One greets the cancellation of a terror alert with guarded relief, as if a bullet has been dodged, though another one may be on the way.
That’s the feeling that follows news that FBI officials called off their search for five supposed Pakistani terrorists who were reported to have slipped into this country from Canada before the New Year. The report that sparked tightened security measures nationwide now is believed to have been based on a bogus tip provided by an accused immigrant smuggler in Canada.
That’s a relief, but it is also a reminder that this country has a vast and largely unguarded northern border. Although illegal immigration from Mexico has been a much larger political issue, the Sept. 11 attacks intensified concerns about the 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada boundary.
A day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft described Canada as “a transit point for terrorists.” That remark did not sit well with Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who responded that the United States “admitted the terrorists at your border crossing over which Canada has no control.”
Fair enough. None of the Sept. 11 terrorists is known to have entered through Canada. However, memories were still fresh of Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian who was caught with a trunk full of explosives at the Washington state border by an alert U.S. customs agent in late 1999. He was connected to an Islamic extremist group in Montreal that intelligence sources have linked to Al Qaeda. Prosecutors say he planned to blow up Los Angeles International airport in time for the Millennium celebrations.
Canada’s generous policies toward asylum seekers have quite properly been called the weakest link in North America’s security. To their credit, Canadians have taken major steps over the past two years to work with the Bush administration to meet the challenge of beefing up border security, improving visa processing and re-evaluating immigration policies, although much work remains to be done. The challenge is to accomplish these goals without putting a pinch in the world’s largest trading relationship.
In December 2001, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge signed a 30-point “smart border” agreement with Canada. It implemented several measures for intelligence sharing, visa coordination and sharing of passenger information about flights between the two countries.
The agreement also set up a framework for further progress on sensitive issues such as refugee policy and whether armed U.S. Customs inspectors can be deployed in Canada, whose border officials are not armed. On this side, military helicopters and 400 National Guard troops were assigned to help police the border, most of which is rural and lightly protected.
In September, the Free and Secure Trade program partnered the two governments with private businesses to ease the processing of low-risk goods at the busiest crossing points. Another new program called NEXUS opened the first dedicated “fast lanes” for pre-approved, low-risk travelers on land and is soon to be expanded to airports.
More personnel and equipment are needed to plug border security gaps and make it harder for smugglers to illegally purchase and resell overseas the immigration forms that are Canada’s version of U.S. green cards.
Canada has taken major steps to improve visa processing–though watchdog groups like the Center for Immigration Studies complain that the country actually has made it easier for asylum seekers to apply for refugee status and more difficult to deport those who are found not to be genuine refugees.
The U.S.-Canada border has been the world’s busiest, a model for the rest of the world on the benefits of free trade and mutual cooperation. More than 200 million crossings are made across the border each year. With both countries sharing so many obvious interests, we also need to share as many resources as possible to keep terrorists out while letting legal commerce in.
