Two More Years of Suspicious Border Crossing Agents

Thanks to Homeland Security, I figured I'd never see the beauty of Canada again (seriously, Banff is nice). Because it irks me to no end to have to pay $97 (and the costs of wresting a certified birth certificate out of my birth state, which has been excessively difficult for my parents to obtain their own) and submit all kinds of proof of my citizenship for the privilege of getting back into my own damn country.

Back in the good old days, I could just answer some surly border patrol agent's questions about my birthplace and be on my merry way after he or she decided I probably wasn't smuggling drugs or weapons or illegal Canadian immigrants. On December 31, that God-given American right was supposed to evaporate.

But. Thanks to American bureaucracy at its finest, they won't be ready to implement the passport-only travel restrictions (via land crossings) until December 31, 2007. Ha, ha! International Falls, see you again in the summer.

(Don't think I'm anti-security of the borders. Just think I'm hypocritically anti-security of the borders when I'm the one crossing them. Plus my great-grandmother was here illegally from Canada for forty years, and she never hurt anyone. So clearly it is perfectly safe to let people wander in and out at will. Yes, I am kidding. And yes, I should probably leave that story about Great-Grandma out when dealing with the Border Patrol.)

Posted by Jenelle at December 10, 2005 12:41 AM | TrackBack