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The border should no longer be seen as a demarcation line between Canada and the United States. It should simply be an internal checkpoint

Bugger 'internal checkpoints. That's dictator country and we don't need to start.

It would internally be much less onorous than the costoms/immigration system that presently obtains on both sides of the border.

If people coming from overseas were screened by the same personnel and according to the same criteria whether they arrives at Toronto or Atlanta or New York or Montreal, then the border checkpoints would become customs only checkpoints for those goods not exempted by free trade treaties. The flow of goods and people withing North America would be enhanced and secutity would also be enhanced. US and Canadian Immigration screening would be rationalized.

How is this article very different from what was being proposed by the White House?

Don't know if you would classify as the same thing but we already have internal checkpoints. All major highways heading north and west out of the Rio Grande Valley have border patrol checkpoints where all traffic is routed through.
There's one in Van Horn in west Texas but it's not 24/7. There's also one on I-10 about 50 miles into New Mexico, if you're travelling west out of El Paso.