By Matthew Bisanz

So who’s planning on taking a plane to Acapulco for Spring Break this year? Well if you do, you’ll need a passport to get back in the U.S. of A. But, you say, I went last year and all I needed was my driver’s license. Ah, but as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, all people entering the US, including US citizens going to neighboring countries for vacation, are required to present a passport at the airport. And as of January 1, 2008, all people entering the US at any point, airport, seaport, or the border, will be required to present a passport. Given that only about a quarter of Americans have passports and given the incredible amount of travel Americans do, this is a major issue.

See, as much as college students like how easy it is to buy fake driver’s licenses to get into those oh so trendy bars, it’s just as easy for terrorists to get licenses that list their home address as Peoria Illinois instead of Grozny, Chechnya. And given that there are 50 states, it nearly impossible for a border patrol officer to know all the security features on each state’s license. Therefore, Congress decided we needed to standardize the forms of ID that would get you into the country in order to prevent terrorists from taking advantage of our federal political structure.

Now the obvious problem is that Americans are lazy. It’s annoying enough to fill out our driver’s license renewal every decade or so, and now we also have to actually schlep down to an authorized processing center, produce documents dating back to our birth and wait three to four months to get our passport. And then there’s the $97 application fee, and the photo sitting, and the question of “where do I shove a passport in my wallet?”. Even though this national ID would be a great step in reducing terrorism, Americans feel that it’s a bit too much of an infringement on their oh so busy lives.

Consider though how much time we spend doing other things. The hours spent at movie theaters, the time devoted to mastering the art of throwing a ping-pong ball at a red cup, and of course, the inordinate amount of time spent in ceaseless studying. Any of those activities could be reduced by an hour or so a decade to fill out a simple passport form. And remember, when you lose your driver’s license to a pickpocket on the subway, you’ll now have a form of ID that satisfies all six points required by the DMV to get a new license.

Of course, this new system will do nothing to stop the millions of illegal immigrants who enter the US each year either by swimming the Rio Grande or snow-mobile-ing through the Canadian wilderness. Then there are the thousands of Cuban’s who swim to Miami, and the Chinese and Filipinos who stow away on cargo ships. Nevertheless, considering the cost of stopping all those people and the cost of scaring off terrorists with the new passport requirements, it seems to make sense. Yes it will be annoying when you’re stuck in Vera Cruz for two weeks waiting for an emergency passport to arrive, you can at least take solace that America is a little bit safer because you’re not in it.

Matt Bisanz is a senior political science student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].