"It's going to cause absolute chaos" if the rules are implemented as currently planned at the beginning of next year, Steven Nesmith, a former U.S. Commerce Department official now working as a lobbyist on the issue, told United Press International.

"It's a train wreck," he said, adding local business and community leaders on both sides of the border feared the impact of the new rules, and believed there was not enough time to adjust. "(January) 2008 is already upon us."

Nesmith is echoing widely shared fears. Earlier this year, three prime ministers of Canada's border provinces came to Washington to talk to fellow lawmakers about their worries over the proposed changes and the impact on communities and businesses that sprawl across a frontier that currently seems more notional than most international boundaries.

"We are concerned about anything that thickens the border," said Bernard Etzinger, spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington.

For residents of the northern border states like Maine "quick and easy border crossing is essential," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a statement. "They need access to vital services, (to) travel to their jobs, attend church and visit family and friends."

Collins this week introduced a bill deferring implementation of the new rules at land borders until a pilot program has been completed.

The rules have been issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the congressionally mandated Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative -- an effort by lawmakers to plug a gap the Sept. 11 commission found on the busy U.S.-Canada border, where many citizens of both countries currently cross easily in either direction with little more than a driver's license by way of ID.

Although none of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers crossed from Canada, the commission identified the relatively lax ID regime as a major vulnerability in the U.S. border and immigration regime, and Congress mandated the introduction of a requirement that both U.S. residents and Canadians show a secure document confirming both identity and citizenship.

Homeland Security officials remain publicly committed to their January deadline. "Congress has mandated this, and we're going to do it," department Spokesman Russ Knocke told UPI, saying it was "part of our commitment to reduce vulnerabilities at the border."

But the legislation gives the department until July 2009 to put the regulations into place, and many northern lawmakers believe officials are moving too fast.

The problem is that, at the moment, the only documents that actually exist that fulfill the law's requirements are passports. Critics are alarmed by the tight deadlines the Department of Homeland Security has imposed, and by the dearth of so-called alternative documents -- some document more common than a passport that meets the legal requirements.

Officials have countered by touting a new credit-card sized U.S. passport document, known as the PASS Card, and the pilot project -- a joint venture by the department and Washington State that will enable new driver's licenses to confirm citizenship.

But the pilot does not come on-stream until January and one U.S. official told UPI that the PASS Card would not be available until next spring.

A State Department spokesman declined comment on the timeline for the cards.

"No one in Washington believes they will meet that (January 2008) deadline," said Tim Sparapani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

And others remain concerned about the economic impact. "Who's going to pay for it?" asked Nesmith.

He said that in addition to the costs to individuals for new documents (the PASS Card is slated to cost $55) the economic impact of any friction at the border would largely be borne by border communities themselves.

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