More inspectors on more overtime are asking more questions at the overland border stations. They are opening more trunks and peering at cars more often with imaging equipment. More agents are taking to the air also, patrolling the vast stretches of forest, desert and waterway along more than 6,000 miles of border shared by the United States with its two neighbors.

Waits up to 15 hours have been reported at border crossings. Most travelers are accepting heavier security with patience and patriotism, but some border towns feel pangs from their pocketbooks. Some Americans favor even more inspectors and stricter screening to snag terrorists before they strike.

Todd Spencer, an executive for a Missouri-based truckers' group known as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said he has long felt too many people cross from Canada with questionable papers. He said he was happy about the extra security.

“If it takes longer to do the job, then we're going to live with it,” he said.

On a typical day, more than 1 million passengers in 350,000 private vehicles, along with 30,000 commercial trucks, rumble past more than 150 established U.S. border sites with Canada and Mexico, according to Customs data.

The three nations have been dropping travel and commercial barriers over the years to forge the biggest free-trade zone on the planet. Cross-border business between the United States and its largest trading partner, Canada, has expanded to $1.4 billion a day.

Meanwhile, Canada's more welcoming immigration and refugee laws have turned it into a fund-raising and staging base for some terrorists, according to officials on both sides of the border. “Anyone who wants to head to our country for the wrong reasons will head to the easiest border to cross. In the past, that often has been Canada,” said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican involved in border issues.

The 4,000-mile U.S.-Canadian border, with its many wild expanses, is hard and costly to patrol thoroughly.

Border agents have periodically snared people suspected of terrorism. In 1988, in Vermont, three alleged members of a Syrian group of car bombers were caught with explosives. In 1996, authorities in upstate New York stopped a man who reportedly belonged to the Abu Nidal terrorist band. In 1999, authorities caught an Algerian as he tried to enter Washington state in a car packed with explosives. He was later convicted of smuggling and terrorism for his planned bomb attack on Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations.

News reports have also alluded to suspected links to Canada for some of the suicide hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The FBI refused public comment.

Within an hour of the attacks, U.S. authorities went on their highest alert at both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Since then, travelers and truckers have been answering many more questions about themselves and their travel plans and enduring more cold stares. Some returning Americans have been asked to show picture identification at places where it is not ordinarily needed.

Jim Michie, a U.S. Customs spokesman, said extra agents have been sent to some border crossings. He won't say how many.

At some crossings, virtually every truck and car was being inspected, often with greater care and sometimes with X-ray or fiber-optic viewing equipment. At Champlain, N.Y., restrooms were closed for security reasons.

U.S. inspectors and patrol agents, who can be an ostensibly easygoing lot along the Canadian border, took on a more intent look. “The guys are more involved in this,” said Ed Duda, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in New York and New England. “This is for real.”

Some small border stations that have been closing at night were staffed around the clock. Michie, at Customs, said air patrols have been expanded too.

By law, U.S. spy satellites, run by the National Reconnaissance Office, can only be turned toward American soil under an emergency request by government leaders. Art Haubold, a spokesman for the agency, refused to say if such a request has been made, citing security concerns. He said only, “The national leadership uses our capabilities to fight terrorism. We're an important part of the capabilities.”

At busy crossings into El Paso, Texas, some agents carried assault rifles and wore bulletproof vests.

Helping American authorities, Canadian border agents were sometimes checking outgoing vehicles too, forcing some drivers to undergo two inspections.

Long waits were reported at some places. Early last week, commercial trucks were held back for up to 15 hours at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge into upstate New York.

However, waiting times finally shrank in many places in recent days, as the government dispatched extra inspectors to bottlenecks and travelers changed their routines. Some sought out quieter crossings to avoid crowds, not always successfully. The border point at Santa Teresa, N.M., where perhaps 300 vehicles typically enter in a day, has been handling three to four times more. Some people just changed plans and stayed home.

Often faced with thick exhaust fumes from trucks in the north or sweaty waits along the Mexican border, many drivers were still showing understanding. “The country's going to war. It's going to mean bigger delays. You just expect it,” said trucker Paul Schiels, who makes U.S.-Canada runs three times a week.

There were snippets of frustration, too. “I've been falling asleep here,” said Arturo Alvaro, who was waiting in line to return to Laredo, Texas, after visiting relatives on the Mexican side. “This is a serious problem. It's interrupting our lives. I hope peace comes soon.”

Merchants were worried in border towns that rely on shoppers and workers from across the border. In Douglas, Ariz., Mayor Ray Borane said there has been a “drastic drop” in business. “There's nothing we can do about it,” he said. “We don't want to criticize the government.”

Canadian nurses and others who commute to Detroit-area hospitals were delayed up to six hours. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer said at least 150 more immigration agents are needed at the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

Some warned against slowing travel too much for better security. “The knee-jerk reaction is to put a tourniquet on transportation arteries,” said Stephen Flynn, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York think tank. “You cut off the lifeline of the U.S. and Canadian economies. The cure is worse than the disease.”

Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, suggested Canada needed to adopt stricter immigration laws, more like those in the United States. Then there could be relatively free travel across the border — an idea sometimes called Fortress North America. “We could establish this perimeter to protect the United States and Canada,” he said.

The strengthened border watch has snared some people, but not the most wanted so far. Bolstering security at U.S. request, Mexican authorities rounded up 48 migrants from the Middle East without proper papers. Most appeared to be Chaldean Christians from Iraq, who often seek asylum in America.

Customs officials said the heightened security will last indefinitely. Congressman Smith argued for assigning more inspectors and building more crossing stations to relieve congestion in future years. He predicted some of the changes will be permanent.

“That's just the new reality,” he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Jeff Donn is the AP's Northeast regional reporter, based in Boston. Associated Press writers Tom Cohen, Julie Watson, Geralda Miller, Michelle Morgante, Ben Fox, Art Rotstein, Brian Witte, Craig Gustafson, Carolyn Thompson, Chris Roberts and Wilson Ring contributed to this story from border points.

Complete Title: Open Borders are Early Casualties of Anti-Terrorist War

Source: Abilene Reporter-News (TX)
Author: Jeff Donn, Associated Press Writer
Published: Monday, September 24, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Abilene Reporter-News
Contact: letter@abinews.com
Website: http://www.reporternews.com

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Also the formatting did not work I had several breakpoints (new line key) not just one contunuous stream. Cheers Rainbow

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Scary stuff.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-09-24/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-126223.asp

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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--attacks-newyorkpo0924sep24.story?coll=ny%2Dap%2Dregional%2Dwire

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