Passports: Access To The United States

Passports Passports have been utilized to move throughout different countries for centuries. In 1918, Congress adopted the Passport Control Act to help and provide security to the United States. The Passport Control Act states that no one should leave or enter the United States without a passport or a permit from the Department of State or receiving authorization by an American consul (Szajkoski, ). The passport is said to have “derived from a medieval document required to pass through the gate of a city wall” (Alton & Struble,). According to Alton and Struble (), a passport allows a person to enter or leave a country. Additionally, passports were utilized by soldiers of war utilized to depart from their service, and the passport was a

The passport is the main document which a person is identified, the passport uniquely identifies each individual, indicates his or her point of origin, and the state to which he or she lives. Passports include a person’s biometric information, his or her name, nationality, date of birth, place of birth, signature, security features; it has space for visas, and permits (Salter, 2004). According to Salter (2004), “the passport’s primary function is to denote a person’s identity and citizenship and provides an assurance for the State of transit or destination that the bearer can return to the State which issued the passport.” A person’s passport does not promise them citizenship of any country, but a passport does describe the citizenship status of a citizen, or if they are an employee of the government on business or a

The first weakness that can be seen is the passport might only recognize the individual according to additional documents and those documents could be forged. Next, the passport never guarantees the intentions of the person. Without knowing, a person’s purpose when traveling abroad could create a security risk. Whether that person is traveling for business or pleasure, it should be known for the security and safety of the specific state or country. Lastly, the global mobility rule is not uniform. Every state or country has different foreign policies and technological capabilities. Not every state or country has the same technology advances; therefore, it makes it difficult to create a uniform policy among other states and countries. Additionally, not many states or countries can agree upon the same foreign policy, therefore agreeing upon the same rules and regulations for passport security is difficult. (Salter,