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- GRAPEVINE, Page 43Welcome to Americaland
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- By RICHARD ZOGLIN/Reported by David E. Thigpen
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- America may be the land of the free, but getting into the
- country by land will not be a free ride much longer. Congress
- has given the Justice Department the right to start collecting
- tolls from automobiles entering the U.S. at various border
- checkpoints. An initial test will take place in March in Blaine,
- Wash.: for a one-time $25 fee, drivers will be allowed unlimited
- crossings in a special "express lane." Tolls of $2 a crossing
- will be tested later. Officials claim the tolls are needed to
- pay for more border agents and to improve facilities at the
- crowded checkpoints. Opponents have complained that poor day
- laborers will be hardest hit by the charges and that instituting
- them is tantamount to "treating the U.S. like a national park."
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