of facilitating compliance with WHTI by certain groups. It will be a portable, wallet-sized proof of identity and nationality but also offer significant potential advantages in terms of travels facilitation at the border.
So again, this has been a holistic approach to some of the problems identified by the 9/11 Commission, and we think we're well on the way to ensuring that Americans are in compliance with Phase One, and then we go on to deal with Phase Two.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
MODERATOR: State your name and organization and wait for a microphone. We'd be happy to take your question.
Yes, ma'am.
QUESTION: Beth Gorham from the Canadian Press. If I may just switch to the next deadline of January 2008 for land borders or seventeen months later, whatever it is, the Canadian government is still pushing for the working group, the U.S.-Canada Working Group to look at alternative documents to the passport and the pass card. Can you tell me what the status of that is and what the likelihood is that something other than those two things will be accepted at land borders?
MR. JACKSTA: Okay. I think the best way to answer that is that there is continuing dialogue with the Canadian government, specifically the customs and immigration side of the house to take a look at what type of documents would be the documents that we could accept at our ports of entry. Those discussions usually center around what are we going to utilize when we move forward with our plan for a document that provides security as well as the capabilities to identify an individual.
During the discussions with the Canadians, we're pretty close to being on solid ground that we need to have a document that indicates the citizenship of the person as well as the identity. The question is exactly how do we move forward with actually implementing that so that both the Canadians and the U.S. are comfortable with how that process is going to work out when we identify the citizenship of the individual.
So there is continual dialogue with the Canadians on it, and over the next couple of months we'll see more dialogue to try to resolve some of the issues that we may have. But I think it's a positive effort, and I think that down the road we'll see some good results from those discussions.
MODERATOR: Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Paul Koring.. I'm with the Globe and Mail. I want to give you a hypothetical American family going on holiday, and they're going to take a cruise to Alaska, but they got to fly to Vancouver to catch the boat because there are other American laws that don't let you take an American -- a ship between American ports. They're going to take a cruise to Alaska and fly back home to Seattle; going to drive to Vancouver, get on a boat, go to Alaska, and fly home. What documents do they need?
MR. JACKSTA: They're going to be driving across the border, of course they're not normally going to be stopped by the Customs Border Protection.
QUESTION: Excuse me. They're going to fly to Vancouver.
MR. JACKSTA: They're flying to Vancouver from the United States?
QUESTION: Fly to Vancouver from the United States, they're going to get on an American flag vessel. They're going to go to American ports in Alaska. They're going to get off in Alaska, and they're going to get on an airplane in Alaska and fly back to the United States -- excuse me, they're going to get off in Alaska and drive home.
MR. JACKSTA: They're going to drive home? Okay, so they're flying to Vancouver?
QUESTION: Flying to Vancouver --
MR. JACKSTA: Okay. I just want to make sure I'm accurate because --
QUESTION: No, because the rule is very obscure on this. They're going to --
MR. JACKSTA: A U.S. citizen?
QUESTION: A U.S. citizen is going to fly to Vancouver.
MR. JACKSTA: Okay. Let's start with that right there. They will be required to have a passport when they leave the United States.
QUESTION: Why does a U.S. citizen require a passport to leave the United States?
MR. JACKSTA: Basically it helps with identifying the individual as they leave. It ensures that when they come back into the United States that there wouldn't be any problems for them when they arrive back in.
QUESTION: Excuse me. I understand that it's practically helpful, but is there a law that requires a U.S. citizen to have a U.S. passport to leave the United States of America?
MR. JACKSTA: The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that was announced in November clearly states U.S. citizens are required to have travel documents.
QUESTION: Okay. So a U.S. citizen needs a passport to go to Canada or Mexico, but not France or Australia?
MR. JACKSTA: No, that's not true.
QUESTION: To leave the United States.
MR. JACKSTA: To leave the United States, they're required to have travel documents, yes.
QUESTION: Any of those times?
MR. JACKSTA: Yes.
