The Homeland Security Department is vigorously fighting a move by Congress to delay a requirement that U.S. citizens show a passport to re-enter the country by land or sea from Mexico, Canada, Bermuda or the Caribbean, saying it puts the nation's borders at risk.A growing number of Republicans and Democrats in Congress say they are determined to delay the new anti-terrorism passports rules to prevent a huge backlog at State Department passport processing centers across the country.
Security leaders say Congress is "tempting fate" by seeking the delay and are dead set against it, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. "That is just simply not acceptable to us.
"There are very bad people in this world who want to find ways to get into our country and kill Americans, and it seems to me that equipping frontline personnel with every tool and authority we can … would be something that any officials at any level of government or in any party would want to do," Knocke said.
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