Oct. 27, 2007, 11:13PM
Northern border riddled with holes
Smugglers exploit back roads linking Canada to U.S., agents say
By WILSON RING
Associated Press

ALBURGH, VT. — The United States ends where Blair Road becomes "Chemin 4eme Concession."

But for someone headed north on the gravel road into Noyan, Quebec, there is nothing to mark the international divide other than two unobtrusive signs and a broken down border marker hidden in a ditch.

There are cameras and sensors to alert the Border Patrol when southbound people enter the United States, but nothing to stop them physically from making the two or three mile dash onto U.S. 2 and disappearing.

Most of the traffic is local and legal. But smugglers — going north and south — know the roads are unguarded. In August, a Border Patrol agent had to fire his weapon at a car he stopped not far from Blair Road that had tried to run him down before fleeing back into Quebec.

"There's a lot more going on out here than people realize," said U.S. Border Patrol Supervisor Bradley Curtis.

Tests show flaws
There are about a dozen similar unmarked back roads between Vermont and Quebec and many more across the 3,987-mile U.S.-Canada border. At a time when the United States is trying to secure its borders against illegal immigrants and potential terrorists, some see the challenges as a direct threat to national security.

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report in Washington about the security of the U.S.-Canada border.

As part of some of the tests, investigators carried a red duffel bag across the border simulating radioactive material that could be brought into the U.S. by a terrorist.

In others, they walked back and forth across the border where roads in the U.S. and Canada were only separated by a few feet, but they weren't approached by Border Patrol agents.

"That border is so long, frankly, the security on that border has really not increased too much since the French and Indian War," John Cooney, the GAO's assistant director for forensic audits and special investigations, said Sept. 27 during testimony in Washington before the Senate Finance Committee.

At the same hearing, Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ronald Colburn didn't question the accuracy of the GAO report. "I'm satisfied that they were accurate in finding that there are still vulnerabilities along our border," Colburn said.


More agents, equipment
About 5,681 people were apprehended entering the U.S. illegally from Canada in the year ended Aug. 31, the Border Patrol said. That compared with more than 800,000 caught along the U.S.-Mexico border in the same period.

At the hearing, Colburn said an additional 200 agents were being sent to the Canadian border. The staffing would be coupled with additional technology such as remote sensor equipment and cameras and infrastructure.

Curtis referred questions about the GAO report to Border Patrol headquarters. But agents in northern Vermont, upstate New York and New Hampshire have long known the challenges of closing a border that for generations has been almost invisible.


Back roads a challenge
The agents in the Swanton sector, which runs from Ogdensburg, N.Y., 295 miles east to the Maine-New Hampshire line, regularly catch illegal immigrants from all over the world and drug smugglers moving contraband into the U.S.

"There are quite a few little back roads," Curtis said.

It's not like the U.S.-Mexico border where agents can apprehend scores of people a night. On the northern border agents can go days or even weeks without detecting illegal activity, but it's out there.

And in Vermont and New York contraband crosses the border in both directions.

Northbound smugglers are most often caught with cigarettes meant to avoid Canada's steep tobacco taxes, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Michael Harvey of the Cornwall, Ontario, detachment. The illegal tobacco, in turn, finances marijuana smuggling into the U.S., he said.

The emphasis on northern border security increased after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the number of agents almost tripled to about 1,000.

The new focus on securing the border is running into local tradition that, for generations, barely acknowledged the existence of the borders.

In Derby Line, people are upset by plans to close a series of residential streets that cross the border.

But Border Patrol officials say illegal crossers have learned to use those streets as a route into the U.S.

Alburgh, a spit of land surrounded in the U.S. by Lake Champlain, is a warren of unmarked farm country back roads that link the two countries. Once onto the pavement, it's a short drive to Interstates 89 in Vermont and 87 in New York.
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