http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledg ... 059986.htm

Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005

U.S., Canada taking a hard line at border

BY MICHELLE MITTELSTADT

The Dallas Morning News


BUFFALO, N.Y. - The stream of U.S.-bound 18-wheelers and passenger vehicles slows to a near halt approaching the customs booths at the Peace Bridge, rolling through unobtrusive radiation detectors that arch over the inspection lanes.

The detectors, designed to sniff out nuclear and radiological hazards, offer silent witness to how the business of commerce and security has changed immensely along what's known as the world's largest undefended border.

In the four years since the Sept. 11 attacks, technology has come to the border in a big way, particularly in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo region, which is a major gateway for trade and traffic between the United States and Canada.

At the Peace Bridge, the border's third-busiest commercial crossing, U.S. inspectors use a gamma-ray scanner to scrutinize vehicles they suspect could hold contraband cargo or illegal crossers. Rail traffic also passes through a gamma-ray scanner.

Motion sensors and digital closed-circuit TV cameras have been deployed at the international bridges, and remote-controlled day- and night-vision cameras keep watch along the Niagara River. Truckers and travelers who have gone through background checks roll through dedicated crossing lanes, their information beamed to the inspections booth in advance. Law enforcement agencies in both countries have stepped up helicopter and boat patrols.

"In light of 9-11, there's been a lot more security enforcement on both sides," Darrin Forbes, acting sergeant in charge of the Niagara Regional Police marine unit, said during a recent river patrol.

"Between the two sides, there's a lot of resources available."

Though much of the attention and funding devoted by Washington policy-makers since Sept. 11 have been on the southwestern border, major change has also come along the 3,987-mile northern border, chiefly at its busiest crossings.

Critics fret, however, that vast swaths in remote areas remain largely unpatrolled and unwatched, providing easy access for illegal crossers, drug runners and, possibly, terrorists.

The Niagara region's four international bridges represent a major funnel for the $1.2 billion in commerce that crosses daily between the two countries in the world's largest trading partnership.

That relationship was snarled in the immediate wake of Sept. 11 when the U.S. government effectively shut down the border. Plants idled, tourism plummeted, and crossings dipped dramatically.

Traffic and trade have since rebounded. But as trade grows, leaders in upstate New York and Ontario fret about finding ways to expedite crossings, which are taking longer amid the heightened security and rising traffic.

At the Peace Bridge, it takes two minutes on average to process a truck, up from 57 seconds before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The Peace Bridge is facing challenges today primarily through the events of 9-11," said Anthony Braunscheidel, bridge authority facility manager.

Crossing delays, which occur randomly and sometimes jam roads for miles, greatly preoccupy business leaders.

General Motors' Tonawanda Engine Plant uses a just-in-time delivery system, relying on a stream of parts from Canada.

"The trucks are four hours late, and I'm in trouble," said Jerome Piecuch, the plant's director of production controls and logistics. He noted that if the delay lasted any longer than that, he'd have to shut down production.

The Coalition for Secure and Trade-Efficient Borders, a business group, estimates that border delays and security compliance have added $800 to the price of every car made in North America.

The U.S. and Canadian governments have signed a "smart border" accord and taken steps to expedite the movement of known travelers and cargo across both the northern and southern borders. They offer dedicated crossing lanes to travelers willing to undergo criminal background checks and pay a $50 fee for a five-year pass.

"We are acutely aware of how important it is not to choke off the flow of trade and travel for legitimate goods and people," said Kristi Clemens, assistant commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "Obviously, we live in a very different world today, post-9-11, and the fact of the matter is that security is a fact of everyday life. What we are trying to do is find the appropriate balance."

Security aside, Canadian Sen. Jerahmiel Grafstein argues that the United States and Canada have lagged badly in funding border infrastructure development, resulting in a drain on the North American economy that benefits rising trade powers China and India.

"We haven't got our act together," Grafstein said. "Nobody's at home minding the business, the biggest business in the whole world."

The United States is developing "a new approach to controlling the border, one that includes an integrated mix of additional staff, new technology and enhanced infrastructure investment," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said recently.

While regional business and government leaders praise the technological gains, many fear that as the United States continues to enhance border security - or if it is forced to respond to another terrorist attack - it will add impediments to an already congested border. Bureaucrats in Washington and Ottawa act without consulting regional officials or weighing the economic effect, they say.

"Homeland security is a very important issue to all of us," said Richard Soluri, mayor of Lewiston, N.Y. "We should not be overlooked."

The U.S. response doesn't consider the fact that the northern and southwestern borders are vastly different places, some say. Though illegal immigration and drug trafficking exist at the northern border too, their extent is nowhere near the scope of the problem on the southwestern border. During the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 7,342 people were arrested at the northern border trying to cross illegally into the United States - compared with nearly 1.2 million on the southwestern border.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution," said Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello. "Our issues are not to keep people out."

The policy debate "appears that it's driven more by southern border concerns than northern border concerns," Masiello added.

Clemens disagreed. "The two borders are very different, and I think we absolutely recognize that," she said, noting that several strategies have been rolled out at the U.S.-Canada border first.

Regional leaders were jolted in the spring when the Homeland Security Department announced that all Americans would need a passport to return home after visiting Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Panama. Only 20 percent now hold passports.

Amid an uproar from critics who fear that tourism and cross-border commerce would suffer, the Bush administration yanked the plan. In September, Homeland Security officials issued a revised version and pushed back the deadline for passports by a year, to December 2007. And they opened the door for use of a secure identification document other than the passport, such as the border-crossing card already in use on the southwestern border.

"I don't know how well thought-out that passport issue was," said Gary Burroughs, lord mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a scenic Canadian town heavily dependent on U.S. tourists.

Where the U.S.-Mexican relationship is at times marked by a sense of grievance and perceived insults, officials in the Niagara region extol the symbiotic relationship of communities on both sides of the border.

In a tangible demonstration of that closeness, the Canadian Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are moving toward a "shared border management" plan that would move U.S. inspections at the Peace Bridge to the Canadian side of the border. With the U.S. inspection plaza hemmed in by existing development, a move to the Canadian side would permit expanded inspection lanes and faster crossings, officials say.

"It's one community divided by a river," said New York Assemblyman Robin Schimminger.

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NORTH AND SOUTH

U.S.-Canadian border statistics, compared with figures from the U.S.-Mexican border:

ENFORCEMENT

Border Patrol agents: 1,031 (9,633 at the southwestern border)

Length of the border: 3,987 miles, excluding Alaska (U.S.-Mexico border: 1,989 miles)

Illegal immigrant apprehensions during fiscal 2005: 7,342 (1,171,305 at the southwestern border)

Marijuana seizures at land ports in fiscal 2004: 23,700 pounds (582,000 pounds at the southwestern border)

Migrant deaths so far this year: No tally (383 at the southwestern border)

TRADE

Enrollment in the Free and Secure Trade program for pre-screened commercial drivers: 55,427 (7,494 at the southwestern border)

Enrollment in NEXUS for pre-screened travelers: 83,559 (71,097 in the similar SENTRI program at the southwestern border)

2004 trade: $445 billion ($267 billion between the U.S. and Mexico)

Crossings at the border: 71 million a year (Nearly 1 million people cross the southwestern border legally each day.)

Population: Canada, 32 million (Mexico, 105 million)