Growing concerns about security along the U.S.-Canada border

When citizens — and legislators — in the United States talk about border security, they talk about the U.S.-Mexico border. Experts say that we should not overlook the many vulnerabilities of the U.S.-Canada border. In fact, some enterprising business people find profit in the wide-open nature of the border. Take the Smuggler’s Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canadian border. Les Blumenthal writes in the Houston Chronicle that rooms come equipped with night-vision binoculars so guests can track the almost nightly cat-and-mouse game between Border Patrol agents and people trying to sneak into the United States. During the past three years, 105 people have been arrested in the inn’s yard. Just mowing the lawn can trip hidden sensors, prompting a flyover by Border Patrol helicopters, said Bob Boule, the inn’s operator. “We are probably one of the safest places in the world,” Boule said. “I can get lights and sirens in my yard in three minutes.” Perhaps the area immediately surrounding the inn and the border crossing at Blaine is one of the more secure along the U.S.-Canadian border, but experts say that the other 4,000 or so miles are a security nightmare. This is especially the case owing to Canada’s open immigration policies, which have allowed terrorist organizations to establish cells there seeking “havens, operational bases and attempting to gain access to the USA,” according to a 1998 report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The report said that more than fifty terrorist groups might be present in the country, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and other radical Islamic groups from Iran and Algeria. A 2006 report from the Washington, D.C.-based Nixon Center quoted a senior FBI official as saying that Canada is the most worrisome terrorist point of entry and that al-Qaeda training manuals advise terrorists to enter the United States from Canada. The report concluded that “despite widespread alarms raised over terrorist infiltration from Mexico, we found no terrorist presence in Mexico and a number of Canadian-based terrorists who have entered the United States.”

Law enforcement officials say that as security is ratcheted up along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, the bad guys — terrorists, drug smugglers, and illegal aliens — may increasingly be headed their way. “It’s a safe assumption,” said Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo, whose jurisdiction includes more than 100 miles of rugged and remote border stretching east from Blaine. Even senior Border Patrol officials concede that the heightened security on the Mexican border could spur new pressures up north. “It’s logical they will look elsewhere,” said Ron Colburn, the deputy chief of Customs and Border Protection, of those trying to clandestinely enter the United States. Nearly 12,000 federal agents patrol the U.S.-Mexican border, along with National Guard troops. Of the 6,000 agents expected to be added to the Border Patrol in the next year, most will be assigned to the southern border. Along the northern border, which is twice as long, there are fewer than 1,000 agents. Colburn is well aware of the problems. “We are nowhere near where we think we should be,” he said. “But we are getting there faster than ever before.”