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Chertoff: Security Requires Sacrifice
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
September 6, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff says public
opposition to a host of new border security
programs stalls government efforts to tighten
security.
Such opposition ranges from
Texas ranchers who don't want border fences
built on their property to northern
border-state residents who don't want to get
passports to cross back-and-forth between
Canada and the USA.
Chertoff says he is
frustrated by the growing number of "people who
say, 'Yes, protect us, but not if it
inconveniences me.'"
In an interview
shortly before the sixth anniversary of the
9/11 terrorist attacks, Chertoff said he
considers it one of his "biggest obligations"
in his remaining 16 months in office to
eliminate the "not-in-my-backyard attitude"
when it comes to relatively small costs and
inconveniences.
He says he will launch a
campaign to spread a message of shared
sacrifice "in as plain English as I can, as
often as I can and in as many places as I can"
from now to January 2009, when his tenure will
end with a new presidency.
Among the
programs that have faced
opposition:
*Real ID, a federal law that
requires states to adopt stricter policies for
giving out driver's licenses.
States
produce hundreds of different types of
licenses, making it difficult for border agents
to determine whether one is a fake. The 9/11
Commission investigating the 2001 terrorist
attacks recommended more secure licenses after
revealing that the Sept. 11 hijackers got 34
licenses and government ID cards.
In
2005, Congress passed a law requiring people to
present documentation in person to show they
are in the country legally before they can get
a license.
At least a half-dozen states
have balked at complying with the law, citing
the cost of putting new standards in
place.
Organizations such as the
American Civil Liberties Union oppose Real ID
over concerns that it could be used and abused
by the government to track people.
*New
rules requiring the Social Security
Administration to send letters to employers
with Homeland Security warnings that they will
face criminal penalties if they knowingly hire
illegal immigrants.
Tuesday, a federal
judge in San Francisco temporarily halted the
program. The judge stopped the government from
sending letters that warn employers about
problems with workers' documents, in response
to a lawsuit from the AFL-CIO, which claims the
letters would violate workers'
rights.
"Even if we prevail, as I
believe we will, that will slow us up 30 days,
60 days," Chertoff said. "And each of those
delays is costly."
*A plan to build
roughly 300 miles of fence -- with concrete and
steel walls -- along Texas' border with Mexico.
Ranch owners and environmentalists have opposed
the plan.
*A requirement that U.S.
citizens show passports to come back into the
country from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The rule is in effect for air travel and set to
take effect Sept. 30 for land and sea
crossings.
Opponents succeeded last
winter in getting the rule relaxed for children
15 or younger who have parental permission and
a birth certificate.
The Buffalo Niagara
Partnership continues to push for a delay in
implementing the law to give citizens more time
to comply.
"Implementing (the law) right
is better than implementing it quickly,"
President Andrew Rudnick wrote to members of
the partnership last month.
Tim Roemer,
a member of the 9/11 Commission, said President
Bush should help Chertoff better inform the
public about new security programs designed to
keep terrorists out of the country.
"The
average citizen needs to know more about what
to do to stop these people," Roemer
said.
Chertoff says he worries that the
public is suffering "fatigue" after six years
of counterterrorism efforts abroad and at
home.
On border security in particular,
he says, he is determined to make "very clear
the consequence of dropping our guard."
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