'Travel Documents' Requirement For U.S. Citizens Begins

follow up on North America Integration Stepping Up 1-17-08 "In June 2009, the initiative will begin requiring U.S. citizens to have a proof-of-citizenship document, passport or some other federally approved identification for getting into the country through land or sea ports, said Kathy Kraninger, the Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for policy." (see post, follow links)

***

Well, it's June 2009 and...

Today we’re all prisoners in the USA papersplease.org

"This is the final stage, effective June 1, 2009, of implementation of the so-called “Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative” (WHTI). The latest amendments to the regulations remove the last of the formner [sic] general exceptions, for land travel between the USA, Canada, and Mexico, to the general rule requiring passports in the (unconsitutional but as yet untested) Federal statute at 8 U.S.C. 1185(b):

1185. Travel control of citizens and aliens

(b) Citizens

Except as otherwise provided by the President and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President may authorize and prescribe, it shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport."

As of today, June 1, 2009, even U.S. citizens are officially prisoners in the USA, or exiles barred from entering our own country without the government’s permission.

We are now forbidden by Federal regulations from leaving or entering the USA, anywhere, by any means — by air, by sea, or by land, to or from any other country or international waters or airspace — unless the government chooses to issue us a passport, passport card, or “enhanced” drivers license (any of which “travel documents” are now issued only with secretly and remotely-readable uniquely-numbered radio tracking beacons in the form of RFID transponder chips), or unless the Department of Homeland Security chooses to to exercise its standardless “discretion” to decide — in secret, with no way for us to know who is making the decision or on what basis — to issue a (one-time case-by-case) “waiver” of the new travel document requirements.

Previous court decisions upholding government discretion in whether or not to issue passoports [sic] has been premised on the assumption that passports were useful to facitlitate [sic] travel, but were not required for travel or for the exercise of any other rights. Those decisions will, obviously, need to be revisited in light of the fact that government-issued documents are now explicitly required as a condition of the exercise of those aspects of the right to travel — the right of anyone to leave the U.S., and the right of U.S. citizens to return to our own country — that are most explicitly guaranteed by international treaties to which the U.S. is a part, and which under the U.S. Constitution are “the supreme law of the land”. The DHS is cleverly saying that at first they will only issue warnings and waivers, in most cases, to U.S. citizens seeking to enter or leave the U.S. without the newly-required travel documents. Presumably, they hope that the new ID and permission-based travel control regime will become a well-established fait accompli before anyone is able to bring a court challenge of a DHS decision to bar someone from leaving the U.S., or barring a U.S. citizen from entering the country.
***
compare: NWO-NAU Population Management Phasing In 1-6-09 "The passport card is the size of a credit card or driver's license, and has a photo and identification information printed on it, like a driver's license. It also contains a chip with a unique number that allows border officials to instantly retrieve your data from a government database

and: The beaker's starting to boil, froggies 4-14-08 "The Homeland Security Department today published notice it will begin testing an International Registered Traveler program"
-------------------------------------------------
re: "we are forbidden....unless the government chooses"

Just a reminder...'permission to travel' out of or into the USA for American citizens has now officially begun, complete with trackable rfid "transponder chips". Note that this is only just the beginning. Much more to come, you can be sure. Big Brother's brave new world is here. Things are moving quickly...fyi