Senate President outraged by changes in passport policy New rules impose extreme hardship on those seeking expedited passports ST. THOMAS, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS –Senate President Shawn-Michael Malone has written the U.S. State Department in protest over new policies that require U.S. Virgin Islanders to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico if they need an expedited passport. “This is another example of Virgin Islanders being treated as less than equally American by the federal government,” Senator Malone said. “People usually need an expedited passport in the case of an emergency such as a death in the family and now you are compounding the hardship on families during a most difficult time and adding hundreds of dollars to the already exorbitant expense of getting a rushed passport.” Senator Malone said that, costs aside, that those most in need of an emergency passport are unlikely to have the additional time to travel to San Juan to apply. “While I understand there are security concerns in play there is no reason why we can’t find a better way to handle this,” Senator Malone said. “At the very least we must ask that all expediting fees be waived until such time as they can return this service to the Virgin Islands.” The Senate President said that if the matter is not addressed promptly he would call for a Senate resolution protesting the State Department’s decision to force Virgin Islanders to fly to Puerto Rico to apply for emergency passports. “I do not think they would ask anyone to fly from state to state get a passport - this change in policy is simply outrageous and highly discriminatory to us as Virgin Islanders,” Senator Malone concluded.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:17:41 +0000
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