Thread: Security gets even tighter on border with Canada

9/11 AFTERMATH

Security gets even tighter on border with Canada
Travelers find more checks on land, water
September 11, 2007

BY JOHN WISELY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Dick Law of Gibraltar can remember boating across the Detroit River to Crystal Bay in Canada as a young man and seeing the customs officials go by and simply wave.

But beefed-up border security from customs officials, the Coast Guard, county sheriffs and local police have complicated what once was a simple trip to Ontario waters across from Grosse Ile.

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Heightened border concerns have prompted the Coast Guard to upgrade its fleet with newer boats fast enough to catch almost anything on the river and small enough to maneuver into shallow water spots. Officials with Customs and Border Protection have already done the same.

"The boaters I know have essentially stopped going" to Canada, Law said.

As the nation today marks the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, among the most visible legacies of how the nation changed that day are seen along the U.S.-Canadian border -- and the changes aren't done yet.

As of Jan. 31, Americans will be required to carry a passport or similar document to return from Canada, a requirement formerly reserved for overseas travelers. Customs officials plan to phase in the requirement until the public becomes more aware, but it's expected to increase the time it takes to cross the borders.

The new rules will be backed up with more spot checks. Law said boaters near Gibraltar face a gauntlet of law enforcement from U.S. or Canadian customs agents, the Coast Guard, the Wayne County sheriff and local police from Gibraltar and Grosse Ile.

"We have friends who have been stopped three times in one trip," Law said. "And those stops are 30 minutes if they are going to do a search."

Crossing by car already is more time-consuming. Lines for cars entering from Canada across the Blue Water Bridge into Port Huron grew so long last month that Canadian officials placed portable toilets along the entryway.

Customs officials say they are working to streamline the border crossings by land and sea. But they remind travelers that doing things right takes time. Detroit car crossings slowed this summer but have sped up in recent weeks, officials said.

"They started seeing delays in July and then they really ramped it up in August," said Neal Belitsky, general manager of Detroit Windsor Tunnel LLC, the company that operates the tunnel between the two cities.

Yet customs officials said border security levels haven't changed in recent months. One set of delays, which occurred at all crossings, was caused by a new computer program, which was taken offline until the problem was corrected, said Ronald Smith, chief of Customs and Border Protection in Detroit. Most delays mirror traffic flows, he said.

"Our goal is to check every person in every vehicle," Smith said. "We actually have policies in place to alleviate the backups."

Smith said some vehicles are referred to the secondary vehicle inspection areas to keep the primary booths open and moving. The inspections, he noted, do yield results.

In 2006, the last full year for which statistics are available, customs officials in Detroit confiscated:

• 3,377 pounds of marijuana.

• 455 pounds of the drug ecstasy.

• 1 pound of cocaine.

• 1 pound of heroin.

• More than $1 million in currency.

"We get a lot of British Columbia marijuana, BC bud," Smith said.

Boaters returning from Canada are supposed to check in by phone to identify themselves and their boats to U.S. customs officials.

But many boaters don't know the law or admit privately they don't follow it because they fear being told to report to a customs station at the bridge or tunnel, which could be 20 miles or more from where they docked.

"We know that's a huge impediment to getting people to call," Smith said. "It's a random inspection. We're trying to do a lot of outreach."

If customs officers are available, Smith said, they can be dispatched to the dock where the boat landed or they can meet up with boaters at prearranged marinas. The downside for boaters is they must remain at their boat until an officer arrives and completes the inspection.

Boat owners and operators who fail to call customs when they return to the United States can face thousands of dollars in fines and even seizure of their boats. Some boaters are happy more attention is paid to boats crossing the border.

"You see more security out there, which is a good thing," said Beverly Tolbert, 54, a Macomb Township resident who has been boating the Detroit River and surrounding waters for 12 years. "We've never been bothered."

Tolbert said she has the Coast Guard inspect her 35-foot Carver each year so she can display a decal indicating it passed a safety inspection. Law enforcement is less likely to stop boats that have the sticker, she said.

Tolbert said her husband carries his passport onboard, and she's getting one to carry instead of a birth certificate.

"We want to have all the necessary things that you need," she said.

Contact JOHN WISELY at 248-351-3696 or jwisely@freepress.com.

http://link.toolbot.com/freep.com/89787

yes the heightened security is great but we still aren't addressing the issue most disturbing all of us and that's the southern border. Gee call me naive but I believe they are BOTH equally important.

This is nothing compared to what is crossing the southern border. DHS look at the real enemy.