Arrests turn border focus north

U.S. authorities tightened their checks of traffic from Canada on Monday as debate over the long and hard-to-police border intensified following the weekend arrests of 17 Muslim Canadians in a suspected Ontario terror plot.

Calls for tougher security measures were countered by pleas from business and civic leaders on both sides to keep border crossings as quick and simple as possible.

“Terrorism is clearly part of the North American environment whether we like it or not, but closing down the border is not going to eliminate it,” said Arlene White, a Canadian who is executive director of the Binational Tourism Alliance in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo area.

In Washington, D.C., U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said patrol stations along the 4,000-mile border – especially those adjoining Ontario – are on high alert because of the arrests, although investigators say the suspects’ alleged plot apparently involved only targets in Canada.

U.S. agents already deployed to the Canadian border will work overtime and some will be moved closer to the areas where the arrests occurred, Aguilar said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Kristi Clemens said some traffic headed into the United States would undergo tougher procedures at the 89 ports of entry along the border.

“The current events may result in some additional questions of commuters and travels,” Clemens said. She also said, without elaborating, that her agency has added some “enforcement capabilities” following the arrests.

Security along the border has been increasing ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: new surveillance camera systems, new scanning devices to check on trucks’ cargo and many more agents on duty.

But concerns remain high among some politicians and experts, such as David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He contends that Canada’s immigration policies are too lax, enabling more than 50 terrorist organizations to have a presence in the country.

“Canadians are determined to keep the border open at almost any cost, because so much of Canada’s economy relies on U.S. trade,” said Harris, who now is a private security consultant in Ottawa. “The general theory of the trade devotees is the border should be open all the time, at virtually any cost – but you can only enjoy your prosperity if you’re alive to do so.”

Harris has urged Canada to tighten its immigration policies – it welcomes some 250,000 new immigrants and refugees each year – and work with the United States on bolstering border controls with such high-tech devices as sensors and infrared cameras.

Prior to the weekend arrests, the U.S. debate over immigration and border security have been focused on the border with Mexico. About 1,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents work along the U.S.-Canada border, roughly triple the 2001 force but a fraction of the 9,600 agents who patrol the Mexican border, about half as long at 1,900 miles.

Though often depicted as porous, controls along the U.S.-Canada border have entrapped some terrorist suspects, such as Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested as he drove off a ferry in Port Angeles, Wash., in 1999 and was later convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

Last summer, two men believed to be part of a terrorist ring in Canada were arrested in Buffalo while trying to smuggle guns and ammunition from the United States.

The men are serving two-year jail sentences.

One initiative to change border procedures has been mired in controversy – the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. It would require Americans re-entering the United States after short visits to Canada and Mexico to show passports or other high-tech ID cards – a change from the current practice in which a driver’s license usually suffices.

The Senate – concerned about border-crossing snarls – recently voted to delay implementation of the measure from January 2008 until June 2009.

Arlene White, the binational tourism official, said confusion about the passport requirement already had reduced cross-border visits.

“I recognize the immigration issue is huge in the states,” White said. “But the northern border is very, very different, and we must continue to appreciate those differences.”

White acknowledged, however, that some of the security measures implemented since the Sept. 11 attacks have actually speeded border crossings.

These include the use of high-tech x-ray scanners to screen vehicles and a binational program that allows speedier crossings for people accepted into a special program for low-risk frequent travelers.