QUESTION: But there's no check to have a passport to go to non-western hemisphere countries.
MR. JACKSTA: There is the responsibility under the advanced passenger information system where the carriers collect advanced information regarding the individuals entering the United States and leaving the United States. That requirement is rather -- it's been out there since April of 2005. The western hemisphere air rule, that was announced in November. Also, it requires U.S. citizens to have their travel documents when they're leaving and entering the United States.
QUESTION: If I could, follow it up for one second. You're telling me that the law now requires a U.S. citizen to have a document to leave America and it doesn't require him to come back in the scenario I gave you.
MR. JACKSTA: I don't understand what scenario you're talking about where they're not going to require --
QUESTION: If you drive back --
MR. JACKSTA: All people who are flying --
QUESTION: Well, the scenario is very simple. You fly to Vancouver. You get on a boat. You go to Alaska. You drive home. You don't need a passport to come back into America for another year, right now. So you need a passport to leave America but you don't need a passport to come back?
MR. JACKSTA: You would have to identify yourself at the port of entry, and they officers would use the documentation that's available to them to make the decision on the identity and the citizenship of the individual. The goal of the department is to move forward with a land and sea Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The goal is to shoot for January of 2008, and that's something that would address your concern in this case.
QUESTION: I don't have a concern. I want to know whether an American citizen is required to have a document to leave his country that he is not required to return to his country under the scenario I gave you.
MR. JACKSTA: You're correct, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Hi. Joy Malbon, CTV, Canadian Television. Again, will there be any kinds of an exception? And here's a scenario for you, Canadian snowbirds, they go down to Florida, they're driving down. Let's say some emergency happens in Canada, they have to fly back, they don't have a passport. Will there be some kind of exception, and how will that work?
MR. JACKSTA: One of the important things is that we do have protocols in place. First of all, I'd like to begin by encouraging everyone to have passports when they're arriving in the United States, and know that they'll be flying out after January 23rd.
We recognize that there are certain individuals that are here in the United States, may not get the message soon enough, and will be arriving at our airports, both inbound and outbound, without the proper documentation. CBP officers deal with that on a regular basis today where individuals are without proper documentation. The protocol is that the individuals will ask the traveler a number of questions, ensure that we can identify the person, know their identity as well as their citizenship, and at that point we can say, "okay, this person is okay to continue on with their travel."
We will continue to look at the snowbirds issue. It has been raised in a number of different environments. We recognize that that's going to be a concern. As I indicated in my opening remarks, w will continue to look at the data to validate whether individuals are getting into compliance with the requirement, and we'll continue to evaluate whether we need to move forward with finally saying that if you don't have your proper documentation, then we're either going to have to parole you or we'll have to waive your documents. That's a decision that's made by our CBP officers.
We do not want to harm individuals and make them -- put them in a position that they're not able to get back to their country, so that's something that our officers at the ports of entry are clearly going to be familiar with and understand that there has to be certain requirements met before they prevent someone from entering or leaving.
QUESTION: Gregario Meraz, Televisa TV, Mexico. What would have if somebody travels from U.S. to Europe -- London, Spain, whatever -- and then returns to Mexico to travel again to the United States. Do they have to present?
MR. JACKSTA: Anyone who's traveling to the United States obviously has to have the passport. If they're traveling from Europe to Mexico, then the Mexican responsibilities would kick in.
QUESTION: Yes, no. What I'm referring to is, for example, if you travel from the U.S. to any country in Europe, would you be also required the passport to come back here?
MR. JACKSTA: Yes.
QUESTION: Either through Mexico or directly?
MR. JACKSTA: I think it's perhaps easier to think about this -- basically what we're doing with WHTI is applying the longstanding principles that have governed travel to Europe, to Asia, to virtually all of South America, to travel involving Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Right now, you could not go out to Dulles Airport and fly to London without a passport. You haven't been able to do that for probably a couple generations. What we're now saying is, for the same reasons that we require a passport in that environment, we're doing the same for security and travel facilitation involving travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. So no change.
