Border Posts Ready With Crossing Scanners

(The Canadian Press)

The scanners and the new computer systems are in place at Vermont’s largest border crossing with Quebec and people in both the United States and Canada are starting to get identification cards that makes it easier for them to cross the border.

There are still a few loose ends, but officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they will be ready on June 1, the day the United States fully implements the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

And people in both countries know the pre-9/11 days are gone when they could simply tell a border agent who they were and go from one country to another. Most people crossing the border now already have all the required documents, officials said.

The travel initiative requires everyone entering the U.S. to have specialized documents, like passports or special driver’s licenses, that prove who they are and where they’re from. Read more here.

Related: U.S. beefs up security along Canadian border (LAT)