Letter: Passports won’t stem illegal flow

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

I see that the departments of State and Homeland Security, under the Bush administration, are going to require that Americans who travel to Canada and to Mexico possess a passport, which costs $97 to purchase and must be renewed, to return home to their own country!

If you cross the bridge or tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, to purchase prescriptions that the pharmaceutical industry has priced out of the reach of millions of decent, hard-working, honest Americans, you'll need a passport to return home. If you cross the border into Tijuana for lunch, same deal.

The rationale is that 9/11 made this infringement upon our right to travel necessary. None of us will ever forget that day, and the ongoing effect that it has had upon our lives. Still, one wonders how many of the thousands of people who pour into our country illegally every day, some of whom just might be terrorists, will be carrying passports. It appears that, once again, the rights of the majority are being abridged because of the potential actions of a tiny minority of miscreants from whom our government cannot, or will not, protect us.

J. JEFFREY TATE