New Identification Cards to Cost Port Workers Up to $137

By Kristopher Hanson, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Calif.

Mar. 21–New federal worker identification cards will cost port workers between $105 and $137, with enrollment set to begin Monday at one East Coast port.

The Transportation Worker Identification Card, or TWIC, will eventually be required for all workers with “unescorted access to secure areas of the port,” including longshoremen, mariners and security personnel, a Transportation Security Administration official said Tuesday.

The new card doesn’t necessarily apply to the thousands of mostly immigrant truck drivers serving the Long Beach-Los Angeles port complex. Those drivers frequently enter port terminals, but often don’t have unrestricted access to secure areas as defined in TWIC regulations, said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.

Enrollment begins Monday at the Wilmington, Del., seaport, with no firm date set for workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, Melendez said.

Regulators, however, have said they want all port workers to be enrolled no later than Sept. 25, 2008.

To obtain the card, workers must clear an extensive federal background check, which disqualifies those with certain serious felony convictions and those posing a “terrorism security risk to the United States,” according to the document’s wording.

While the background check includes review of an applicant’s immigration status, it doesn’t preclude noncitizens who are gainfully employed and have no criminal history.

Card costs, which pay for the background check, card production and issuance, will be $137 for most workers and are good for five years.

Workers with a hazardous materials endorsement on a commercial driver’s license, merchant mariner document, Free and Secure Trade (FAST) credential and similar clearances will pay a discounted fee of $105.

A pilot ID program conducted at Long Beach Container Terminal in 2004-2005 helped shape the new national program by testing biometric cards, which included fingerprints, eye scans and hand geometry.

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