QUESTION: Let me ask you something else. With regards, with -- I've heard the American government is discussing with Canada the possibility of alternative documents. Is there any project like this with Mexico?
MR. JACKSTA: I don't know of any myself. We clearly have continual discussions with various governments regarding documents that would be required and acceptable, but I don't know of any specific discussions right now. There are current requirements in place, and they're not going to be changed.
QUESTION: Tim Harper. I'm with the Toronto Star. Mr. Moss, if I heard correctly, I think you told us there were 73 million valid U.S. passports?
MR. MOSS: That's correct, and I was hoping to have another number before this meeting was over to give you.
QUESTION: Would that be a percentage?
MR. MOSS: That would be a percentage, probably 27 or 28 percent of the U.S. citizen population right now.
QUESTION: So just to turn it around, because you know the Canadian concern is conventions for example where a large number of potential conventioneers do not have passports, so is it accurate to say that 72 percent of American travelers still don't have a passport?
MR. MOSS: That would be accurate. It's obviously -- it's a mathematical issue. Yes, but I think it's also important to say that that is looking against a base of about 275 million citizens in this country, many of whom never have any need to travel at all. And I think it's also important to note, getting back to some of the numbers that Bob was talking about, how strong the penetration already is of travelers using passports coming into compliance with WHTI.
Again, business travelers going to conventions are likely to be air travelers, and we will obviously continue to grow that number over the next years in terms of the land border crossings as well, so that eventually we get to a point more comparable or perhaps higher than the percentage you experience currently in Canada with the Canadians having passports.
QUESTION: Just to follow up, you're 90 percent compliance rate now, these are people who routinely travel between the two countries, one would assume, right? This is not somebody from the Bar Association, for example, who maybe has never been to Canada, but the Bar Association wants to hold their convention next summer in Toronto?
MR. MOSS: The 90 percent represents U.S. citizens from all Western Hemisphere Areas. That's the Caribbean, Mexican, Mexico -- from Canada. And basically we feel, based on our numbers that we initially looked at, a lot of these that currently don't have documents are people that take vacation for a week or two down to the Bahamas or to Mexico and just didn't get a passport because they realized they didn't need to have one starting on January 23rd. Most business travelers will have a passport. Most organizations that have major events are aware of the requirements and ensure people that they would have to get a passport if they were going to be flying.
QUESTION: Eric Sorensen from Global. I just want to be clear on the numbers because the news release talks about 83 percent of U.S. citizens, 94 percent of Canadians, but then you said 90 and 96. Are those -- is that just an updated number?
MR. JACKSTA: No, those are accurate numbers. I brought them in here trying to be up front and give you the most current numbers. They're for the week of January first to January seventh. So we're continually evaluating this, and we want to make sure we have the right numbers out there because it helps us determine what kind of actions we may have to take.
QUESTION: Are those numbers going up every week?
MR. JACKSTA: Yes, they have. They've gone up considerably.
QUESTION: You're saying that as early as January 1, 2008 -- is that a realistic date at this point? And I guess I'm assuming that it's not, and if it's not, does it have anything to do with Canadians kind of dragging their feet on this?
MR. JACKSTA: Well, I think first of all, no one is dragging their feet. We're all trying to work on this to try to move this forward. I think our goal is as early as January of 2008 to try to move forward with a final rule for the land and sea. That's our goal. We're shooting for that, and we'll continue to work to get to that date.
QUESTION: Hi. Sheldon Alberts with Canwest. Just for clarification on the Canadian snowbirds issue, what's the issue with them flying back after the 23rd without a passport? If this is an entry requirement, why wouldn't they just be able to get on a plane?
MR. JACKSTA: It goes back to the Advanced Passenger Information Regulation that was issued in April of 2005 that requires the carriers to collect both inbound and outbound data for people who are flying internationally. In that requirement, it specifically indicates that if a passport is required, then that information must be provided to the carrier to transmit to CBP.
