HJR 48: Relating to the free flow of people and the fair trade of goods and services across the border between the United States and Canada.
00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 48 01 Relating to the free flow of people and the fair trade of goods and services 02 across the border between the United States and Canada. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS, in 1997, the International Committee and Governing Board of the Council 05 of State Governments adopted a resolution urging the United States Congress to amend the 06 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to exempt Canadians 07 from coverage under sec. 110 of that Act; and 08 WHEREAS the United States and Canada share the longest undefended border in the 09 world; and 10 WHEREAS the United States and Canada have the largest bilateral trade relationship 11 in the world, exceeding $1,000,000,000 every day and supporting more than 2,000,000 jobs; 12 and 13 WHEREAS sec. 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility 14 Act of 1996 requires the United States Attorney General to develop an automated entry and
01 exit control system to record the entry into and departure from the United States of all 02 "aliens"; and 03 WHEREAS sec. 110 of the Act uses the word "alien" without any qualification and 04 will apply to millions of Canadian citizens who enter the United States every year and have 05 traditionally enjoyed the longstanding reciprocal privilege of summary inspection; and 06 WHEREAS implementation of this control system has been delayed, but will go into 07 effect on March 31, 2001, imposing an unmanageable requirement on border crossing services 08 and resulting in gridlock at crucial border crossings between the United States and Canada; 09 and 10 WHEREAS the United States and Canada continue to pursue joint policies to facilitate 11 the movement of people and the fair trade of goods and services across the border, including 12 the 1995 Shared Border Accord and the Open Skies Agreement; and 13 WHEREAS, on October 8, 1999, the President of the United States and the Prime 14 Minister of Canada agreed to create the Canada-U.S. Partnership Forum (CUSP) intended to 15 help streamline border policies and management and increase efficiencies in customs, 16 immigration, and law enforcement; 17 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature calls on the United States 18 Congress to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 19 to exempt Canadian citizens from the requirements of sec. 110 of that Act; and be it 20 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the United States 21 Congress to provide additional resources to adequately facilitate the free flow of people and 22 the fair trade of goods and services across the border between the United States and Canada; 23 and be it 24 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the 25 President of the United States to make this issue an administrative priority and to urge the 26 United States Congress to exempt Canadian citizens from sec. 110 of the Illegal Immigration 27 Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996; and be it 28 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature encourages all state 29 legislatures to pass resolutions urging the President of the United States, the leadership of the 30 United States Congress, and the state's congressional members to exempt Canadian citizens 31 from sec. 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
01 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the 02 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President 03 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Trent Lott, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the 04 Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; to the Honorable 05 Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don 06 Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and to the 07 legislatures of each of the states.