Posted on 05/31/2006 4:13:54 PM PDT by Pyro7480
US tightens security on New England-Canada border
By Jason Szep
DERBY LINE, Vermont (Reuters) - The United States has tightened security with Canada in its northeast corner to the dismay of businesses and residents accustomed to crossing the world's longest undefended border with little more than a wave of a hand or a flash of a driver's license.
Since last week, most travelers from Canada are being required to show identification and submit to background checks at U.S. border posts in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, said Ted Woo, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Boston.
"It's such a shock to all of us here," said Florence Joyal, 68, who works the cash register in a general store in the Vermont village of Derby Line, whose Main Street leads straight into the Canadian province of Quebec.
"Before, you didn't even show your ID to cross the border."
Porous in vast stretches and often invisible, America's 5,500-mile (8,900-km) border with Canada is drawing closer scrutiny after President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed in March to work together on border security.
The tougher screening was confined to New England and did not represent new U.S. policy, said Woo.
"In the past, if an individual came across the border their IDs would be checked. But there wouldn't be a cross-referencing of 100 percent of those people into our databases," said Woo, whose Boston office oversees about 40 border checkpoints in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.
"We're trying to increase border security," he said.
While Washington focuses on illegal immigration on the volatile U.S. southern border, a sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnel discovered last year between Vancouver and Seattle and the 1999 arrest of the "millennium bomber" on Canada's western border highlight concerns about the northern boundary.
The tougher scrutiny of travelers slowed border traffic to a crawl on Canada's May 22 Victoria Day holiday, frustrating not only Canadians but also U.S. businesses near the border which had expected Canadians to crowd into stores armed with a currency at its strongest level against the dollar since 1978.
Some angry business owners telephoned their state senator or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to complain after the delays hurt sales, said Dennis Michaud, executive director of the Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce in Maine.
Since then, the checks have been streamlined so people who cross the border multiple times in a day undergo only one background check to reduce congestion, Woo said. He said the checks would continue but the delays would be reduced.
CARS TURNING BACK
"We did notice vehicles turning around at the border crossing because it was just too long of a wait," said Michaud. "But they seem to have come back when the line was shorter ... we have seen the lines ease up in the past few days," he added.
The tougher security comes amid growing opposition to U.S. rules that would require passports or sophisticated ID cards to enter the United States from Canada from January 1, 2008.
Five Canadian provinces and the six New England states agreed this month to work together to postpone the legislation, which Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) has called a "train wreck on the horizon for the northern border."
Some fear the rules could drive a wedge between border communities that are culturally and economically entwined, and strain the world's biggest trading relationship by slowing the $1.2 billion in trade flowing each day across the border.
"I worry that it will greatly reduce the number of Canadians who come to the United States," said Roland Roy, 60, who owns Brown's Drug Store in Derby Line, a town of 796 people whose library straddles the border with parking for Canadians on one side and Americans on the other.
"After September 11, many people were fearful of crossing the border and then you add this to it and that fear is multiplied," he said. "When I grew up, Customs basically didn't exist. You just crossed. It's getting stricter and stricter."
More than 300,000 people travel between the United States and Canada each day. Only about 20 percent of U.S. citizens and 40 percent of Canadians hold passports, which cost nearly $100. The U.S.-proposed PASS cards would cost about half that price.
Our government at work. Bending over dollars to pick up pennys.
No sh*t.
Note to Govt. Mexico is on the SOUTHERN border.
> The tougher security comes amid growing opposition to U.S.
> rules that would require passports or sophisticated ID cards
> to enter the United States from Canada from January 1, 2008.
No sweat. Just go to the head of the line and tell them you're
from Mexico. Be sure to pick up your new citizenship papers
and DNC voter registration before heading for Bangor.
Meanwhile, the real problem border gets only symbolic
attention - attention probably intended to drive off the
pesky Minutemen.
Wrong border, Mr. President.
Damn, you mean there is more than one border? :)
Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
Ha! Trying to increase your job security, is more like it.
Has there every been a more untouchable employment description than 'border security', post-911? Spend any amount on pointless or counterproductive 'security', alienate friends like these Canadians, destroy countless jobs in the tourism and travel sectors, and cost your own economy billions of dollars by driving away foreign visitors.
That sentence is chock full of irrelevant factoids. Wonder what possessed the writer of the story (or the editor) to include that tidbit? The vast majority of Americans will never cross the northern border (until global warming makes the US uninhabitable in twenty years, that is /sarcasm). Maybe it was included because women and minorities will be hit hardest...
I wouldn't say that, though I do find it interesting they seem more inclined to step up monitoring of a border where the folks are pre-dominately white.
Look, I want both borders secured. I'm not going to complain, if this is legit. I'd say about time if true. Canada does have a problem with Islamofascists in their midst. The reason my main attention is focused Southward is that a) the majority of people are crossing down there and b) our Government seems to fear enforcing the law more when the individuals don't have pale skin.
I want my government to be color blind, and it ain't happening. White, black, brown..whatever. Just enforce the borderS no matter what skin color or lanaguge they speak. Yet, they make it complicated and seem intent on making this a racial and ethnity issue when it really isn't.
Ahhhh c'mon now, this isn't any big deal.
Canadians can take the following steps to speed up border crossing times:
1.) Change legal names to "Alvarez, Espinoza, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Lopez, Padilla, Vasquez", etc.
2.) Plan border crossings for night time hours.
3.) Cross in groups of 50 or more, preferably in the bed of small pickup trucks.
4.) Practice saying the following lines with conviction:
- "We just want to do jobs that Americans won't do"
- "Can you direct me to nearest Social Security Office Senor?"
- "I want my children to be born in America"
- "I can do your yard work for the best price"
- "We are seeking President Bush's rational middle ground"
5.) Sing the Star Spangled Banner in French
Welcome to the United States Amigos!
They're doing this as a two-headed strawman.
First, "Look! We care about security!"
Second, "Look how much you're inconvenienced by this. It PROVES a wall with Mexico is impractical."
[Bad language deleted].
No cheers, unfortunately.
What about security at the border between New England and the rest of the states? That's the border to be worried about.
We are 60 miles from the Canadian border in Vermont, and his advance security team is already here in town.
Nothin' is going to happen to Johno!
Thought y'all might like to know the reason for tightening security in the North East, it will loosen up after next Monday.
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/5a52675ee
Yeah, I know the chance is pretty much non-existent, but lacking the details I gave myself the "out" there is a .001% chance it's serious. I do tend to look at all these reports as akin to the ICE catch and release raids for show and tell to the American public.
Friends? LOL Yeah this is a waste of time given that Canada houses the largest concentration of Muslim extremists on the continent. Why the hell do we need to secure that border?
The man in the picture could be a twin to my Father who died three years ago. Unbelievable likeness right to the hat at the right angle.
I guess we should just leave the Canadian border wide open until our friends to the south are satisfied that their territory is secure.
if i drive to toronto and cross the border today, do i need a birth certificate or passport, or does a drivers license good enough?
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