So there is a requirement that the carriers, since you are required to have a passport when you arrive in the United States, the carriers are concerned that that requirement may be enforced starting on January 23rd for outbound flights. And that's something that we'll continue to work with them and look at.
QUESTION: If they've bought a one-way ticket though, they can just go home?
MR. JACKSTA: I would tell you that if they bought a one-way ticket home, they probably will get home.
QUESTION: Okay. And just to clarify, there will be some discretion on that? Is that what you're saying, around the 23rd?
MR. JACKSTA: That's correct. There's always discretion for our officers because there's always situations where our officers have to make decisions based on the facts, based on the travel -- are there any type of emergencies.
Remember, we see a lot of people already, as we mentioned, coming from Europe and other places in the world where we -- on a regular basis they arrive at our ports of entry without proper documentation, they might have lost it, they might have -- unfortunately it was destroyed in some fashion, and when they arrive at our ports of entry, our officers have that discretion to make a decision to determine whether they're actually the person who they say they are and also to determine their citizenship. So there's always that opportunity.
MR. MOSS: Let me just add one thought to that, which was I think many of you have talked to me in other circumstances. I know I was first in this room two years ago, and at that very time we talked about implementing WHTI in an intelligent and humane fashion. I don't think anything we've said in the past two years changes that in any way, shape or form. That is still our commitment.
QUESTION: Jose Carreno, El Universal of Mexico. Just wondering, do you have any idea or any estimate or guestimate, if you want to use the word, of how many travelers leave the United States by air without the proper documentation?
MR. JACKSTA: I would say that the percentage that I have seen, the most recent percentage, is that probably 98 percent of the people who are flying out of the United States have proper documentation. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will tighten that up. And I think that, looking at the numbers, that there's probably the same percentage on the outbound as we're seeing on the inbound. We still have to look at the U.S. citizens.
Remember, the U.S. citizens, if they're 90 percent, they're probably leaving the United States with 10 percent not being in compliance. So we think that that's an audience that we have to address and take a look at. But for the most part, people are in compliance because of the requirements that other governments in other countries have put into place to allow people to enter their countries. So clearly there's a lot of cooperation between governments in ensuring that there's some consistency on the type of documents that will be accepted and used by travelers.
QUESTION: Excuse me, I was just wondering because, in the case of Mexico, you have, as a matter of fact, for some time, a lot of American travelers have been able to go in with -- visually, only with a driver's license, an American driver's license to be precise, which means that a lot of the -- quite a few of the American travelers towards Mexico have been only with a very basic ID, so this will change completely?
MR. JACKSTA: That's correct. In the air environment, starting on January 23rd, individuals, U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico or any other western hemisphere country would be required to have a passport when they travel.
QUESTION: Mariana Melnyk, Canadian Broadcasting Radio. Just a question about enforcement to clarify how that protocol is going to work and the responsibility of the carrier, so a person comes up to the desk, the counter, and they're usually asked to present a passport already, if they don't have it at that point, what happens? Does it go directly to Customs or does the carrier have responsibility to deal with that at that point? How does that work?
MR. JACKSTA: The carrier will have the initial responsibility to deal with that specific situation. The carriers already have responsibility under the Immigration Nationalization Act to ensure that travelers that they allow to get on their plane and they sell a ticket to are in compliance with the country's entry requirements. So therefore when individuals present themselves at the ticket counters, the carriers look to validate that that person has the proper documentation that would admit them into the country that they're going to. That requirement is still there.
Since the requirement is going to be that individuals who are going to enter the United States by air are required to have a passport, then the carriers will be asking the individuals to identify and show their passport so they would not be in violation of any travel requirements that the carrier may have.
QUESTION: So if people have them -- or don't have them, rather, then it's up to the carrier to decline that person passage onto the aircraft?
MR. JACKSTA: It's the decision of the airline to make a decision on whether that person would be admissible into the country that they're arriving at. That's the current process today.
