Ted Poe: “this amendment provides a universal document. Every country in the world requires passports to enter their nation. A…”

“this amendment provides a universal document. Every country in the world requires passports to enter their nation. A passport is a secure document. Why are we trying to invent another type of identification, or multiple types of identification, so that we can have people from Canada and Mexico come up with those documents to enter the United States? That is part of the problem we have now. There is no identification. There is some identification like baptismal certificates or marriage licenses to prove identity. Use the universal document like a passport. Then we can record who comes into the United States and who leaves the United States. We don't even do that now. With a universal passport that everybody has, provided by their government, it will streamline the process. It will make it quicker and easier for Canadians to come into the United States, for Americans to travel back and forth across our common borders. I urge adoption of this amendment, this commonsense amendment to require a passport to enter the United States.”