U.S. CITIZENS SOON WILL NEED PASSPORTS TO RETURN HOME.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

Get your passport in order - you soon may not be able to get home from Mexico, Canada or elsewhere in the region without it.

In announcing proposed new travel rules Tuesday, the State Department said a landmark anti-terrorism law passed by Congress last year mandated requiring passports or other secure identification for both Americans and foreigners entering the United States.

The passport requirement, to be implemented in phases through the end of 2007, would make it costlier (only 20 percent of Americans now have passports) and slower (long delays at borders are common already) even for one-day shopping trips to Tijuana or other travel.

``There's a very strong awareness that these are tremendous commercial borders and that you don't want to hinder the commercial activity,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. ``But at the same time, you've got to have some controls that help you prevent people who are trying to come in and hurt us.''

She added: ``It's part of the recognition that in 2001, when Sept. 11 happened - and frankly before that, when you think about the millennium plot in 1999 - these were borders that I think no one could call secure.''

For years Americans, and citizens of some countries including Canada, have not been required to carry passports to enter the United States, though border officials recommend carrying a U.S. birth certificate.

``What will they do next? Put a microchip in your head?'' asked Steve Tapia, a Los Angeles teacher headed for a day trip to Tijuana.

Unless the policy is changed, the new passport requirements will be rolled out in phases:

--Starting next January, Americans will need passports to travel to or from the Caribbean, Bermuda and Central and South America.

--In 2007, Americans flying or traveling by boat - including cruise ships - to and from Mexico or Canada will need passports.

--In 2008, Americans will need passports to drive or walk into or back from Canada or Mexico.

Getting a passport requires visiting a post office or other passport office with two photos, a certified birth certificate, a driver's license or other identification, and paying $97 in fees - $82 for children under age 16 - then waiting six to eight weeks.

Aware of the impending new travel rules and increasing travel in general by Americans, the U.S. Postal Service has been adding passport services at more locations, spokesman Rich Maher said.

There are now 20 in and around the San Fernando Valley region.

``I'm sure a lot of people traveling to Mexico with just a birth certificate will be getting a passport,'' Maher said.

The task facing border officials is also great: 91 private million vehicles last year drove across the U.S. border from Mexico, and 30 million crossed in from Canada.

At all border crossings, ports and airports, some 428 million people came into the United States last year. That doesn't include the nearly 1.1 million illegal immigrants who were arrested and deported.

The San Diego-based organization Crossborder Business Associates says the two San Diego-area entry points are as busy as Los Angeles International Airport: 56.6 million people crossed the border there in 2002, compared with 56.2 million who flew that year in and out of LAX.

The wait to cross was about 20 minutes at midafternoon Wednesday at the San Ysidro crossing near San Diego, though at times it can take hours.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection - the agency which in 2003 incorporated the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol - said he expects little impact from requiring border crossers to show passports.

``I don't anticipate any extra workload,'' said Barry Morrissey, a spokesman in the agency's Washington office. ``If you consider what we do right now, we already inspect identification. It's just going to be a different document.''

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com