QUESTION: And that means that if you get on a plane, if the carrier allows you to get on without a passport, but you get to the Customs desk, then the Customs person can stop you, or -- I mean does the carrier's decision have any bearing on the Custom's person's actions?
MR. JACKSTA: The final decision on whether the documents are acceptable and valid is the Customs CBP officer's responsibility. So let's go through the scenario of the carrier allows the person -- they believe that the person has the proper documentation, a valid document. If the officer looks at it at the time of the inspection and determines that the person does not have that proper documentation, the officer can do a number of -- take a number of actions. He could or she could actually review the documentation, do further questioning, ask for further identification. And if the officer doesn't feel confident that the person has the proper documentation, he can actually just deny the person the capabilities to fly to the United States in pre-clearance locations.
QUESTION: Paul Koring with the Globe and Mail. I have a question about the Advanced Passenger Notification System. I understand how it works for inbound flights. Do I now -- is it correct that after the 23rd of January outbound passengers on aircraft leaving the United States, that the same sort of record keeping will be maintained and transmitted by the airlines to the U.S. government to keep track of outbound passengers?
MR. JACKSTA: Just a clarification, that is the requirements that were issued in April of 2005 dealing with advanced passenger information. That regulation requires the information for both inbound and outbound air passengers and vessel passengers to -- the carriers are responsible to provide the information on those travelers before they leave.
QUESTION: And an outbound passenger flying to Canada after January 23rd, the box for the passport number needs to be filled in?
MR. JACKSTA: That's correct.
QUESTION: So that isn't a change to the April 2005 regulation, that's a requirement that the 2005 April regulation now be applied to a new class of passengers, meaning outbound to Canada, is that correct?
MR. JACKSTA: No. Once again, the requirements are in 2005 that both inbound and outbound requirement for information is provided to the carrier, then to CBP through the Advanced Passenger Information System.
QUESTION: But you didn't have to do it last week.
MR. JACKSTA: Yes, we did.
QUESTION: No. To fly outbound from America to Canada, that information wasn't required under the law last week, was it?
MR. JACKSTA: Yes, it was. It's required today. It's been required since April of 2005. Are you asking a question about the passport number being required before?
QUESTION: Uh-uh.
MR. JACKSTA: Obviously before January 23, 2007, there was not a requirement to have a passport number because you didn't have to have a passport if you were traveling in the western hemisphere.
MR. MOSS: Well, let me just add a thought, if I could. I fly back and forth to Canada probably three, four, five times a year. And for at least the last four years, every time I've gone out to get on a plane to go to Canada, I've been required to present my passport, and that's been sort of the status quo.
QUESTION: There's no question about the status quo. I'm trying to figure out the letter of the law, and it seems to me that there's now a law that requires departing passengers from the United States to Canada -- there's a U.S. law that requires those departing passengers to have a passport even for that subset of that group such as Canadian citizens that don't need that passport to get to Canada?
MR. JACKSTA: If you're asking that question, yes. I can't speak for what the Canadians require. I can tell you what the requirement is under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and Advanced Passenger Information System.
MODERATOR: One last question here.
QUESTION: You talked a little bit about this, but I wonder if maybe you could expand on it. Clearly some people are going to get stuck in this system. Clearly there's going to be people that don't have the passport that they require. You said that the bottom line is that -- the bottom line decision is up to Customs agents, but do you envision a scenario where people might actually get stuck somewhere in Florida for two months while they're waiting for their passport?
I mean what -- and you must kind of have some sort of handle on how big a problem this could be.
MR. JACKSTA: Well, I guess you're asking me a question -- the issue, will individuals possibly approach to try to get into the United States or leave the United States and not have proper documentation. There's always that situation that people might not have proper documentation. We see it on a regular basis, as I indicated.
At our locations, we have people arrive on a daily basis that may have expired documents, they may have documents that you can't read. Our officers are trained to take a look at the documents, to question the individual. There is the capability to use our automated systems to determine whether you can find out something about the individual that would help us determine if they are a citizen.
