Pubdate: Sun, 23 Mar 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Clifford Krauss

U.S., CANADA AND MEXICO TIGHTEN SECURITY ALONG BORDERS

Concerns About Commerce as Borders Tighten

TORONTO, March 22 - Big commercial traffic jams subsided over the last two 
days after snarling United States border crossings with Canada and Mexico 
much of the week as security and law enforcement officers of the three 
countries raised their guard against possible terrorist infiltrators.

Lines of southbound trucks full of Canadian auto parts, paper products and 
other merchandise began to grow Tuesday night to two hours - four times the 
normal average - at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, the 
most crucial point in a trade relationship valued at $1.3 billion a day for 
both countries.

Delays of up to five hours were reported at several other border points in 
Ontario and British Columbia earlier in the week. But Canadian and American 
customs agents and other law enforcement officials scrambled to alleviate 
the waits.

Canada has agreed to step up random searches of vehicles by customs agents 
while the police have set up roadblocks on several feeder roads near the 
borders with New York and Michigan. Canadian officials said they had agreed 
to a request by Attorney General John Ashcroft to increase the number of 
Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents along the border.

With the United States under an orange alert, Mexican officials also 
reported increased waiting times at the border with the United States, 
though nothing that seriously threatened the $250 billion a year in border 
trade.

At several of the busiest points along the United States-Canadian border, 
officials on both sides have set up registration systems for individuals 
and companies that regularly cross the border to allow them faster clearance.

In Cornwall, Ontario, a busy point along the St. Lawrence River bordering 
New York State, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police helicopter is crisscrossing 
the border watching for snowmobiles and cars crossing several border points 
and "ice bridges" across the river that are unguarded by customs officials 
or the police. Police patrols are stopping drivers for routine checks.

With the river frozen there throughout the winter, the police report an 
increase in smuggling of illegal immigrants by local runners mostly 
belonging to the sprawling Akwesasne Mohawk reservation, on islands along 
the Ontario, Quebec and New York borders.

Law enforcement officials have arrested more than 30 smugglers and illegal 
immigrants trying to cross into the United States this year, already 
surpassing the number of such arrests in the area for all of 2002.

The Mounted Police helicopter that serves as the eyes of the water and road 
patrols can stay in the air longer because of a new agreement allowing it 
to refuel in New York State.

Meanwhile, in recent months Canadian law enforcement has placed sensors on 
unguarded roads to monitor traffic and obtained warrants to place tracking 
devices on vehicles driven by suspected smugglers.

Officials here said intelligence gathered and now shared on both sides of 
the border was leading to new major investigations of organized crime rings 
smuggling cigarettes, marijuana, illegal immigrants and cash that also 
could be exploited conceivably by terrorists.

"We're not where we want to be but we're getting there," said Sgt. Gilles 
Tougas, the police supervisor here. "Contraband is down a bit and there are 
more arrests."

Still, the 5,500-mile border with the United States is hard to defend: 
there are golf courses with tees on one side of the border and the greens 
on the other, and towns that straddle borders.

"It's an undefended border," said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto 
historian who studies security issues, "and it always will be."
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