So we're continuing to evaluate those situations. The goal is not to prevent individuals that are here lawfully from getting back to their locations, to their homes, if it's a foreign location. The goal is not to prevent individuals, U.S. citizens who are arriving at our ports of entry from being admitted into the United States. We have protocols in place.
Will there be certain cases where individuals might get delayed a little bit longer than they normally would? Yes. But our goal is that we want to make every effort to have the proper procedures out there so our -- so individuals who arrive at the ports of entry can enter the United States without any problems, and we're continuing to work with various organizations to get that message out, working with the Department of State for individuals who lose their passport. So there's a lot of effort there to address the lawful permanent traveler who unfortunately does not have all the proper documentation initially.
MODERATOR: Yes, Tim. You have one more.
QUESTION: Yes, I just wanted to clarify one quick thing if I could. If I went up to the airport this afternoon to fly to Toronto and my return flight was January 24th, would I be allowed on the -- I'd be allowed on the plane, presumably, or would I?
MR. MOSS*: Today? There's no reason why you wouldn't get on the plane. And even up until January 23rd, yes, you're going to be able to get on a plane, and you'll probably be able to get on a plane when you leave the United States after January 23rd. The issue it comes down to is that when you're arriving back into the United States, if you don't have that proper documentation, we're going to question you and determine whether you're admissible or not.
QUESTION: And it doesn't -- I'd be traveling on a Canadian passport. If I had a U.S. passport, I'd still be allowed on that plane?
MR. MOSS*: If you had a U.S. passport and you're --
QUESTION: I'm sorry, not carrying a passport, whether I'm Canadian or American, it doesn't make any difference? I'd be allowed on that flight, but I would have to have a passport to get back in?
MR. MOSS*: That's correct.
QUESTION: But there's nothing to stop anybody from flying out now if their return is after the 23rd?
MR. MOSS*: That's correct.
QUESTION: I think I understand the whole thing, but I just want to clarify, to be precise. For instance, in the case of Canada, Dominican Republic and Caribbean Islands, and I understand that there was a project to do that in Cancun, there are American outposts of Immigration and Customs. Will they be under the -- set to the same type of requirements, number one? And number two, let's say there is an American citizen, border citizen that decides for whatever reason on weekend wish to go to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and while he is there, there is a permanent home in California or in Texas, wherever it is, and needs to get a plane in order to get home, he will still need a passport or there will be some sort of relax the rule for him?
MR. JACKSTA: I must ask you to repeat the second question because you were moving the microphone.
QUESTION: Yes. If, let's say an American citizen on the border with Mexico decides on a whim to go to San Miguel de Allende -- there is about a million Americans living around there -- and he goes by land, so he arrives to San Miguel de Allende, but there is a problem at home, a sudden problem, he need to go back by air. What is the rule there? He does not have a passport, he is not carrying a passport with him.
MR. JACKSTA: Two issues. First of all, that individual would be someone that, when they arrive out our ports of entry, the carrier would make the decision that, okay, there's a legitimate reason for that person to travel. When they arrive at our ports of entry, our officers would ask them for identification, to identify what their citizenship is and their identity. Based on that discussion and a further review, they would make a decision of whether the person should be admissible.
If it's a U.S. citizen, we're going to admit them. There's a process that takes place. Because now we don't have all that information, it might take a little bit longer for that person to get through the process, but the goal -- we're not going to prevent U.S. citizens from arriving in the United States.
On the other side of the house, you mentioned the issue of pre-clearance locations or pre-inspection. We have a number of locations overseas, Canada has a number of them across the northern tier at the major airports, where we have officers assigned to those locations to actually what we call ‘pre-clear' someone into the United States. Those officers are going to use the same discretion that is currently the discretion they would have in the United States. We're providing guidance to them on exactly what type of documents they should be looking at and what the requirements are. They also have the discretion on making the decision on whether someone should be admitted or not based on the facts at that time.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
